NJ Film Fest will screen B.F. Skinner documentary, featuring previously unseen footage from ’70s

B.F. Skinner, as seen in “B.F. Skinner Plays Himself.”

“It has been said I’ve received the worst press since Darwin,” says the psychology professor, theorist, experimenter and novelist B.F. Skinner in the 74-minute documentary “B.F. Skinner Plays Himself,” which will be shown at the New Jersey Film Festival, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m., and also be available online that day.

Skinner, who died in 1990 at the age of 86, became controversial by arguing that human behavior is controlled by external factors to a greater degree than was previously thought. He had a knack for getting under people’s skins, as when he titled his 1971 book “Beyond Freedom and Dignity,” and he became famous enough that he was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1971, and appeared on television talk shows: rare feats for a social scientist.

He also wrote a utopian novel, “Walden Two,” that led to the formation, in the ’60s, of the Twin Oaks commune in rural Virginia. It still exists, along with a number of affiliated communes around the country, though they no longer stick to his principles very closely.

In 1975, PBS started a documentary about him that was never completed. Ted Kennedy, who directs “B.F. Skinner Plays Himself,” relies heavily on footage that was shot for that documentary, and also chronicles some of its behind-the-scenes drama, sharing some of Skinner’s demands for the shoot and his criticisms of it, and including footage that shows Skinner getting ready for scenes. In what can be seen as a kind of commentary about Skinner’s desire to exert control over the film, Kennedy seems to delight in subverting him, as when he lets us know that Skinner didn’t want his pool to be shown in the documentary (for unexplained reasons), and then shows us the pool anyway.

But there are lots of more substantial segments here, for those interested in Skinner’s life and work. It’s great to see one of the pigeon-guided missiles he helped develop during World War II (using behavioral principles); and one of the controversial glass boxes, or “air cribs,” he developed for young children, with one of his daughters in it (he argued it was just as comfortable and no more restrictive than an ordinary crib, though some were horrified); and a Twin Oaks co-founder talking at length about the commune’s formation.

B.F. Skinner with Dennis Hopper on “The Dick Cavett Show.”

It is also fun to see Skinner arguing with actor Dennis Hopper on television’s “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1971.

“Some people think he’s the Devil himself,” Cavett says of Skinner, when introducing him.

“The inside of the person is as important as the outside,” says Hopper. “You’re only talking about half the problem.”

“Let’s just split it up,” responds Skinner. “You take the inside, I’ll take the outside.” And they shake hands on it.

Less interesting is a segment when Skinner talks with an actor playing Henry David Thoreau (the author of the original “Walden,” who died in 1862).

One senses a frustration, through all of it, on Skinner’s part. He’s a Harvard professor, after all, and arguably one of the most consequential psychological thinkers of the 20th century. And he’s got to discuss his work with people who may not understand the subtleties of it. But he endures it all with patience and good humor.

It’s too bad the original PBS special never got finished. But this documentary could accomplish what I assume was one of the original filmmakers’ goals: to bring his ideas to a wider audience, with the hopes that maybe people can begin to grapple with them, themselves.

“B.F. Skinner Plays Himself” will be shown at Voorhees Hall at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.; director, producer and editor Ted Kennedy will participate in a question-and-answer session. It also will be available online all day Jan. 23. Visit njfilmfest.com.

For more about the film, visit bfskinnerplayshimself.com.

Here is its trailer:

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