The film screening, which took place on Tuesday, Oct. 7 in the Putnam Theater, was hosted by the Harris Center, a non-profit organization that promotes education about nature in the Monadnock Region.
The film’s website states that the documentary “explores the crucial roles that bats play in our shared environment, and how a team of women bat scientists set out to save a North American bat species from a deadly fungal disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) to create a better future for both bats and humans.”
The documentary also takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to dispel myths about how pandemics are caused and spread, according to the website.
Harris Center Science Director Brett Thelen stated that the Invisible Mammal film screening was one of several collaborative events that the Harris Center has organized with the KSC Film Society over the years to share nature documentaries with the community.
In an email, Thelen stated, “The Harris Center has a long history of partnering with the KSC Film Society to show documentary films that explore our local natural and cultural history. We are delighted that so many people came out to celebrate Bat Appreciation Month with us— and grateful to Haley Andreozzi and Sandi Houghton of NH Bat Counts for sharing their expertise, along with actions all of us can take to protect bats here in the Granite State during the post-film Q&A session. In the face of white-nose syndrome, these small-but-mighty mammals need all the help they can get, and we can all play a part in ensuring their survival.”
First-year student Daphne Walsh was in the audience for the screening, which she said she chose to attend for class credit because she was interested in learning more about bats and our ecosystem.
Walsh said she thought the movie was “really good,” adding, “It was well-paced and it went from state to state, and all over our country and then also into Canada, and it just exemplified how common bats were and the issues pertaining to them that I personally didn’t know about.”
Reflecting on what she learned from the movie, Walsh said, “I definitely learned something. I no longer hate the bats that attack me when I’m swimming, so I guess my opinion has changed on them a little bit.”
Justin Dearborn can be reached at
jdearborn@kscequinox.com
