The Florida Museum of Natural History will be showing a free bat-themed movie every Friday in July.
The weekly event starts with a film discussion at 7 p.m., and a different movie will play each week, said Tiffany Ireland, educator at the Florida Museum.
On Friday, “The Dark Knight” will play. The subsequent films are, in order, the 1931 version of “Dracula,” “Nightwing” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
The museum is extending its Friday hours until 10 p.m. for the “Creative B” film series and the “Masters of the Night” bat exhibit, Ireland said.
This year’s series is meant to spread awareness about bats, which play an important role in the ecology and culture of northern Florida and many other habitats across the world.
On Friday and July 27, the museum will host a 6 p.m. reception. A cash bar and a panel of speakers will be present.
Scientists from the Lubee Bat Conservancy, engineers for a “Batman” film and special effects sculptors are expected to be on the panel. Ireland said the speakers are knowledgeable about bats and the featured films.
The museum will be showing the films on a new high-definition screen, and the live talks will be aired on Facebook in hopes of increasing the audience size, she said.
Nikhil Srinivasan, marketing assistant at the Florida Museum, said guests at the “Masters of the Night” exhibit can experience how bats listen with prototype ears. Students can also use a tunnel display that shows how bats use echolocation to judge the surrounding space.
Maps of bat and bug location distributions are also present in the exhibit, he said. These figures convey the dependent relationship between regional bat and insect species.
Museum researchers have also collected skulls, fur and skin of bats, Srinivasan said. These are on display, and they give visitors a detailed look into the anatomy of bats.
The “Masters of the Night” exhibit will run until Sept. 16.
The museum has done the “Creative B” film series for the past six years, he said. The series aims to create a wide range of cultural events that provide students with art and science during the Summer B semester at UF.
“Our museum has participated in this initiative since it began,” Srinivasan said. “Combining art and science helps the museum spread information in a more pleasing and fun way for students.”
