New Documentary ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE Premieres Friday, October 17 on PBS
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Select programming will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the free PBS App. Members of PBS SoCal get extended access through PBS Passport.
Los Angeles, Calif. – Sept. 16, 2025 – PBS SoCal, Southern California’s flagship PBS organization, announced today its new documentary, ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE, which weaves together compelling stories of artists participating in the Getty’s 2024-2025 Southern California art event, PST ART. Exploring the deep, often overlooked connections between two fields commonly seen as opposites — art and science — the film highlights collaborations between artists and scientists in Southern California to address some of humanity’s most urgent challenges, from climate change and space exploration to biodiversity and environmental justice. The program is produced for PBS by PBS SoCal, in association with Actual Films (“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” and “Athlete A”) and Academy Award-nominated filmmakers, Director Jessica Kingdon and Producer Serin Marshall. The one-hour special ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE premieres Fri., Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal and at 10 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings) on PBS stations nationwide, PBS.org and the PBS App.
“Providing all Americans with free access to the arts is a cornerstone of our mission, now more than ever,” said Wendy Llinás, Senior Director, General Audience Programming & Development at PBS. “With ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE, we aspire to ignite curiosity and creativity, strengthening the cultural health of our nation by bringing communities together through the rich exchange of science and arts education.”
The film showcases PST ART, the largest art project in the United States, which also serves as a revolutionary model for public programming at an unprecedented scale. Getty’s PST ART featured over 800 artists in mind-expanding explorations of the intersections of art and science, both past, present and future across Southern California. Topics ranged from ancient cosmology to Indigenous sci-fi, and from artificial intelligence to environmental justice. Other programs ranged from cutting-edge performing arts commissions to rocket launches and from participatory art projects and action-centered discussions to free outdoor art and science family festivals.
“I’m incredibly proud to help make the groundbreaking work of PST ART accessible to audiences nationwide,” said Katherine E. Fleming, President & CEO of The J. Paul Getty Trust. “PBS is one of the most powerful cultural platforms in the country, and this partnership offers an extraordinary opportunity to share the creativity, collaboration, and innovation in art and science that emerged from PST ART’s many Southern California institution partners with viewers everywhere.”
The documentary highlights a range of powerful collaborations. The five main artists profiled in the film include:
- American Artist reimagines the early days of rocket science through the lens of science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Their project, “The Monophobic Response,” includes a recreation of a 1936 rocket test, exploring themes of racial equity, climate crisis and alternate futures. It positions space exploration not as a corporate dream, but as a necessity for marginalized communities envisioning survival beyond Earth.
- Cannupa Hanska Luger introduces large scale figures wearing “sovereignty suits”—futuristic, cultural armor that blends Indigenous knowledge traditions with speculative technology. His sculptures act as time-travelers, carrying ancestral wisdom between multiple realities of space and time. He reframes survival as cultural continuity and critiques the dominant, colonial narratives of space travel.
- Special Species is an artist collective formed by Jason Chang, Joel Fernando, and Yesenia Prieto. They spotlight California’s special-status species through piñata-based representations. Drawing on Mexican folk traditions, they blend education, conservation and dreamlike imagery to raise awareness about biodiversity. Their work reclaims undervalued crafts and overlooked animal species as vital parts of our ecosystem.
- Environmental artist Lauren Bon recounts her long-term intervention in the L.A. River’s concrete infrastructure through her project “Bending the River.” Her work reveals the hidden flows beneath the city—both underground rivers and the buried histories of the floodplain—and demonstrates the regenerative potential of soil, water and native crops such as corn. Through these acts, Bon frames environmental healing and reparation as inseparable from art-led activism.
- Themes of permeability, memory and microbiota emerge in the work of Hayv Kahraman. A refugee from Iraq, she explores how bodies—especially migrant bodies—interact with their surroundings at microscopic and spiritual levels. Her meditative flax-based marbling reflects both trauma and resilience, asking what it means to dismantle borders and embrace interconnection.
Additional artists and experts appearing in the film include John Mulchaey, President, Carnegie Science; Joel Ferree, Program Director, LACMA Art + Technology Lab; Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director, Getty Research Institute; Katherine Fleming, President and CEO, J. Paul Getty Trust; Ahmed Best, Actor, Director, Educator, and Futurist; Shana Nys Dambrot, Art Critic; Joan Weinstein, Director, Getty Foundation; Chris Weisbart, Associate Vice President, Exhibitions, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Debra Scacco, Curator, “Brackish Water” and Fiona Lindsay Shen, Director, Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Art Collection.
As part of PBS SoCal’s efforts around PST ART, the organization produced 11 short films featuring some of Southern California’s top arts and culture destinations that included the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California African American Museum, The Autry Museum of the American West and many more.
Other original content from PBS SoCal created around PST ART included the organization’s award-winning environmental series EARTH FOCUS episode titled “Fast Fashion,” featuring textile artist Porfirio Gutierrez as well as the Los Angeles Emmy® nominated documentary, ARTBOUND “Blended Worlds: The Fusion of Art & Science at JPL,” which showed how a passion to explore space informs art and vice versa. All of this content and more is available to stream on the free PBS app and PBS SoCal’s YouTube Channel.
“Our region is blessed to have so many wonderful arts institutions and we are so honored to highlight their work,” commented PBS SoCal Chief Content Officer Tamara Gould. “As Southern California’s convener for the arts, we are humbled by the sheer scale of creative collaboration, which will inspire the whole country through this film. This documentary showcases artists who are breaking new ground in exploring the unique intersection of art and science, which is a part of what makes Southern California such an iconic destination for arts and culture.”
"The documentary film ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE underscores that both art and science are ways of knowing, imagining and shaping the world,” commented Oscar®-nominated Director Jessica Kingdon. “Ultimately, the film points to the ways creativity, knowledge and empathy are not separate pursuits, but intertwined forces that reveal our interdependence in a shared, complex world.”
ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE will be available to stream on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.
Major funding for the documentary film ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE was provided by John & Louise Bryson. Additional funding was provided by the Frieda Berlinski Foundation, the California Community Foundation and PBS.
The program is produced for PBS by PBS SoCal, in association with Actual Films, whose documentaries have won Emmys and Peabodys and an Academy Award nomination. Justine Nagan, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk are Executive Producers along with PBS SoCal’s Tamara Gould and Angela Boisvert. The producer is Emmy Award-winning Serin Marshall, and the Academy Award-nominated director is Jessica Kingdon. Wendy Llinás is the executive in charge for PBS.
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PBS SoCal uses the power of public media for good, strengthening the civic fabric of Southern California and providing our community with an essential connection to a wider world. As a local, donor/member-supported non-profit organization, PBS SoCal manages 7 channels — including 2 primary broadcast channels, PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal Plus as well as 5 digital subchannels. With a commitment to make content available anytime and anywhere for free, PBS SoCal is reaches nearly 19M viewers in the region with programming that reflects the diversity of Southern California and showcases the full schedule of beloved and trusted PBS content spanning Education, News, Environment and Arts & Culture. PBS SoCal programming is available to viewers over-the-air, on all key streaming platforms via the free PBS App and PBS KIDS App. PBS SoCal also sparks the sharing of ideas at in-person cultural events and community conversations as well as prepares children for kindergarten and beyond by bringing bilingual, hands-on learning experiences to the community for free.
About PBS
PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 36 million adults on linear primetime television, more than 16 million users on PBS-owned streaming platforms, 53 million viewers on YouTube, and 60 million people view PBS content on social media, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, and public affairs and to take front-row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS LearningMedia for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. As the number one educational media brand, PBS KIDS helps children 2-8 build critical skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality content on TV — including a PBS KIDS channel — and streaming free on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app, games on the PBS KIDS Games app, and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on X.
About Actual Films
Actual Films creates powerful works of documentary cinema to have a positive impact for change in the world. Over the past 20+ years, the company has created critically acclaimed, award-winning films such as Athlete A, Audrie & Daisy, An Inconvenient Sequel, The Island President and The Lost Boys of Sudan. Recent work includes the Academy-Award nominated short Lead Me Home and Make A Splash, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Distribution partners include Netflix, HBO, Paramount, ESPN, Disney+, PBS and Samuel Goldwyn. Founded by filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, Actual Films’ documentaries have won Emmys and Peabodys, and been nominated for an Academy Award. Together with Head of Production Justine Nagan, Actual Films frequently collaborates with passionate filmmakers across the country and from around the San Francisco Bay.
About PST ART:
Southern California’s landmark arts event Pacific Standard Time—now PST ART—returned with more than 70 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science—past, present, and in the imaginable future. Dozens of cultural, scientific, and community organizations have joined the latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, to share groundbreaking research, create indelible experiences for the public, and generate new ways of understanding our complex world. PST ART: Art & Science Collide follows Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (September 2017–January 2018) and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 (October 2011– March 2012).
PST ART is presented by Getty. Lead partners are Bank of America, Alicia Miñana & Rob Lovelace, and the Getty Patron Program. Principal partners are Simons Foundation; Eva and Ming Hsieh, Co-Founders of Fulgent Genetics; and Peggy and Andrew Cherng, Co-Chairs and Co-CEOs of Panda Express.
For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit: pst.art. Press materials about PST ART in English and Spanish are available here.
About Getty
Getty is a leading global arts organization committed to the exhibition, conservation, and understanding of the world’s artistic and cultural heritage. Based in Los Angeles, Getty’s Foundation, Conservation Institute, Museum, and Research Institute work collaboratively with partners around the world. Getty shares art, knowledge, and resources online at Getty.edu and welcomes the public for free at its Getty Center and the Getty Villa.