B. F. Skinner Plays Himself

Directed by Ted Kennedy

2025, USA, 72 min.

B. F. Skinner Plays Himself revisits the life and works of B. F. Skinner through never-before-seen footage recovered from a failed educational film project. From Skinner’s early work with rats, pigeon-guided bombs, and air-conditioned baby cribs, to Utopian communes and debating Dennis Hopper, we deconstruct the scientist and the prescience of his warnings about the power of shaping behavior. The failure of the educational film shows that changing behavior, whether for utopian or authoritarian purposes, is both more nuanced and more difficult than his proponents or critics imagined.

A Mostly Works Production

Festivals + Screenings

Doc Fortnight 2025, The Museum of Modern Art - New York, NY

Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2025 - Providence, RI

Richmond International Film Festival, 2025 - Richmond, VA

Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, 2025 - Newburyport, MA

Cinesthesia FactoryFest, 2025 - Los Angeles, CA

Oregon Independent Film Festival, 2025 - Eugene, OR -  Best Historical Documentary

Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist, 2025 - Kyiv, UKR

Tacoma Film Festival, 2025 - Tacoma, WA - Best Feature Documentary

Labocine ARCHIVES, 2026 - Virtual

New Jersey Film Festival, 2026 - New Brunswick, NJ - Best Documentary Film

DOCVILLE Film Festival, 2026 - Leuven, BELG

Atlanta Film Festival, 2026 - Atlanta, GA

San Diego Underground Film Festival, 2026 - San Diego, CA