Ragtag Cinema Columbia, MO
Dr. Roberto Cofresí
Assistant Research Professor, University of Missouri - Columbia
Liquid Sky— Reward pursuit — "wanting" vs liking"
Program Description
As part of this New Queer Frontiers series, Dr. Cofresí-Bonilla will explore how the pursuit of rewards like tasty food, intoxicating drugs, and orgasm, depends on "wanting" (motivation) and "liking" (pleasure) and how these two psychological functions depend on different systems in the brain.
Presented At
Ragtag Cinema Columbia, MO
Film Synopsis
An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during orgasm.
Aliens and opiates collide in Liquid Sky, a science fiction jaunt through New York City’s New Wave scene. Bisexual fashion model Margaret (Anne Carlisle) dreams of stardom but faces abuse from her drug-addicted rival Jimmy (also played by Carlisle). Meanwhile, tiny, invisible aliens seeking heroin land on the roof of Margaret and her drug-dealing/performance artist girlfriend’s squalid home. But, instead of pursuing heroin for their sustenance, the aliens develop an appetite from the neurotransmitters released during human orgasm. Margaret’s sexual escapades lead to a string of deaths while a German scientist attempts to capture and research the aliens. Liquid Sky spent decades on the midnight movie circuit before becoming a cult classic for its avant-garde cinematography and soundtrack, surreal plot, and gender play.
Photo credit: Z Films
About the Speaker
Dr. Roberto Cofresí is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Missouri - Columbia. His undergraduate and graduate training in Biochemistry and Neuroscience, respectively, were completed at the University of Texas - Austin. Roberto is interested in bidirectional translation between rodent and human neuroscience laboratories studying addiction-related learning and memory. The goal of his research is to understand why and how naturally learned signals (cues) for drugs of abuse like alcohol are able to capture attention, impel approach, and promote over-consumption in some of us but not others.