Counted Out

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Legend
OCOpen Captioned
Special Content
35mm
SFSensory Friendly

Counted Out

Q&A with director Vicki Abeles, research mathematician Ben Blum-Smith, and film subject Glenn Rodriguez

Counted Out investigates the biggest crises of our time through an unexpected lens: math.

In our current information economy, math is everywhere. The people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get—all of it is underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice.

But whether we know it or not, our numeric literacy—whether we can speak the language of math—is a critical determinant of social and economic power.

Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, Counted Out shows what’s at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don’t consider ourselves “math people”? Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society—and can help shape it?

Presented in partnership with BOCES of Southern Westchester and its Center for Professional Learning.

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Q&A with director Vicki Abeles, research mathematician Ben Blum-Smith, and film subject Glenn Rodriguez
Monday, Oct. 6 2025, 7:00
This event is over. View all of our upcoming events.

  • Vicki Abeles is a filmmaker, attorney and change agent. She directed the award-winning documentaries Race to Nowhere and Beyond Measure and reached millions of viewers by focusing on social impact. She is the author of the NYT best-selling book Beyond Measure. Additional film credits include Associate Producer on the Sundance favorite Miss Representation (2011) and Associate Producer on Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish (2014). Continuing to bring communities together around the power of stories, Vicki’s work as an Impact Producer for Chasing Childhood and High School 9-1-1, along with producing the national live-stream event, “State of the Kids: Uniting for Youth Mental Health,” has built alliances across the world to empower kids to thrive.
  • Ben Blum-Smith worked for a decade as a classroom teacher and teacher trainer before becoming a research mathematician. Much of his professional career has been about democratizing access to mathematics. Recently, he has taken a burning interest in all aspects of the relationship between mathematics and democracy: how math can help address challenges in doing democracy well, and what mathematical empowerment and citizenship have to do with each other.

This film is part of the Community Matters: Now More Than Ever series.



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