Issue

Migration Replay

November 2020

Catch the best of the 2020 Imagine Science Film Festival that plunged into the many forms and shapes of migration. The flight of the arctic tern, the multi-generational travels of the monarch butterfly, the return of eels to the streams they hatched in. The arduous journeys of displaced peoples. Data systems in flux. The complex movements of cells, from embryonic origins to developed organisms. 

The Whelming Sea

FILM USA 2020
Sean Hanley

Three animal lives entangle at the edge of the sea. Horseshoe crabs spawn on eroded urban beaches, migrating shorebirds seek sustenance at a midpoint, and humans attempt to make a difference in this age of mass extinction.

A Demonstration

FILM Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom 2020
Sasha Litvintseva Beny Wagner

"A Demonstration" is a monster film with no monsters. Inspired by the existence of taxonomies of monsters at the heart of Early Modern European science, the film explores and reinterprets a way of seeing the natural world that is almost impossible to imagine from today's vantage point. Early Modern

Empty Horses (Üres lovak)

FILM Hungary 2019
Péter Lichter

Experimental film EMPTY HORSES documents an encounter between two much celebrated and very deceased Hungarian film directors. Michael Curtiz (1886-1962), the Oscar-winning director of Casablanca, responsible for shooting more than 150 movies during Hollywood's Golden Age, is recognised as one of his

At Home But Not at Home

FILM USA, India 2020
Suneil Sanzgiri

Sanzgiri's father was 18 when India ousted the last remaining Portuguese colonizers from Goa in 1961. Combining 16mm with drone footage, desktop screenshots, and Skype interviews with his father, Sanzgiri utilizes various modes of seeing at a distance to question identity, the construction of memory

You Play Here

FILM USA 2019
Inés Vogelfang

You Play Here is a hybrid project exploring the themes of community, migration, and public space. Concerned with concepts related to migration, I created You Play Here in order to fully explore one question: does playing a sport in a public space work to create community and camaraderie amongst immi

I Love My Wife...

FILM UK 2020
Ian Tierney

The true story of Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman and his wife Arline. Following Richard's death in 1988, a sealed envelope was discovered. Inside was a letter written by Feynman to his high-school sweetheart and first wife Arline, unearthing a private tragedy that he had suffered when he was jus

The Last Artifact

FILM USA 2019
Jaime Jacobsen Ed Watkins

It affects every aspect of our lives from the moment we are born, to the food we eat, the cars we drive, and the medicines we take. This object has helped send men to the moon, and satellites into space. It is an object unlike any other, the last of its kind. A literal constant in an ever-changing w

Mirror Test

FILM UK 2019
Duncan Marquiss

The 'mirror test' is a behavioural science experiment in which an animal is presented with a mirror to see if they recognise their own reflection, or mistake the image for another animal. Corvid birds such as magpies and jackdaws have reportedly passed this test, yet it remains uncertain if the expe

Obscura

FILM Australia 2019
Hannah Jordan Emily Jordan

Have you ever wondered how pictures are made? Obscura looks inside our camera to the creatures within, living lives defined by what they see through the lens. But what comes into focus when things change? The arrival of new camera components reveals the world is not as it seems. Are the photographs

TX - REVERSE

FILM Austria 2019
Martin Reinhart Virgil Widrich

What is behind the cinema screen? It is not surprising that cinema-in-the-cinema scenes are often used in horror films. For they irritate and unsettle by reminding us – the immobile viewers hidden in the cosy darkness – of our own questionable position. What if the forces of unlimited im

Synthesis of ATP

FILM Australia 2020
Drew Berry

Revealing the molecular mechanisms that power your cells and tissues, converting food and oxygen into the flow of chemical energy that makes your body be alive. Created in collaboration with HHMI BioInteractive part of a new collection of free bio-molecular animations for science education and publi

Lichen

FILM Canada 2019
Lisa Jackson

Available only in the United States This stunning otherworldly short film takes a deep dive into lichen, a species that confounds scientists to this day. Shot in macro 3D, Lichen offers us a look at this remarkable life form and asks what we might learn from it. Ancient and diverse, both an individu

Here and there (Aquí y allá)

FILM France, Argentina 2019
Melisa Liebenthal

Aquí y allá is an essay film that studies what being at home means. The filmmaker uses photographs, maps and Google Earth to connect places around the globe; not just from her own past, but also from the complex migratory history of her family that stretches back to Hitler-era Germany

Phases of Matter

FILM Turkey 2020
Deniz Tortum

Available only in the United States Set in Istanbul's venerable Cerrahpaşa Hospital, PHASES OF MATTER follows living and inanimate residents of this teaching hospital, moving from the operating room to the morgue, between life and other states, the real and the virtual.

The Colony

FILM USA 2020
Anna Lindemann

THE COLONY is a story about sisterhood and the evolution of communication in two of the most social creatures on earth: humans and ants. In this film of a live performance, Mona struggles to reconnect with her estranged sister Hennie, and she turns to the ant colony for inspiration. With more than 5

Earthbound

FILM Canada 2020
Normand Rajotte

April 23: seen from a forestry road, a raven takes flight from a stand of pines. Behind it, in the middle of the woods, lies the carcass of a freshly killed deer. Obviously the work of coyotes whose songs can be heard at night. Surveillance cameras are set up awaiting their return. In the meantime,

Helfer

FILM Hungary 2020
Anna Szöllősi

"Helfer" is about a young woman who is struggling with anxiety and recurring nightmares that she wants to end. She is seeking a helper, who offers an alternative solution, but in the process she must confront her biggest fears. The film details their relationship in a surreal world through symbolic

Pripyat Piano

FILM Czech Republic 2020
Eliška Cílková

After Chernobyl tragedy, fifty thousand people were forced to leave their hometown Pripyat. Thirty years after the disaster, most of the things from Pripyat is stolen or wasted. One of the few things which has left are pianos, as they were too heavy to move away. Who would believe they are still abl

Smiles

FILM USA 2020
Steven Bednar

Sharks have gotten a raw deal. But don't take my word for it, you can hear it right from the source in "Smiles". This in an inside look into the world of Sharks with interviews from the majestic creatures themselves. They have been portrayed as monsters, lifeless eating machines and in some cases to

The Institute (2020)

FILM Austria, Germany 2020
Alexander Glandien

The film is about the importance of biodiversity for the cultural identity and the economic independence of Latin America. This animated documentary is based on a conversation with Brigitte Baptiste—leading biodiversity expert, transgender activist, and longtime head of the "Instituto Humboldt

Air Conditioner

FILM Angola 2020
Fradique

Available only in the United States When the air-conditioners in the city of Luanda mysteriously began to fall, Matacedo (security guard) and Zezinha (maid) embarked on a mission to retrieve the boss's AC by the end of the day. This mission leads them to Kota Mino's electrical supply store, which is

Jozi Gold

FILM Sweden, South Africa, Norway 2019
Fredrik Gertten Sylvia Vollenhaven

The mines of Johannesburg have produced a third of all the gold mined in human history. But now the gold is running out, the mines are falling apart and the city must confront an environmental nightmare: Tons of radioactive waste that pollute the air and turn water into poison. Glamorous grandmother

Testfilm #1

FILM Croatia, Netherlands 2020
Telcosystems

TESTFILM is a series of projects in which Telcosystems address the impact of new technological developments in digital filmmaking and their implications for the future of artists' cinema. In TESTFILM #1 they explore the creative possibilities of the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) – the new globa

The Atomic Adventure

FILM France 2019
BARCHÉ LOIC

Algeria, 1961. France has just detonated its fourth atomic bomb. A group of seven soldiers is sent to the point of impact to take samples and measure radioactivity. But the further they go, the more the Captain, a war veteran in his fifties, is confronted with the paradoxes of a changing world.

Now I am an axolotl

FILM Mexico 2019
Alejandra Medellín Equihua

The Xochimilcan Axolotl is an endemic species to Mexico City. It's currently critically endangered because of water pollution issues. Even though it's a tiny animal, it's extinction would affect us all. "Now I'm an Axolotl" tells the story of the demise of the Axolotl, repercussions and possible sol

Material Bodies (2020)

FILM United Kingdom 2020
Dorothy Allen-Pickard

Through interweaving dance and dialogue, Material Bodies is a sensual and cinematic look at the relationship between amputees and their limbs. This visceral and colourful short film explores how a prosthetic leg can be more like a piece of jewellery, a dance companion, or a part of you.

The Cloud House

FILM Belgium 2019
Elias Heuninck

'It was in 1894 that I first visited Ben Nevis. Young physicists were sometimes welcomed in the Observatory for short periods in the summer to take the place of observers on holiday. I offered myself for this work and it was arranged that I should spend a fortnight on the summit.' This is Charles Wi

As Above So Below (2020)

FILM Lebanon 2020
Sarah Francis

A group of people wander over a field at the foot of a cloud-covered mountain range. Here and there, swings have been set up in the broad landscape and the people queue up obediently to sit on them for a few rounds. Sarah Francis returns to this scene again and again. In between, we follow a creatio

In Vitro

FILM Palestine 2019
Larissa Sansour Søren Lind

In Vitro is set in the aftermath of an eco-disaster. An abandoned nuclear reactor under the biblical town of Bethlehem has been converted into an enormous orchard. Using heirloom seeds collected in the final days before the apocalypse, a group of scientists are preparing to replant the soil above. I

Of the Basin

FILM United States 2020
Keely Kernan

Born and raised deep in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin, eighty-six year old fisherman Wilven Hayes has spent a lifetime living off the land. His tenacity and endurance is the stuff of lore. Wilven shares his love for the Atchafalaya as he grapples with the shifting environment of the basin and the co

The Universe Within

FILM Chile 2020
Valentina Cruz Collins

From the Big-Bang, to understanding our place in the cosmos, we explore the Universe through the imagination of children. "The Universe Within" is a 4 episode series for kids made by kids, and the protagonists explain different astronomical concepts using metaphors invented by them, and create theor

Decorum (2019)

FILM Australia 2019
Lorenzo Monti

Fashion model Hinata wants to get at the bottom of her uneasiness but something is hindering her. A designer gives her advice, a doctor tries to get her attention and all claim to know what she needs. The result of an old trauma seems only to be the tip of the iceberg.

Fat Kathy

FILM Poland 2019
Julia Pelka

Available only in the United States In the city water pump there are 8 clams. The lives of millions of people depend on them. In case of contamination of water supply, the clams will close and automatically shut off the water for the city. The main scientist-malacologist watches over the system's op

Cosmonaut

FILM Estonia 2019
Kaspar Jancis

An old Cosmonaut lives the same kind of life now in his flat in a concrete panel apartment building as he did in his youth in a space station. As before, he still carries out heroic missions and misses his close relatives, who he left behind on his home planet. His close relatives see the situation

Glory At Sea!

FILM United States 2008
Benh Zeitlin

A group of mourners and a man spat from the depths of Hades build a boat from the debris of New Orleans to rescue their lost loved ones trapped beneath the sea.

Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow

FILM Lebanon, Germany 2017
Fadi Baki

A young filmmaker investigates the legend of Manivelle, an automaton gifted to Lebanon in 1945 that still haunts an abandoned mansion in Beirut. After being coaxed back out into the limelight, the people who knew him come forward to speak their mind, and the myth that Manivelle has constructed aroun

Metamorphoses

FILM Poland 2020
Julia Popławska

The Warsaw University Botanic Garden is a kind of laboratory for an artist, a researcher and a scientist. The fractal shapes of plants, evolutionary chaos, the fascinating way of plant reproduction – the people in the film encounter it all this in the space of one of the smallest botanic garde

Exilio (2019)

FILM Cuba 2019
Maria Espinoza Stransky

Exploration between the characters and the filmmaker. A quest into a universal existential problem, how to inhabit the world. Members of a family leave their home and in the middle of the Cuban Sierra Maestra struggle to find a new one. During this process, they inhabit scenes of routine life in the

Os Olhos na mata e o gosto na água (The Eyes in the Woods and the Taste in the Water)

FILM Brazil 2020
Luciana Mazeto Vinícius Lopes

In Brazil, the inhabitants of Teewald, a German colony founded at the end of the 19th century, are still proud of their Germanic roots. Starting with the text of German-Turkish researcher Ilhami Paker, which uses irony to analyse different migratory movements, the film questions the complex process

At the bottom of the sea

FILM Germany 2020
Karsten Krause

Spaces expand or disappear. Oceans become deserts. Rock erodes to sand and dust and human kind is passing by all this. Since the beginning of our existence, we are constantly moving from one place to another, fleeing hunger, war or the forces of nature, but also driven by a sense of longing for chan

Bile

FILM Belgium 2019
Ira A. Goryainova

"How thin is the human skin? What does it hide behind? The leather bag of apocalypse." Bile is an introspective essay on the notion of the human body as political metaphor. Layer-by-layer the film digs down in order to reach answers to the proposed questions: what is body, what is illness and finall

Janus 2155 - The last archive

FILM France 2008
Stefane Perraud

Janus 2155 is 8 minutes video. This video is a scientific fiction that uses images from a real scientific experiment based on a very small optomechanical object. It invites the viewer to follow the production of such an object until its laboratory experience. The narrator's point of view (voice over

The Octopus Network

FILM United States 2020
Marco Mezzavilla Valerie van Zuijlen

A living organism to host, extend, connect, and express our senses. The Octopus Network is our attempt to capture the boundless motion of human senses, thoughts, and emotions that are constantly flowing around us - transported over invisible waves that dance to the vibrational rhythm of electromagne

Endomic (2020)

FILM United States 2020
Camille Hollett-French Ipek Ensari

It might not even exist at all. An exhaustive meta-analytic review documenting a mysterious "women's issue," otherwise known as endometriosis.1 1term used to describe a clinical etiology that thus far has only been identified in primates with a female reproductive system, an anatomical structure of

Nanodoctor

FILM United Kingdom, United States 2020
Tim Grabham Felipe Cardoso

Nanodoctor - iterations 1 to 3' is an imaginary promotional film from the near future explaining the migration of information inside living organisms through molecules, and how the real time monitoring of those molecules will allow the diagnosis and rapid resolution of a crisis inside the human body