The mathematical legacy -----------------------
Erdős 100 Plus is a compilation of ten videos totaling 180 minutes and focusing on Paul Erdős's mathematical legacy. It includes the film Erdős 100, made in 2013 to mark the centenary of Paul Erdős's birth. It features interviews filmed in 2012 and 2013 with mathematicians László Lovász, Endre Szemerédi, Vera Sós, László Babai, András Hajnal, Ronald Graham and others, interwoven with previously unreleased footage from N is a Number.
Four of the videos feature raw, largely unreleased interview footage recorded with Erdős for N is a Number. The DVD also includes Something New Every Day, a 21-minute film made in 2015 to mark Ron Graham's 80th birthday, and four short films made in 2018 about the development of combinatorics and the probabilistic method: On Erdős-Bacon Numbers ("On Erdős-Bacon Numbers"), The Rise of Combinatorics ("The rise of combinatorics"), Large Gaps Between Primes ("Large gaps between prime numbers"), A Brief History of the Probabilistic Method ("A brief history of the probabilistic method").
As with the DVD of N is a Number, a version for group screenings is available for purchase (**[email protected]**).
N is a Number, a portrait of Paul Erdős ------------------------------------------
Released in 1993, N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős is a 57-minute documentary directed by George Csicsery. Filmed over four years, from 1988 to 1992, the film follows Paul Erdős through four countries, exploring his mathematical quest as well as its personal and philosophical dimensions. It is interspersed with accounts from mathematicians who spent time with him. Animated sequences introduce a general audience to some of the kinds of mathematical problems Erdős tackled.
More than 18 hours of footage were recorded for the film. Together, they form the largest audiovisual archive devoted to Erdős. There are plans to make them available to researchers.
The DVD, which also includes 20 minutes of additional footage featuring Erdős, is available via the production company Zala Films.
**www.zalafilms.com; **
Filming mathematicians -------------------------
George Paul Csicsery has been an independent writer and filmmaker since 1968. He has made 38 films, many of them about the lives and work of mathematicians. They include N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős (1993); Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem (2008), a biographical documentary about a pioneering American mathematician; Hard Problems: The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest (2008), about the US team at the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad; Taking the Long View: The Life of Shiing-shen Chern (2011); Counting from Infinity: Yitang Zhang and the Twin Primes Conjecture (2015); Navajo Math Circles (2016), about Navajo math education; and Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani (2020). In 2024 and 2025, he released Forging Resilience ("Forging resilience") and Creating Pathways ("Creating pathways"), two films in the "Journeys of Black Mathematicians" ("Journeys of Black Mathematicians") series.
In his own words, George Csicsery sees himself as a "cultural anthropologist". He is interested in mathematicians because they are "able to work in a universe they construct themselves".
Speaking of N is a Number: "I am delighted that audiences can find in it what I could never express in words: Erdős's ability to inspire and to pass on the legacy of centuries of mathematics and philosophy, his humor, and his profound human commitment to the ideals of ethical conduct and truth."