MILLSTONE – A longtime Millstone Township resident and school board member is featured in a documentary film starring Jeff Bridges.
Amy Jacobson appears as an expert speaker in “Living in the Future’s Past,” a documentary directed by Susan Kucera and produced and presented by Bridges.
Jacobson, who has been a resident for 16 years and served on the Millstone Township K-8 School District Board of Education for 10 years, has taught evolutionary anthropology at Rutgers University and Monmouth University. She is currently a research associate at Rutgers, where she earned a doctorate in evolutionary anthropology.
According to a press kit for the film, “Living in the Future’s Past” depicts Bridges as he explores humanity and shares the screen with expert speakers and more to reveal concepts about people and their past to provide insight into their subconscious motivations and unintended consequences. The documentary also incorporates elements of evolution, neuropsychology, emergence, ecology and energy into a major change in the way people think about environmental challenges.
“Living in the Future’s Past” shows how individuals cannot predict how major changes emerge from the actions of many, how energy takes many forms as it moves through and animates everything, and how people need to redefine their expectations to look at not what they might lose, but what they might gain by preparing for something different, according to the press kit.
“I would describe the documentary as a wake-up call, as well as a tutorial in expanded perspective taking,” Jacobson said. “Susan is a brilliant filmmaker because she not only has an amazing eye for imagery and concept, but she is a master at weaving a big picture from many diverse and complex threads of reasoning and ways of thinking about things. Using very diverse expertise and experiences, the film beautifully presents the reality of the situation we now find ourselves in as humans.
“It forces you to examine what exactly it means to be human,” she continued. “As an evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist, I approach an issue from both the depth of time and the breadth of space. You need to understand what environmental circumstances selected for various adaptations and then use this knowledge to inform a path forward to a future that can sustain the human race and the planet we inhabit.
“The film speaks to the brutal realities of what we have done and how easy it was to get to where we are. I think it also gives us hope and a path to how to begin to address these issues in a more humane and impactful manner,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson became involved in the documentary after she met Kucera while the filmmaker was visiting Rutgers to record footage for a biopic about evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers, a friend and academic mentor of Jacobson’s. At the time, Kucera was in post-production for her film “Breath of Life.”
“Susan wandered into my lab next door to Dr. Trivers’ office and we began talking about the experiment I was conducting at the time with an undergraduate student,” Jacobson said. “Over the course of the week, she visited often and began filming me discussing various topics. By the end of the week she said she thought I was an interesting person and that we should work on a film together.
“Later that year, I flew to Hawaii and filmed with her for 10 days,” she said. “It is from this footage that she pulled for ‘Living in the Future’s Past.’ We mainly filmed lectures from the Social Evolution and Human Aggression courses I taught at Rutgers.
“I was invited to participate in this film as it evolved out of the interest in expanding the basic concepts presented in ‘Breath of Life.’ She asked me to be involved because she felt she needed more female voices in the film and that my perspective was important in expanding the aspect of human behavioral ecology and applied evolutionary logic,” Jacobson said.
According to the press kit, Jacobson is committed to using evolutionary anthropology to educate and expand existing perspectives on issues such as race, sexual orientation, gender identity, medicine and religion with the expectation that public policy and social norms, informed by science and reason, will lead to better outcomes and a more just and productive future for humanity.
Jacobson is currently writing a book about the evolutionary biology of human aggression, which seeks to offer insight into how best to effectively interpret and apply this knowledge to encourage pro-social, positive sum engagement, between and within individuals and groups.
“We have the power to impact the future in vital ways that will affect the future of the planet and the ability for humans and all species to survive,” she said.
“Living in the Future’s Past” will be shown at the New Vision Rialto Theatre, 250 E. Broad St., Westfield, on Oct. 9-11 at 7 p.m. Jacobson will host a question and answer session at the theater.
The film will also be screened at the City Cinemas Village East Cinema, 181-189 Second Ave., New York City, from Oct. 5-11 at 11:30 a.m., 1:40 p.m., 4:20 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Jacobson will host a question and answer session on the closing night.
A full listing of showtimes and how to purchase tickets for the documentary can be found at www.livinginthefuturespastfilm.com