A Documentarian Presents the Science Behind Science Fairs

"Science Fair"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

For decades, science fairs have been an institution for encouraging young minds to work towards making eye-opening discoveries.  From booth to booth, there are ideas that are presented that have the potential to make our lives better.  And, with science having come a long way since the start of these fairs, they've become more staggering in the kinds of experiments that have been conducted by their participants. 

We see these wondrous and new scientific heights in director Cristina Costantini's enthralling documentary, "Science Fair," a celebratory film about the universal thirst for knowledge and the importance of cultivating the minds of tomorrow.

The documentary follows seven stories of high-school science-fair competitors, both from the U.S. and abroad, as they build their presentations for regional science fairs, with the hopes of placing high enough to take part in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in Los Angeles.

Despite the movie only being 90 minutes, it provides you with a detailed look into the lives of each of its subjects as we learn about what drives their tireless pursuit of scientific advancement.  Given the multiple stories on which this film focuses, we're able to travel to several locations, including Long Island, South Dakota, Brazil, and Germany.  By doing this, we see that, although these participants are far apart from each other, they're connected by their passion of taking their ideas as far as possible.  The strength of this film comes in the difference of its subjects' backgrounds as you learn about their lifestyles and any challenges that they have to face in order to find success with their work, and the results aren't anything less than crowd-pleasing.

Although all of the stories are uplifting in their own way, two of the most inspirational ones are a story about a boy and girl who live in Brazil and try to come up with a way to combat the Zika virus (Brazil was one of the places that was hit the hardest by the disease), and the other one follows a young Muslim girl in South Dakota.  In the Brazil storyline, we see the hardships that are faced by the country and how it influences the two students’s research.  And, with the South Dakota storyline, we see how a student works to bring a strong, academic accomplishment to a school where athletics seem to be held in a higher regard than academics.  Out of all of the stories that are told in this movie, these two involve subjects who have the most to overcome, and this keeps you hooked as you watch the steps that they take to turn their experiments into successes.

Once we arrive at the ISEF portion of the film, we're provided with a fascinating, in-depth look at how this event is structured.  It soon gets to the point where you begin to feel anxious because, before the actual fair takes places, you’ve seen how much work that these students have done to get to ISEF, how the judges examine the many competing projects, and the speed bumps that can occur between arriving at ISEF and the start of the fair.  For anyone who has ever had to make a significant presentation, this segment of the film captures all of the tension of having months of preparation come down to a short period of judgement.

Costantini delivers an unyielding passion for science that absorbs you into the film.  The thrill of learning is palpable throughout, with Costantini also providing a sense of nervousness and excitement as the results of the regional contests and ISEF are announced.  The amount of insight that the students provide for their projects is compelling, and you always feel amazed by the vast intelligence of these participants.

"Science Fair" is a joyful experience about the competitiveness and camaraderie that comes with these events.  As you watch these students make it far with their boundless intellect, the film provides you with a lot of hope for the future, letting you know that our world will be in good hands.

Grade: A