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WE BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS

by Monica Long Ross & Clayton Brown

SYNOPSIS

A small town in rural Kentucky finds itself in the center of protests and controversy over an $120 million “life size” Noah’s Ark. With the goal of proving that the bible is scientifically and historically accurate, a new generation of “Earth Creationists” open the floodgates in the “Bible Belt”. We Believe in Dinosaurs follows the troubling relationship between science and religion in the United States.

DETAILS

83 mins

2019

USA

English

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TRAILER

CREDITS

Director: Monica Long Ross and Clayton Brown

Produced by: 137 Films

Producers: Monica Long Ross, Clayton Brown, Amy Ellison

Music: Kate Simko

Director of Photography: Clayton Brown

Editor: Clayton Brown

BIOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR - CLAYTON BROWN

Clayton is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Radio / TV / Film at Northwestern University. He is a documentary and narrative filmmaker interested in exploring the hidden stories and compelling characters that emerge when people pursue their passions. Of particular interest are the ways in which science and storytelling intersect, both in fiction and non-fiction. His fiction work includes Galileo's Grave, winner of the Chicago IFP Production Fund and Best Short Film at the Albany and East Lansing film festivals, and The Darkening Sun, about the first woman to photograph a solar eclipse in 1869. He is a co-founder of 137 Films, a Chicago-based award-winning documentary production company committed to telling stories about America’s complicated relationship with science. He co-directed The Atom Smashers (Independent Lens), a documentary about the search for the Higgs boson broadcast on Independent Lens; The Believers (winner, Best Documentary at Chicago International and Maryland Film Festivals), which tells the story of two scientists who thought they had discovered Cold Fusion; and 137 Films’ newest documentary, We Believe in Dinosaurs, about a Kentucky group’s “life-size” replica of Noah’s Ark built to promote creationism.

DIRECTOR - MONICA LONG ROSS

Monica is a filmmaker and playwright. She is a co-founder of 137 Films, a Chicago-based documentary production company. In addition We Believe In Dinosaurs, Ross co-directed and co-produced the award-winning documentaries The Atom Smashers (PBS Independent Lens), and The Believers (Chicago International Film Festival’s  Gold Hugo for Best Documentary, Maryland International Film Festival Best Documentary). Monica's documentaries have been screened at festivals around the world, as have her short films including Dinner, a finalist at the Rose d'Or Montreux in Switzerland. She was a founding member and playwright for Childsplay Inc in Tempe AZ (Mythic Proportions, Clarissa's Closet, Montana Molly and the Peppermint Kid, Phoebe Joins the Circus) and founding member/playwright/ Associate Director of the Arizona Women’s Theatre Company (Complications, Crazy Sexy). Her plays have been produced nationally and are published by Dramatic Publishing.

SELECT FESTIVALS

AFI DOCS 2019〡SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL 2019〡SIDEWALK FILM FESTIVAL 2019〡DOC EDGE 2020〡DOC NYC 2019〡DOCVILLE 2020

PRESS

"Intriguing... convincingly and sometimes frighteningly explores the big-business connections to fundamentalist religion."
- Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter

"Often amusing, but never condescending... a Kentucky Noah's Ark attraction becomes a battleground between evangelists and secularists in this entertaining documentary."
- Dennis Harvey, Variety

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