Help us close the achievement gap. I can tell you from being in the trenches and talking and seeing enough data so far to tell you, i guarantee you that will be the sixth one. About to beand its proven. I will give you an example. Project done in North Carolina in the 1970s. They did quality early child education. Aen done well, it inoculates child for three years. In this one, they went into the home every two weeks and taught the parents how to do homework with the kids. Those kids when tracked all the way through high school were graduating at much higher rates, going to college at much higher rates. Much less dropout rates. The home environment had changed. It had been changed. They were inoculated for the rest of their lives. Data . Ave those pieces of i just dont have enough. I know there will be enough data. Only good can come from involving them. Can i mandated for the schools . No. This goes under the premise of if the home environment does not change, can you close the achievement gap . The answer to that is categorically yes. Hollywood has a major influence over Young Americans and how they view the world. Sendlevision and films messages that make students devalue education . How can hollywood use its influence in a positive way . Hmmm. Hmmm. I have not really thought about this answer. I guess they are two separate parts of my brain, moviemaking and education. In general, we are giving the same messaging as everybody else. How many africanamerican intellectuals do we see in our movies . We always have Morgan Freeman as the president. I will give you that. [laughter] what is the normal thing . What is the messaging im guilty of and everyone is guilty of . Were playing on social norms of, this is what we expect from this group. The messaging is a societal thing and we are complicit in it for sure. I dont know how much we can change it. Its a difficult question. , film has thewup power to reflect and influence society. We now see increasing violence in films. Where will it end . Will movie fans reject this, or will we likely have to see the code reintroduced . Thing im not an expert on violence in films. Education gap, that is all have done for five years. When we get our films rated around the country, the u. S. Is super prudish about sex. You showed a breast, that is r. World, rest of the sexuality is not a thing but violence is a thing. Here you can kill any amount of people, pg. Bring the kids. Not a problem. [laughter] its a fascinating cultural thing where we are so desensitized to violence. And even glorify it, to some extent. It is an interesting thing culturally. It is different in other countries. Countries,o other they will have a problem with the violence in my movies. Its an interesting societal thing. How did your work with cinematographer on the sixth sense and signs affect the tonal nature of your films . Im a big fan of japanese cinema and art. We really got along. Silence of the lambs, that is one of my Favorite Movies. Minimalism were both minimalists. The cinematographers i pick are more naturalists. They make it feel like a natural room, not blue lights with fans and things like that. I learned a lot from him. He has done three of my movies. Its more about the japanese cinema of it being subtle. If you come to our house, everything is very minimal. My brain gets a little bit messed up with too much stimuli. As a writer, at what point, if at any time, do you collaborate . Is it usually a gut feeling when you conceive a new idea . You know, its been fascinating. I tried Something Different here. If im doing an independent film. Not trying to assign a pedgetive pejorative to any type of film micking making. With this movie, i tried to get back to hearing my own voice a little bit. It was scary and fascinating, and maybe not unrelated to education, because what were teaching children to do is listen to their voice. Artists in their best form are listening to their voices. I didnt have playback when i was shooting the movie. When i shot the scene, i didnt get to see if i did it well. Thats normal now, everybody does that. Would say, just listen. Out of my mouth comes the thing i didnt know. On that line you need to come forward. Or this isnt about her anger. Just quietly in that vain. Even so, like, with the script, i was very quiet with it. I held on to it, and i really thought, hmm, something is wrong. Something is wrong. Dont go, hey, whats wrong . Even if she gives me the correct answer, i lost. I need to go, whats wrong . Whats wrong . Whats wrong . Just like the body, oftentimes your knee hurts, its not your knee, its your hip. But as an expert in the field would say, it is not your knee, its your hip, just to say, ah, that scene is not working. It is not that scene, it is this scene. And to intuitively get to that scene where you are going and then finally when you have to make a decision that you know you wont get everybody and have peace about that. And say, im sorry, it feels correct. Im going to let go of this group. To have the courage to do that. To know why you are doing that. Not being rebellious, but being, this is true. Hopefully when you see the movie, you might sense a kind of a clarity of voice. You dont have to like it, but you will sense a clarity that was president done by committee. Were almost out of time. Before i ask you the last question, i have a couple House Keeping matters to take care of. June 27 congressman john dingall of michigan. Ieda 2nd, dr. Thomas fr will address concerns about key health issues. August 1, the president of the republic of congo will discuss peace, security, and stability of the Central African region in Oil Investments in his country. Next, i would like to prept our guest with the precisional press club mug. I dont know if you use it for good coffee or good chai, but we thank you for your visit with us today. Finally, for the last question, what is your Favorite Movie of all time . And why . The tough question at the end. Gosh. I mean, there is probably a new genra. Probably, if im being taking everything into account, i think the first godfather is the best film ever made on every level. Should i tell you why . You asked why, right . Yes. Who, rnalism we teach what, when, where, and why . Keeping you activated came organically from the piece. Originally copolla was hired just because he was italian. And what i find is when artists forced to speak in a little bit more i dont want to say commercial because thats pejorative but into a vein thats a little bit more for everybody, end up not letting go of his voice. Everybody thought francis was crazy giving it such drama and treating this subject with such clarity, and everyone else followed suit. Like al paccino, they were about to fire him because he was so quiet. Then they saw the scene where he does the assassination, and they were like, oh, thats what hes doing. They talked about giving humanity to every character, even villains. An empowering on thursday, cspan had the opportunity to talk to steven swanson, the commander of the International Space station. Included using commercial vehicles to supply it and u. S. Russia relations. This is just over 15 minutes. Joining us on the International Space station who dashes Stephen Swanson who is currently on board. Welcome to cspan. Thank you very much. Tell us a little bit about the current activities of the space station. How many crewmembers do you have . What are you doing . We have six crewmembers up here right now. Three russians, two americans, and one german. Mostly what we do is science up here. Over 170 experiments going on right now, but also we have to maintain the station and keep it running smoothly and efficiently host commander, with the science experiment you are currently conducting can you tell us a couple of things, generally what areas they fall into and why is it that these need to be conducted in an atmosphere such as yours. Guest yes. So, they vary tremendously. We have outside the house of magnetic spectrometer, which is looking for dark energy and dark matter. Something we are trying to figure out the basic physics of our universe came to be. From that we go all the way to a Human Research on our bodies. How do we change in a microgravity environment, specifically our eyes, muscles, bones, and we are looking in detail about that which can have applications on earth with people who have different diseases. We get to see it at a more rapid pace of pier. That is pretty much for all the science. The idea is that things change appear enough that people can analyze how different pieces or science objectives change in this microgravity environment. It is just different than on earth which gives us another data set to look and compare to, and that gives them a lot more understanding of the problem. Host so commander, because you are up there in the microgravity talk a little bit about the extent of the science. Are we talking basic research or advanced research . Guest well, it is both. I feel advanced research is looking for dark energy. Also advanced research in combustion and cancer research, looking at tcells, but there is also basic science research, trying to understand basic physics properties. It is both. There is just so much science going on. It is just amazing. Host experiments that you conduct, how many are nasa sanctioned, taxpayer funded, how many come from private sources, experiments you take on from other sources . Guest you know, i dont really know the numbers, but they definitely come from different areas. We have some nasa ones, some from the European Space space agency, the japanese space agency, the russians, and a whole group which takes science experiments from all over the u. S. And combines them into a group from that area. They did to the be on board. It is a difference the whole bunch of different places. I just not know the exact numbers. Host you spoke about life in microgravity. I suspect and you kind of address this the toll that it takes on your body. Can you describe what it is like living there without gravity, and if you could move around a little bit to give folks a sense of what it is like. Guest yes. That is a good thing. First of all, anything you hold just floats when you little of it. That is good and bad. If i dont watch this, and about ten seconds it will float of. That is a negative. Moving around is very much fun. I will give you a quick example of something to you can do. It [silence] i am not a dynast on earth. This is the only place i get to do that. Host do you hit your head . How long does it take to get used to . Guest definitely at the beginning it is more difficult. We have competitions. You have to get their rotation without any side movement, and you can see how many rotations you can do before you hit anything. Host give our viewers a sense of how long gestation is. What are we talking size was . Guest it is about the volume of a 747. It is quite big, quite large, about 250 feet long. In certain spots it is maybe 130140 feet wide. It is actually quite a big. Only six people up here, so it is not crowded at all. Host you said there were six people, again, from Different Countries working together on this. What is the working relationship like between the countries . Guest it is a very good working relationship up here. We have trained together beforehand as a crew, and so we got to know each other very well. We worked together on a daily basis and really have no issues. There are always differences, but we have learned those. We are all good friends, and it seems to go quite smoothly. Host here on earth there are Current Issues concerning tension between the United States and russia. You have three russian cosmonauts on board. To those issues it discussed, and do you get any discussions about what is going on on earth . Guest yes, they do get discussed, just like any news event. We all discuss it. It is not like there is any negative to it. We understand there are politics going on. We also understand it does not affect our work and relationships. It really does not affect us, but it is discussed. Host what are the nature of the discussions like . Guest that is a good question. It varies, of course, on the topic. On the u. S. Russia relations we could build into more politics of the country and more of the details about the culture and what that means in each country. If you break it down that way, you can kind of see what is going on of little more clearly. Host on the science side, commander, for instance, if russia decided because of relations they wanted to pull back on work at the space station how is the United States affected by that, and how are the science experiments affected by that . Guest well, right now the science is pretty much separated between the u. S. Side, which includes the European Space agency, canada, all of those, and then the russian side. The science is somewhat separated. However, we do require the russians for us to get up here and get back down right now. Hopefully in a few years we wont need that, but right now we need that to happen. That is probably the biggest deal right now. If we cant keep up here, we can do the science. Host commander, you can move around if you are tired of holding that position if you want to take the mike with you. As far as manning and staffing of the station, much of that now depends upon commercial aircraft what has been the experience with these commercial spacecraft stopping and supplying the station . Guest right now they are just supplying the station, and we are very happy that we have american cargo vehicles coming up. It is a great advancement. These are good vehicles. It does offload our dependence upon russia and other countries for that. So we are happy about that and definitely looking forward to the next development when we do get to a crew and american vehicle which will change our dynamic quite a bit. Right now it is just cargo coming up. It matter of fact, we will have one here in less than a month to give us new food and science to work on. Host as far as you said that next step, what is involved in the next step and how did things change . Guest yes, that next step is actually proving that the vehicle is safe for humans. We have a few companies who are bidding for that opportunity right now. Once they start into that project, the end of that project by 2017, we will have a man to test of an american vehicle at that time, and they will probably do one test flight may be to station, maybe not. From then we will be rotating crewmembers on the american vehicle. Host how much input do you and the other crew members have to these private companies . How is it received . Guest i personally do not have employed. Nasa does have input. I believe it is received quite well from talking to folks to do that work. Because these Companies Want to of succeed. They want the contracts and want to build a good vehicle, they really do. They do listen and try to make the best vehicle they can. Of course it is a cost analysis going on at the same time. They cant build, you know, the most luxurious cadillac out there. However, they build a good vehicle. Host commander, you talked about moving forward, 2017 you talked about. As far as the station itself, how long is it going to remain functional . Guest that is a good question. Right now i believe it is on paper and tell 2024, and that is just more to certify the life of certain components and also for the resupply missions for certain things. So it could go wonder if we wanted. It all depends upon where we want to spend our money. Host what do you mean by that . Guest well, if we want to go nasa budget is limited, and a portion of it goes to space station and keeping it running. So a Different Task we want to take on, signaling to the moon or mars or an asteroid or whenever it happens to be, we might not be able to do both at the same time given how big each plan is. Host what is the role of the station in future manned space flight pass and then . Guest right now future of space flight, the station is a test bed. We test all sorts of things up here. Right now we have a recycling system for water. We recycle our water, everything , and we need that if were going to go other places. And that is just one example. We are testing out new technologies that will enable us to go farther. Host you would say the station is needed past 2024 . Guest that is a good question. I am not sure. It would definitely be a good test bed for all sorts of things. We can easily get things up and down from here, more than you could from a longer mission. That is why you want to make an update to your product or equipment. You can do that more quickly. It is a great test bed. However, again, a limited amount of money. Host say by 2024 nothing is decided, what happens . Does it fall to earth . Guest well, that will be a decision for management. Consider the politicians and the nasa administration. However, if it is decided it is no longer needed, it will deorbit and burn up on entry. Host commander steven swanson, we every day go through our normal lives here in a gravity atmosphere. What is it like on a daytoday level, in a weightless atmosphere . Tell our viewers some of the things you may not expect about living in space and the things you may have to overcome because of the environment you are in. Guest year out. It is really the simple things that are much more difficult up here. Getting up in the morning, shaving and getting yourself ready. About 20 feet behind me. I do not have to go for, but things like that in the morning. You do not have a sink to wash up and. Brush your teeth differently. Eating is a chore because everything floats, again. It comes in packages and wants to go everywhere. All of these Little Things, and even tying your shoe ends up being differently. You dont have gravity, so you have to be more flexible. All of these Little Things you did not think about make it a little less efficient to be up here. However, there are benefits. We love it up here. It is a fun thing to do. Looking out the window is fantastic. It cannot be beat. Host commander steven swanson, though, once you return to earth what happens . How does your body just . Guest that is the good question. We work out two hours every day year to help in that return. The idea is our muscles will be strong and our bones will not lose bone density. That way when we get back we have to worry about our new vestibular system. Once that gets back under control, which varies a lot between people. Once that gets back under control y