This week I went to the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. One highlight was an exceedingly cool animated film of “Flatland,” produced by Seth Caplan, directed by Jeffrey Travis and Dano Johnson, and starring Martin Sheen as Arthur Square. I have written an article about this movie for The Alcalde, the alumni magazine of the University of Texas. (Caplan, Travis, and Johnson all went to school there.) Also premiering at the meetings were two films by director George Csicsery: “Hard Problems,” a documentary about the U.S. team at the 2006 International Math Olympiad, and “Julia Robinson and Hilbert’s Tenth Problem,” a documentary about the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society.
