Mar 23
Amherst Cinema Amherst, MA
TicketsAlexis Gambis
Biologist; Filmmaker; Founder of LABOCINE
Son of Monarchs (Hijo de Monarcas)— Science New Wave: Experiments at the intersection of science and cinema
Program Description
French-Venezuelan biologist and filmmaker Alexis Gambis is a leading voice in the Science New Wave, a movement that fuses scientific inquiry with imagination, experimentation, and personal storytelling. His feature film SON OF MONARCHS (HIJO DE MONARCAS), winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, draws on ideas from evolutionary and developmental biology to explore themes of (im)migration, inheritance, and metamorphosis.
Film Synopsis
A Mexican biologist's return from New York to his hometown near butterfly forests of Michoacán sparks a personal metamorphosis.
After his grandmother’s death, a Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown, nestled in the majestic monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán. The journey forces him to confront past traumas and reflect on his hybrid identity, sparking a personal and spiritual metamorphosis.
About the Speaker
Alexis Gambis founded the Science New Wave, a film movement redefining science storytelling through diversity, hybridity, and experimentation, which he presented in a 2019 TED Talk. During his PhD years at The Rockefeller University, he launched the Science New Wave Festival (formerly known as the Imagine Science Film Festival), now in its 18th year of curating singular science cinema in New York and beyond. In 2016, he founded Labocine, a streaming platform fostering collaboration between scientists, artists, and researchers while reimagining science education through film.
The film series, Doctor Bacteria, adapted from Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s Cuentos de Vacaciones (Vacation Stories), explores the ethical implications of scientific advancements, weaving speculative fiction with scientific inquiry. A short film, El Jardín del Futuro, supported by IBM Research, premiered at the Hudson Forum 2024. Completed during his FSC-Harvard Fellow at the Film Study Center (2023-24), the film combines 3D brain visualizations from Jeffrey Lichtman’s lab with fictional reenactments of Cajal’s stories.
His third feature, AXOLOTL, is a US/Mexican production about a biologist investigating the legend of a giant axolotl in a dying lagoon, where the creature’s regenerative powers could hold the key to healing both the planet and herself.