B.F. Skinner Plays Himself: Portrait of a Nonperson (Work in progress)

In the early 1970s a California filmmaker approached the world-renowned behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner to make a biographical film. The project went over-schedule, over-budget and left everyone, especially Skinner, disappointed with the results. Luckily, most of the original material was deposited at the Harvard Film Archive, described only as “unidentified 16mm film”. These rare never before seen archival materials are used to deconstruct the original biographical movie and reveal how B.F. Skinner’s ideas about free will, mind and control have been accepted and rejected by society. B.F. Skinner Plays Himself takes the viewer into the contentious debate about free will and designed cultures by using footage of his many television appearances, outtake from educational films and home-movies of his pigeon-guided bombs and futuristic baby cribs. But it goes further by deconstructing the raw footage from the failed 1970s documentary to ask why Skinner behaved the way he did, who was shaping him? He was called a hero and a fascist, a genius and quack. For Skinner, the essential point is that for humanity to survive it must confront and move beyond antiquated illusions of autonomy and recognize the dangerous control that cultures and institutions have in shaping our identities. This film looks at the life and impact of B.F. Skinner through his experiments, inventions, books, reflections and public persona. Society still faces many of the same issues that Skinner addressed over 50 years ago, from environmental and nuclear threats to the rise of fascism, this film brings B.F. Skinner’s radical ideas into a contemporary conversation. Just as we shape others and are shaped by them, this film unravels the relationship between the making of a film and the making of B.F. Skinner.