Syndication of the Film Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani

This NSF award supports the preparation of a documentary film about mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani for national broadcast on public television via American Public Television syndication (APT) in November 2021 or March 2022. This documentary, "Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani", directed by George Csicsery, had its world premiere at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Denver, Colorado in January 2020.

The 60-minute film has had wide distribution in DVD and streaming, and numerous public screenings at universities and film festivals since the premiere. The film has proven highly effective at conveying mathematical ideas to the general public through the human story of Mirzakhani, a leading mathematician who became the first woman to win the Fields Medal (2014).

The film chronicles her education in Iran through graduate school at Harvard, and her numerous mathematical breakthroughs, before her untimely death in 2017. Mirzakhani’s story, as told in the film, has proven inspirational to girls studying STEM subjects and to women choosing mathematics as a career. Her example as an Iranian woman who reached the top of her field demonstrates the possibility of overcoming gender and cultural barriers.

The film also shows how formidable cultural differences, in this case between Iran and the United States, can be overcome through the pursuit of knowledge and pure science.

Modification of the film for public television broadcast involves editing, adding required modules, closed captioning, and other technical work, as well as promotional efforts aimed at individual station programmers in the public television system.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.