APR 21, 6:30-8:30 pm | Doors @ 6:15pm
Join us for a night celebrating the oyster! Watch this captivating new documentary about the oyster’s life cycle in New York, hear from the film makers and sample some raw PNW oysters (additional ticket required).
5:30 pm | Oyster Tasting Begins (additional ticket required)
6:30 pm| Documentary: Holding Back the Tide
7:50 pm | Discussion and Q&A with filmmaker Emily Packer and PhD candidate Megan Hayes; moderated by local filmmaker Nora Colie
TICKETS:
Pay what you can, tickets for this event will be a sliding scale of $0-$15.
Oyster Tasting Package: $20 includes 3 raw oysters from the PNW and your ticket to the event. Arrive as early as 5:30 pm to enjoy your fresh oysters.
This event is co-presented by Ecotrust and the Columbia Riverkeepers.
ABOUT THE FILM: Holding Back the Tide
Reconsider the oyster! A hybrid documentary tracing the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world’s oyster capital. As environmentalists restore them to the harbor, we look to the oyster as a queer icon, entangled with nature, with much to teach about our continued survival.
Duration: 77 minutes | Recommended for ages 15 and up
“It’s wonderful.” – The New York Times
“Feels like both an elegy and a prophecy, looking toward both past and future to imagine what kind of possibilities oysters represent.” – Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times
“A testament to the power of cinema.” – POV Magazine
“A quirky, lyrical love letter to oysters in NYC, this engaging documentary plumbs the history of the bivalves, their pollution-fueled decline, and their inspiring revival, finding poetry and charm in an unlikely subject” – Indiewire
Reel Science Program | Watch and learn at The Empirical Theater as OMSI brings the science of your favorite movies and documentaries to life on the big screen. Perfect for science and film lovers alike, this series combines the best of Science Pub with the fun of movie night, bringing in experts to amplify your movie-watching experience.
Emily Packer, Filmmaker
Watch and learn at The Empirical Theater as OMSI brings the science of your favorite movies and documentaries to life on the big screen. Perfect for science and film lovers alike, this series combines the best of Science Pub with the fun of movie night, bringing in experts to amplify your movie-watching experience.Emily is an award-winning experimental filmmaker and editor with an interest in geography, hybrid formats, and collaborative practices. Their directorial work has been screened at film festivals and theaters internationally, and is being distributed by platforms including the Criterion Channel, Grasshopper Films, and PBS. Her films have been utilized in partnership with organizations working towards environmental sustainability, queer and trans liberation, and an anti-racist future.
Megan Hayes, PhD candidate
Megan Hayes is an Australian researcher, writer, and PhD candidate in the University of Oregon’s Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy program, where she is currently living and working on Kalapuya lands. Her work draws from the blue humanities, feminist STS, and artistic research methodologies, and is informed by undergraduate studies in Photography and Situated Media at the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Research Master’s in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. Megan’s PhD project, “How to Love an Oyster: Attachment, Sensation, Tenderness,” studies oyster-human relationships and the worlds those relations sustain.
Nora Colie, local filmmaker
Nora Colie is a freelance filmmaker and a producer for OPB’s Oregon Experience and Oregon Art Beat. Her primary film focus is in documentary films where she got her start in New York City working with the filmmaker Eugene Jarecki on his Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning films, “Why We Fight” and “The House I Live In” and on his highly acclaimed films “The King” and HBO’s “Reagan”. She is a member of Making Earth Cool, an environmental collective using art, color, comedy, and science to encourage people to be better stewards of our only home, Earth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the Empirical Cafe will be open with prepackaged salads, sandwiches and movie snacks. The bar will be open to guests that are 21+. No outside food or drink is allowed.
We will also have an oyster tasting as part of this event. If you purchase the $20 ticket you will receive 3 raw PNW oysters with a toppings bar to enjoy before the event begins.
Click here for OMSI’s overall accessibility information. Below are the specific details for the Empirical Theater.
The Empirical Theater has an upper-level wheelchair accessible entrance and theater restrooms; due to the layout of the theater the lower-level main entrance is only accessible by stairs. Please check in with a Guest Services Representative or volunteer for assistance in locating these areas.
Several daytime documentaries and newer evening full-features offer closed captions, audio description, and volume amplification. The CaptiView closed caption units allow guests to see captions for their show by using a cup holder device that they can adjust within their view, and the Fidelio RX audio description units deliver descriptive narration and can also amplify the theater volume and dialogue.
The Showing Today signs updated daily at the front desk and theater entrance indicate which features offer closed captions (CC) and audio description (AD), while volume amplification is available for all theater content including events such as Science Pub and Reel Science.
Limited quantities of the following devices are available for theater guests and may be requested at either the Front Desk or Concierge Desk as well as from the theater usher:
- CaptiView closed caption (CC) viewing devices
- Fidelio RX audio description and volume amplification units
- Williams Sound NKL-001 neck loops designed to work with hearing aids equipped with a telephone coil or T-Switch
The rough inside measurements of the seats not including arm and back rests:
- Theater seats 16.5” wide and 21.5” deep
- Two accessible seating area chairs 39.29″ high, 29.5″ wide, and 29″ deep
- Additional accessible seating area chairs available by request is 23.5” wide and 21.5” deep
- The weight capacity for the accessible seating area chairs are 500lbs, and the additional accessible seating area chairs support between 200lbs-250lbs
Earplugs can be requested from the Front Desk and Concierge Desk, and sensory resource packs that include:
- Noise reducing headphones
- Fidget toys
- Sunglasses
- Visual and auditory timer
- 2 pound weighted shoulder wrap
- Sanitizing wipes
Please contact OMSI Guest Services at (503) 797-4000 or Info@OMSI.edu with any additional specific questions or needs.
OMSI has a new parking system via the mobile parking app, Parking Kitty, to create an easier and more streamlined experience for our visitors. Parking is $2 + fees for after-hours events. We recommend you download the app prior to your arrival at OMSI. You can also pay via their website at www.parkingkitty.com.