Film Screening: Blame (2025)

Bats, politics, and a planet out of balance — for World Philosophy Day we'll watch BLAME, a film by Christian Frei. Join us for this year’s World Philosophy Day! We’re hosting a free screening at Filmcasino, followed by a discussion with Swiss filmmaker and film producer Christian Frei and philosopher Keith Raymond Harris (University of Vienna). Synopsis: After years exploring remote bat caves, three scientists are catapulted into the harsh spotlight of politics and serious accusations. Once ignored, these early warners must now defend themselves. A visually striking film journey about the role of science in increasingly dark times. With calm, factual clarity, the film reveals how the deliberate fueling and amplification of fears and feverish myths are driving our world out of balance. At once a dense, far-reaching investigation and a snapshot of our present moment, the film juxtaposes the slow, patient, and meticulous rhythm of scientific inquiry with the urgent, reactive, and often toxic pace of political and media discourse. It offers a compelling demonstration of how, in times of crisis, we tend to seek out loud, simplistic narratives — and scapegoats. A strikingly contemporary tale, emblematic of an era marked by fake news, frozen subsidies, budget cuts, and a pervasive atmosphere of censorship. (Anne Delseth for Visions du Réel) The film will be in English with German subtitles. This screening is sponsored by the Knowledge in Crisis project, which is a Cluster of Excellence supported by the Austrian Science Fund (10.55776/COE3).