The Bit Player

{{For|the 2013 Filipino drama-comedy|The Bit Player (2013 film)}}

File:The Bit Player at Computer History Museum.jpg in Mountain View, California. At the right, Andrea Goldsmith, a professor at Stanford and representative of the IEEE Information Theory Society. Center, Mark Levinson, director and producer of the documentary. Left, Hansen Hsu of the Computer History Museum, moderator.]]

The Bit Player is a 2019 documentary film created to celebrate the 2016 centenary of the birth of Claude Shannon, the "father of information theory". The film was produced and directed by Mark Levinson, in cooperation with the IEEE Information Theory Society and the IEEE Foundation.{{cite web |title=The Bit Player – Claude Shannon: Prophet of Information |url=https://thebitplayer.com/ |website=thebitplayer.com |accessdate=3 August 2019}}

The film premiered at the World Science Festival in New York City on May 29,{{cite web |last1=Feder |first1=Toni |title=Review: The Bit Player, an homage to Claude Shannon |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190719a/full/ |work=Physics Today | date = July 19, 2019 |accessdate=3 August 2019}} and was screened for a large audience at the IEEE Information Theory Society's meeting in Vail, Colorado, on June 19.{{cite web |title=Celebrating the Work and Life of Claude Elwood Shannon |url=https://www.ieeefoundation.org/campaign-news/celebrating-the-work-and-life-of-claude-elwood-shannon |website=IEEE Foundation |accessdate=3 August 2019 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803145326/https://www.ieeefoundation.org/campaign-news/celebrating-the-work-and-life-of-claude-elwood-shannon|archive-date=3 August 2019}}

A review in Physics Today calls it "not quite a documentary" and "a delightful new film". The film was named "best in show" in Realscreen's MIPTV Picks 2019.{{cite web |title=Realscreen's MIPTV Picks 2019, part 1 |url=http://realscreen.com/2019/03/25/realscreens-miptv-picks-2019-part-1/?_u=4Jkz1Cj7vOM%3D |website=reelscreen.com |accessdate=3 August 2019}}