Alexis Gambis

biologist & filmmaker

Brooklyn, US

magical realism docu-fiction microscopy biology neuroscience animals evolution

Alexis Gambis shared a bulletin

February 29, 2024 •

I am currently on a 2022-23 fellowship at Harvard's Film Study Center working on the Cajal project "El Beso Protoplasmatico" >> check out the Field Notes for this series docu-fiction film project.

Setting up our Science New Wave Lab space in Brooklyn, New York

I completed a first draft of the feature "The Next Jaguar" and now about to do some rewrites and begin some field trips and embark preliminary shoots/short films.

Ongoing film project "Mousetrap" about memory, mice and my childhood.

Alexis Gambis is a French-Venezuelan filmmaker and biologist. His films combine documentary and fiction, often embracing animal perspectives and experimenting with new forms of scientific storytelling.

During his PhD years at The Rockefeller University, he created the Imagine Science Film Festival that recently celebrated its 15th year of showcasing the latest science filmmaking from in New York and beyond. Five years ago, he launched the sister platform Labocine, an ecosystem proposing monthly curated programs, sparking interdisciplinary collaborations and proposing new ways to watch films through interconnected scientific ideas.

In his 2019 TED Talk, Alexis introduced the Science New Wave, which proposes that science cinema is an embodied, evolving organism that is built on the fundamental traits of diversity, hybridity and experimentation.

Alexis' latest fiction feature Son of Monarchs delves into issues of identity, (im)migration and evolution. Now streaming on HBO Max, the Mexican-American narrative premiered at Sundance in 2021 and was awarded the Sloan Feature Film Prize. The New York Times praised the allegorical drama for its "rich imagery [that] will be imprinted in your memory, returning to you in dreams” and selected it as a Critics Pick.

Alexis is currently in development on three film projects. The Next Jaguar is an Ecuadorian-American feature-length tale fusing pressing issues about animal endangerment, climate change and indigenous rights. El Beso is an episodic docu-fiction series that is based on the life and science fiction writings of the father of modern neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Expanding on the short  Déjà vu, the French-American Mousetrap merges facts and fictions of Alexis' childhood. Drawing from family archives and neuroscience research, this personal essay film brings together memory, mice and magical realism in a haunting story about a young neuroscientist obsessed with his childhood home.

Films

Hijo de Monarcas (Son of Monarchs)

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Murine Montage

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Los Mimos Monarcas (The Monarch Mimes)

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Insan

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Mosaic

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The Fly Room

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Anthropology of the Future

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El jardín del futuro (The Garden of the Future)

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Field Work: Header

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Daughter of Genetics

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Yo Quisiera Ser Animal

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El Gran Zoo

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My Mind's Eye - Controlling Our Fears: An Interview with Elizabeth Phelps

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Déjà vu

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My Mind's Eye - Roots: An Interview with Cori Bargmann

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Mousetrap

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Mi Hermano

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Through the Glass Lightly

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Spleen

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Field Work - World Cup: Gene

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Campo Experimental

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My Mind's Eye - Mapping the Mind: An Interview with Eric Kandel

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Return to the Sea

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Field Work Brazil: Amor

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A Fruitfly in New York

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Mind Over Matter

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My Mind's Eye : How Free Is Your Will? An interview with Michael Gazzaniga

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I am a Mobile Element: A Conversation with Emmanuelle Charpentier

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Monarch Scales

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El beso protoplasmático

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La Que Sueña (She Who Dreams)

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When Butterflies Speak - Episode 2: Butterfly Activism with Cesar Maxit

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We Just Don't Know

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Dr. Funque and His Petri Dish

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Field Work - World Cup: Kinetic

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Disposable

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My Mind's Eye - Hippocampus Rhythms: An Interview with György Buzsáki

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Field Work: Temple

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Guardian of the Mangroves

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The Unbearable Lightness of a Tadpole

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Courtship

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The Primitive Streak

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Soñar Despierto (Daydreaming)

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Máquina de Sentir (The Feeling Machine)

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Microscopia (Corps Exquis)

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Watson, DNA & Reaching Divinity

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Animaux Fabuleux (Fabulous Animals)

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The Falcon Hospital

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A Conversation with Jane Goodall

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In the Year 2024: Cajal meets Lichtman

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A Conversation with Catherine Mccusker

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A Conversation with Javier DeFelipe

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Figure of Speech: A Conversation with Martin Chalfie

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Scenes

The Arrival of Monarch Butterflies in Sierra Chincua Butterfly Reserve

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Anatomy of Negative Bodies

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Xenopus Tadpoles in a Glass Measuring Beaker

RESEARCHER
Playlists

Micro/Macro

8 films

My Mind's Eye

6 films

Creatures of the Self

22 films

Cine-Cajal

13 films