Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Free outdoor 35mm screening in partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway! Before the film, Boston University Electrical and Computer Engineering Prof. Brian Kulis will discuss how A.I. informs the concept of replicants in Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi film. Screening will begin at sunset.
Rain Date: Thursday, 6/26
ABOUT THE FILM
Harrison Ford stars in Ridley Scott's fascinating, dark vision of the near future as a policeman who tracks engineered humans—a Blade Runner.
In the year 2019, the police department forces Rick Deckard (Ford) out of retirement to hunt four genetically engineered humans who have come to earth. Designed to do difficult, hazardous work, the manufactured humans are stronger, faster, and smarter than non-engineered humans. They feel no pain or remorse; they are almost indistinguishable from other humans... and they are killing people. Now Deckard must stop them before they kill again.
Altered numerous times over the year since its release, Blade Runner is now presented in its definitive Final Cut, overseen by Scott and spectacularly restored and remastered from original elements.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Brian Kulis is an associate professor at Boston University, with appointments in the Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science, and the Division of Systems Engineering. From 2019-2023, he was also an Amazon Scholar, working with the Alexa team.
Previously, he was the Peter J. Levine Career Development assistant professor at Boston University. Before joining Boston University, he was an assistant professor in Computer Science and in Statistics at Ohio State University, and prior to that was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley EECS. His research focuses on machine learning, statistics, computer vision, and large-scale optimization. He obtained his PhD in computer science from the University of Texas in 2008, and his BA degree from Cornell University in computer science and mathematics in 2003.
For his research, he has won three best paper awards at top-tier conferences: two at the International Conference on Machine Learning (in 2005 and 2007) and one at the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (in 2008). He was also the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award in 2015.
Screenings will take place at sunset at the Greenway's Wharf District Park (located between Milk Street and Atlantic Avenue in Boston).
