SYMBIOSIS

Nematodes

Peter Burr Alexandra Grote

Some parasitic nematodes have an endosymbiosic relationship with the bacteria Wolbachia. In Nematodes, we reconstruct this symbiotic relationship and break it down, finding ourselves at the model's writhing core.
Network Reconstruction Of Nematode Symbionts
By Peter Burr & Alexandra Grote
Sound Design By John Also Bennett
Additional Animation By Brandon Blommaert
Produced By Labocine
With The Support Of
Imagine Science Films
Science Sandbox | Simons Foundation
Special Thanks to
Tribeca Film Institute
Adorama
Carl Burton

I, Cloud

Brett Ryan Bonowicz Campbell Watson

A cloud has a phenomenological discussion with itself.
Where a cloud ends and "the cloud" begins is a place not for the faint hearted. A journey into the science and philosophy of the nature of our relationship to clouds today.
Created for the Symbiosis competition at the 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival.

Sequence (2019)

Jin Angdoo

A string of amino acids attract and unite in the process of protein folding.

COLORCONDITION

Jason Chew Rodrigo Valles

Color Condition is a glimpse into the sensory overlap experienced by someone with the neural condition, synesthesia. Synesthetics have an overlapping sensory modality in which stimulation of one sense involuntarily, and simultaneously, triggers another. However, the scientific explanation does little to describe the perceptual experience of living an existence with consistently intertwined senses. This short film captures a profound emotion, as described by a synesthetic to the viewing audience.
Credits:
Him - Mike Harris
Her - Maggie Jane Tatone
Filmmaker - Jason Chew
Scientist - Rodrigo Valles
Assistant Director - Azadeh Nikzadeh
Camera Assistant - Patrick Chang
Production Sound - Jianxi Jesse Zhang
Sound Design & Music - Sean Shinwon Kim
Special Thanks
David Lara, Mike Park, Nick Clark, Goggles & Tumbleweed, Alexis Gambis, Allison Hanes, Lauren Kaye, Nate Dorr, Charlotte Salvatico, Cassandra Flores & the entire Imagine Science Team!
This film was created for the 2016 Imagine Science Symbiosis Film Competition.

Optic Identity (2017)

Hannes Vartiainen Pekka Veikkolainen Janne Pulkkinen Huayi Wei

We all have a biological identity - a genetic hardware that can not be easily changed. About half of Drosophila's brain is dedicated to vision. What they can see, is who they are. What about us?
a film by
Janne Pulkkinen
Hannes Vartiainen
Pekka Veikkolainen
Huayi Wei
with
Nefertiti Matos Olivares
music
Joonatan Portaankorva
produced by
Labocine
Leading Note Pictures

Duality

Inés Vogelfang Merritt Moore

A film about the phenomena of particle wave duality and how that translate into dance/ballet.

In Between We Are

Giulia Grossmann Ramin Rahni

From ashes to the milky way, the identity of earth is somewhere in between, a hybrid of the two.
What difference do you see between these ashes and the dust of the Milky Way? This film navigates between different textures that are part of nature: water, roots, tree bark. Because of the disparate scales, these things are shown in an abstract way. The movement of these elements in concert are what informs the identity of earth in progress.

What Is My Face?

Mark Slutsky Sofía Landi

A neuroscientist and a filmmaker try to understand the human face.

Light-Hearted

Beatrice Copeland Andrés Mansisidor

A visual poem that attempts to bridge scientific phenomena with the human experience.
Original footage shot by Beatrice Copeland and Andrés Mansisidor.
Archival footage from Prelinger Archives and NASA Archives.
Original music by Justin Sloan

Stuck in the Past

Javier Diez Moiya McTier

Stuck in the Past explains the nature of the photon and how it influences the life. We travel through New York from past, present, and future accompanied by your guide and astrophysicist student Moiya McTier
Made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Film Competition 2016

The Cycle of the Slipper

Arsène Chabrier Baptiste Cleret

The science of the simple slipper and why it has become a source of inspiration for artists and a symbol for a consumer society.
Short film written and directed during the 48h film competition of Pariscience as part of Imagine Science Symbiosis Competition. 1st Prize Winner 2017.
Director: Arsène Chabrier
Scientist: Baptiste Cleret
Actor: Sylvain Deguillame
Assistant Production Design: Victor Billet
Camera: Lucile Prin
Sound: Titouan Dumesnil & Stephane Defossez
VFX: Julien Valverde & Arsene Chabrier
Production Assistants: Quentin Jolivet, Louise Reignier

SUB: Are hipsters becoming a subspecies of humans?

Charlotte Rabate Sergio Botero

Are hipsters becoming a subspecies of humans? What is life expectancy? How do they dress? How fast does their beard grow?
In the spirit of Jean Rouch's Chronicles of a Summer, anthropologist Eleanor Drew goes on an exploration into the unknown and conducts interviews with bypassers to understand the the rising population of hipsters in Brooklyn. And of course, she gathers as much hair samples as possible.
Imagine Science Film Festival SYMBIOSIS Competition 2014
Filmmaker- Charlotte Rabate
Scientist- Sergio Botero
Prompt: Coat Color is not an Indicator of Subspecies Identity in Colombian Woolly Monkeys
Prop: Time Piece
Line of Dialogue: "They said it would be ready at noon."
Character: Eleanor Drew, Principal Investigator

Symbiont

Sydney Clara Brafman Sally Warring

A scientist gets absorbed in his lab work and is suddenly attacked by a plant-like symbiotic life.
Produced by: Squib Films, Tiny Terrors
Editor: Sydney Clara Brafman, Dan Sabatini
Composer: AA/K/AA/R/A
Assistant Director: Alison Irvine
Director of Photography: Jesse Locascio
Sound Recordist: Zach Travis, Rigo Garay
Assistant Camera: Nick Shultz
Makeup/SFX: Rachel Jordan Temkin, Nikki Alyssa Neenan
Key PA: Imani Belser
ADDL PA: Ava Rikki, Dan Sabatini
Title Design: Tom Bennett
Made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Film Competition 2016

Wearing Well

Markos Kay Enrico Milanese

Wearing well is a collaboration between Enrico Milanese, Researcher in Computational Solid Mechanics and Markos Kay, Computational Artist. The film visually reimagines Milanese's research whereby the microscopic effects of contact and wear between materials are studied through the use of high-performance computing simulations of model systems. Kay interpreted the results of these experiments by creating conceptual simulations using 3D parametric surfaces and physical engines in combination with the original simulation output data.
Artist and scientist worked closely together to create the narrative of the film that shows the formation of particles when two surfaces are rubbed against one other. The aim is to shed light on this area of research that has far and wide implications in virtually all engineering applications: from vehicle break pads to hip joint prostheses. The underlying physics is common to all frictional systems, among which we find earthquake faults are of particular interest, sonified recordings of which can be found in the soundtrack.
created part of the 2019 Imagine Science Symbiosis initiative, supported by the Simons Foundation Science Sandbox.

Arabidopsis thaliana

Toma Peiu Nicholas DelRose

Arabidopsis thaliana juxtaposes the implications of injury, development and regeneration for plants, humans and cities, with a nod to one of the most popular plant model organisms in biology and genetics.
Narrated by Selima Smith-Dell
Cinematography by Toma Peiu & Luiza Pârvu
Microscope imagery & graphics by Nicholas DelRose
Editing & sound design by Luiza Pârvu
Location sound by Toma Peiu
Produced by Nicholas DelRose, Toma Peiu, Luiza Pârvu
Research of Dr. Kenneth Birnbaum's Lab
Shot on location in New York, October 2016
Shot on Panasonic GH4, iPhone 6, 16 mm Kodak Vision 3 film
Made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Film Competition 2016

Exchange (2015)

Danielle Parsons Ravi Sheth

Exchange is a visual and informative illustration of air as the common bond between photosynthetic and respiratory organisms. The exchange of gases in the air -- carbon dioxide for oxygen, and oxygen for carbon dioxide -- between plants and animals is the most fundamental symbiosis on the planet.

All We Are

Julia Van Etten Marleine van der Werf

Every life form originated from the same cells billions of years ago. First there was one cell that formed colonies, which became group of colonies that evolved into all kinds of species like trees, insects, giraffes and humans. All is connected, moves together and reacts to each other. There is no individual; we are groups of groups that form groups. One cannot be seen without the acknowledgement and existence of the other.
As a filmmaker and scientist we have so many questions about what we come from, what it means to exist, how do we form a being and what becomes of us? All these questions will mean a lifelong quest and journey, but it all starts with the fact that we as humans are 99,99999999% the same, that everything on our planet has originated from the same singular cell. Which means there is no I, but only we and we are all connected.

Confabulations (2018)

Begüm Aydin Haoyan of America

A world in which memory is artificial

A Case for Reevaluation for Host-Parasitic Dependence

Reka Bucsi Sheela Prasad

A whimsical take of what happens when one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (the host).

Legacy (2019)

Emilia Tikka Alexandru B. Georgescu

A lonely middle-aged man reflects on the transience of his biological existence. Fearing to leave no traces and no descendants behind in the world, he puts his last savings and hope in a procedure offered by a mysterious biotech company.

Extremophiles

Leah Shore Tracy Fanara

A portrait film about the pollution in Brooklyn NY and beyond. Extromophiles are organisms that exist when nothing else can survive.

They Live Like Ants

Laura Moss Taylor Hart

A study of ants and the inner life of one who studies them.
Recommended Read: Taylor Hart's article "World's first transgenic ants reveal how colonies respond to an alarm"
This film was made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis competition

What about the nose?

Anna Lindemann Albana Kodra

What happens when you smell something? This whimsical look at olfaction follows the journey of a smell through the nose.
A film by Anna Lindemann and Albana Kodra as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Competition
Animation by Anna Lindemann.
Illustration by Ziael Ponte.
Microscopy by Albana Kodra.

Figuration (2017)

Macha Rose Joel Simon

What lengths would you be willing to go, to medically change your personality?

air (verb)

Lilian Mehrel Jinelle Wint

How different is one species from the next? How can we distinguish body from mind? In Lilian Mehrel's short film, air is expressed as a verb – to breathe / to air out. Mehrel drew her inspiration from molecular biology, water creatures, the connection between living things, and the importance of air – what goes in, and what must come out. The film raises questions around where the body ends and mind begins.

Spectrum (2016)

Cidney Hue Matt Ahearn

A journey through the electromagnetic spectrum~
Created in one week with scientist Matt Ahearn for Imagine Science's 2016 Symbiosis Film Competition.
Cinematography by Nona Catusanu & Cidney Hue
Narrated by Lauren Sowa
Starring Big Hair Girls: Lizzy Lightyear & Venus + Matt Ahrean as Scientist
Cosmic Footage by Nasa
Music by Konsonant Music
Special Thanks: Joshua Kace, Lesley Shannon, Isabella Tan, Shelly Zatta, Zena
Made as part of the Imagine Science Symbiosis Film Competition 2016

Reading Dust

Zahra Al-Mahdi Daniel Toker

The more you talk about Information flow, the more it feels spiritual. A philosophical and mathematical definition of inforrmation flow.

Empty Space

Steve Gong Zephyr Peynore

Steve believes that everything is Science, and that lines drawn between disciplines are man-made. He studied biology and psychology at the University of Virginia before pursuing graduate studies in photojournalism at the University of the Arts London. Steve's film "Pyongyang Style" was broadcast around the world as undercover photojournalism of North Korea under Kim Jong-il, featuring a civilian hairdresser giving Steve a Pyongyang-style haircut.
Zephyr Penoyre is doing a PhD in astrophysics at Columbia University. He grew up in London and previously studied in Cambridge, neither of which you can see the night's sky from. Instead he became fascinated with crashing galaxies into each other but polite society dictated he keep such activities confined to simulations. When he's not building universes and exercising his god complex he's often found talking and writing about popular science, encouraging kids to think about higher education or at one of the other corners of the globe.

A Life Lived

Cesar Pesquera Bianca Jones Marlin

Learn more about epigenetics from the Life Lived technologies where our mission is to make you better tomorrow than you are today.

Wound (2020)

Luis Gutiérrez Arias Kevin Gonzales

Two immigrants recount the changes brought about by their journeys to the U.S., paralleling that of cells migrating in response to a wound.
ISFF13 Symbiosis

Endomic (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 decidedly lower importance in comparison to those of the male primate.
ISFF13 Symbiosis

The Octopus Network

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 electromagnetism, one of the four fundamental forces of Nature. We explored the spectrum in which physical boundaries become virtually boundless. During this exploratory journey, we met distant strangers that felt closer than ever. We switched roles, we stretched our senses, we created virtual spaces that gave us a sense of natural equilibrium, collectiveness, togetherness, and sensorial flow.
ISFF13 Symbiosis 2020

A Sentimental Science

Deniz Tortum Klavdia Zemlianova

How many neurons do you need to recognize your mother? "A Sentimental Science" explores the limitations of our understanding of how our experience is encoded in neural activity.
ISFF13 Symbiosis

Mercury Run

Narina Jabari

This short was the runner up at the Imagine Science Film Festival's 48hr competition. A filmmaker was paired with a scientist to create a short based on the scientist's research. I had the awesome privilege of working with Adrian Price-Whelan, an astrophysicist at Columbia University. The film is based on one of his papers entitled, "Inferring the gravitational potential of the Milky Way with a few precisely measured stars" Also things that needed to be included: 1. A character: Eleanor Drew, Principle Investigator 2. A piece of dialogue: "The said it would be ready at noon" 3. A prop: time piece (timer in our case)

Nanodoctor

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 or, in other words, illness. The film then expands on this idea of migration by presenting a reflection on the current reconfiguration of information/misinformation via the internet. How is misinformation disintegrating trust and confidence in science and how is the rapid spread or migration of this misinformation causing real world crisis such as scepticism in medicine, vaccines or climate science?
ISFF13 Symbiosis

Fathomless (2020)

Meilín M. Fernández García Melissa Ferrari

Fathom, a unit to measure depth. A medical-science trajectory toward understanding the deep complexity of distorted minds and the perception of the ones who suffer it.
ISFF13 Symbiosis 2020 Winner

When Monsters Walked the Earth

Isabelle Carbonell Jaime Jover & Duane Peterson III

Through the collective memory of a 250 million year old species which has survived two mass extinctions, structures of exploitation, industrial monoculture, and interspecies relations are reframed through the plantationocene.

Tiny Wonders

Lavado Stubbs Miraflor Santos

Tiny Wonders, a short film directed by Lavado Stubbs and featuring Miraflor Santos, an oceanographer, is about how resistance can mean, not only the potential for ocean life to resist climate change, but the emotional journey we go through to feel empowered to resist those pressures that hold us back.

I invite you

Arianna Zuanazzi Yashaswini Raghunandan

I invite you is a sensory journey that illustrates the challenges that the brain faces in our everyday conversations, where the linguistic signal is often unclear, disrupted or obstructed.

the gold of a yellow plant

Jahnavi Phalkey Laurie Sumiye

Agronomists as revolutionaries who sought political change through scientific work
An archival, animated history of three scientists who became sparks to political and social revolution from within and beyond the lab. Amílcar Cabral (Guinea-Bissau, Africa), Nikolai Vavilov (Soviet Union), and Pandurang Khankhoje (India, Mexico) resisted the status quo through their research, with slow hope, to envision long term solutions to food security, reclaiming human dignity, and political freedoms.

Monocellular (2021)

Nate Dorr Farah Abdul-Rahman

Your mode of existence is not superior. It is only another state of being.

All Things Considered

Ariel Martinez Herrera Gabriel Sturm

Drawing on the wisdom of mitochondrial networks, solar photons, and prehistoric tress, this ode to science asks: how do we resist our most fundamental nature?

Interference Pattern

Ramey Newell Niccolò Bigagli

Light. Sound. Matter. Intricate landscapes emerge from multitudinous overlapping waves of film and quantum physics.
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

Eat up, Bear!

Anthony Banua-Simon Alice Yan

Two bears are hungry in NYC. Hungry for salmon. Follow Big Bear and Little Bear's respective expeditions through the city in search of a scrumptious meal. From lavish fine dining to lively food carts – through the simple act of eating – the relationship between bears and salmon enables the health of the entire ecosystem.
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

ΔS ≥ 0

Kaze Wong Maria Fernandez Pello

A telescope is the incarnation of the abyss staring into itself [...] the subject, a telescopic lens through which the incomplete world develops a self-consciousness of itself." (Reza Negarestani).
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

ACCESS DENIED

Jordan Lei Asia Khmelova

Mike fails a CAPTCHA and now must prove that he is human.
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

Garden of Mirrors

Danna Grace Windsor Anthony Chesebro

Brief reflections with AI on the nature of memory.
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

Sincerely Yours, Ethel Browne Harvey

Beatrice Steinert Advik Beni Beth Ribeiro

"Sincerely Yours" is a portrait of representation in science centered on the developmental biologist Ethel Browne Harvey and her work with sea urchins. Positioning the camera lucida–a drawing device foundational to the history of biology–as both an instrument of scientific visualization and a narrative tool, the film blurs the lines among archives, fiction, scientific data, and historical recreation.
Film created as part of the Symbiosis 2022 competition during the 15th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival around the theme of the Science New Wave.

Pinky NAcc

Anastasia Maria Zavitsanou G. Anthony Svatek

Female masturbation - essential experience, subject of scientific research, and a multibillion-dollar industry. "Pinky NAcc" explores the absence of faces, voices, and rodents that are at the center of the quest to understand the importance of self-pleasure in our brains, bodies, and beliefs.
Directors: G. Anthony Svatek, Anastasia-Maria Zavitsanou, Sound Design: Kaija Siirala Illustration: Matteo Farinella
This film was made as part of the 2023 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVI (Imagine Science Films) and supported by the Simons Foundation.

Rift (2023)

Arun Dayanandan Adriana de Lucio

Rift is a visual and sonic simultaneous telling of ancient and present-day ecological stories. The film depicts the formation of the Connecticut Rift Valley through geological time by following a modern-day Red maple (Acer rubrum) seedling's experience in this unique terrain.
Through sounds of rumbling and crushing, Rift tells the story of the region's shifting tectonic plates and the formation and melting of the glaciers which covered and carved its surface. The film's visuals of different soils, leaves, bark, and modern-day forest diseases capture the area's respective indicator species from the wetlands to the uplands.
Rift is heavily influenced by Kubrick's psychological suspense thrillers, specifically The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Through the use of symmetry, sound, and contrasting colors, the film contextualizes humanity's idealistic narratives around nature within a broader geological time frame. In doing so, Rift highlights the continuously ever-changing nature of these processes.
This film was made as part of the 2023 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVI (Imagine Science Films) and supported by the Simons Foundation

Influence (2023)

Evan Luchkow Kelly Sutherland

How do we influence the world around us? A flow analysis tool ordinarily used in the laboratory offers new interpretations of human interaction and our place in the world.
This film was made as part of the 2023 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVI (Imagine Science Films) and supported by the Simons Foundation

PANTAGRUEL

Omar Al-Nakib Wyatt Touré

A New York scientist's experiment to revive a hybrid goes horribly right.
This film was made as part of the 2023 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVI (Imagine Science Films) and supported by the Simons Foundation

this creature called Memory

Gavati Wad Lauren Vetere

Our memories make up the foundation of who we are, but they are constantly changing. Like a living organism with its own personality, memory can be loyal and reliable, sneaky and surprising, or capricious and cruel. Shot primarily in 16mm film, this creature called Memory is made from museum objects, neuroscience data, and the filmmakers' personal memories.
By Gavati Wad and Lauren Vetere
Brain sounds by Chris Eldridge and Zoé Christenson Wick
Special thanks to:
Mono No Aware
The American Museum of Natural History
The friends who inspire our visions of memory:
Chris Gaynor, Adriana Hazelton, Camila Gomez Franco, Michael Desjardins, Jairo Munoz, Kayleigh Munoz, Megan Mundo, Alexander Adler, and many other anonymous contributors.
The Symbiosis Team: Paula Croxson , Arianna Zuanazzi, Alexis Gambis, Nate Dorr and Veronica Castillo.
This film was made as part of the 2023 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVI (Imagine Science Films) and supported by the Simons Foundation

A Tremendous Explosion of Stillness and Quiet

Mark Rosenberg Broc Pagni

A young man who is going through depression goes through a psilocybin-assisted therapy revisiting the ups and downs of his own life.

No Two Plants

Penelope Lindsay Nora Long

"No two plants are exactly alike. They're all different, and as a consequence, you have to know that difference. I start with the seedling and I don't want to leave it. So I know every plant in the field. I know them intimately. And I find it a great pleasure to know them." - BARBARA McCLINTOCK
To know every plant, even when time is of the essence. To produce careful work, even in the face of systemic, external, and internal pressures. To maintain joy, even when the future looks bleak. To know and love corn. A journey across time, space, and along the history of the maize plant, No Two Plants explores resilience and different ways of knowing.
a film by: Penelope Lindsay & Nora Long
cinematography and editing by: Nora Long
featuring: Penelope Lindsay & Emma Patton
original score: Penelope Lindsay
additional vocals: Kristi Gogos
thank you: Simons Foundation, Science New Wave, Imagine Science, Labocine, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Karl-Oskar Gustaffson, Lyall Kotten
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVII and supported by the Simons Foundation.

Unquantifiable

Elodie Freymann Philip Gladkov

RUNNER-UP - SYMBIOSIS 2024
_unquantifiable_ presents a week-long observational study of Homo sapiens, focusing on individual H.2218, a human being in an urban setting. Using three methodologies — systematic behavioral observations, a neural-psycho resonance interface, and subjective interviews — the authors examine human behavior, revealing a tendency for solitary activities, repetitive tasks, and fleeting social interactions. However, the study reveals hidden layers of human motives and emotions that can't be explained, leaving the true nature of humanity just out of reach. . .
E. Freymann & P. Gladkov (2024)._unquantifiable_. Symbiosis, (Science New Wave Festival).
Written, Directed & Produced by
Elodie Freymann & Phillip Gladkov
References
Imagine Science
Science New Wave
Symbiosis
Simons Foundation
Labocine
Cast
H.2218: Jackson Crook
Narrator: Carmen Whitaker
H.2218's Social Partner: Samantha Chomsky
Crew
Score: Lionel Cohen
Additional Camera Work: Johnny Frost
Acknowledgements
Kendra Simon
Chike Robinson
Inna Pashina
Yuriy Gladkov
Sebastian Orbell
Maria Galison
Saxton Freymann
Steffie van Rhee
Masa Micunovic
Finn Freymann
Gracie Mason Brown
Dan Redfearn
Andre Kolosov
Broc Pagni
REM-casa.com
Lauren Vetere
A special thank you to all the people, animals, and plants who populated this film, and to our friends and family who helped in our citizen science experiment.
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVII and supported by the Simons Foundation

Noumenon

Janna Kyllästinen Maya Theresia Laughton

WINNER OF SYMBIOSIS 2024
Noumenon
(noun) a "thing-in-itself" — an objective reality that will always be inaccessible to human perception."
– Immanuel Kant
Noumenon is an experimental short film reflecting on the relation between reality and perception from a neuroscience perspective, and its parallels with the Hindu concept of maya, or cosmic illusion. Neuroscientist Anil K. Seth narrates his concept of controlled hallucination – how all perceptions are active constructions, brain-based best guesses at the nature of a world that is forever obscured behind a sensory veil. Through story and classical South Indian temple dance, known as Bharatanatyam, the film weaves in the Hindu philosophy of 'maya' – the powerful force sustaining the cosmic illusion of the phenomenal world as real.
Directed by
Janna Kyllästinen & Maya Theresia Laughton
Neuroscience narration by
Anil K. Seth, D.Phil.
Professor | Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience | University of Sussex
Krishna and the Sage | Hindu parable narration by
Maya Theresia Laughton
Cinematography & editing by
Janna Kyllästinen
Scientists at NYU Lab
Nigel Dao
Maya Theresia Laughton
Original choreography by
Bharathi Penneswaran | Aalokam Dance Company
Dance performances by
Bharathi Penneswaran | Shwetha Ravishankar | Shreyaa Suresh
Original music by
Sarah Fazendin | Violin
Noah Golub | Keys
Christopher Madison | Guitar
Anand Sookbir | Percussions
Sound mix by
Dhruv Shiva Rao
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVII and supported by the Simons Foundation.

Obstacle/Pathway

Courtlin Byrd Michelle Corkrum 

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and you—beside—
Emily Dickinson
A sociologist and a neurologist walk into a park…and a meditation on the mind's ability to meet obstacles and form new pathways begins….
Written & Shot by
Courtlin Byrd & Michelle Corkrum
Edited by
Courtlin Byrd
Music by
Brent Cox
With The Support Of
Labocine
Imagine Science Films
Science New Wave
Simons Foundation
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XV and supported by the Simons Foundation

In The Atom (2024)

Sebastian Orbell Hanae Utamura

'In the Atom' explores the strangeness inherent in both the human condition, and within the structure of reality. A dialogue between British Quantum physicist Sebastian, Japanese artist Hanae, and future beings. Through chimeric visuals and poetic narrative, the film examines the arcane role of observation in both our understanding of reality and our experience of mortality.
Written and Directed by Sebastian Orbell & Hanae Utamura
Original Music by Carlo Ladd
Performed by Sebastian Orbell & Hanae Utamura
Cinematography by Hanae Utamura & Victoria Kereszi
Sound Recording by Jaehoon Choi
Animations by Sebastian Orbell
Visual Effects by Hanae Utamura
Special Thanks to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM Quantum, Labocine & Science New Wave Lab (special thanks for microscope filming)
Entangled Contributions
Robert Phillips // whose influence transcends // the collapse of observation
Retrocausal Contributions
Future collaborators whose influence is already present
Alice Marks, Allie ES Wist, George Valladares, Tod Wodicka, Branda Miller
Produced with Support From The Simons Foundation, Science New Wave, Imagine Science Labocine
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVII and supported by the Simons Foundation

Ommatidia

Jaime Sunwoo Sromana Mukherjee

Ommatidia is an experimental tutorial on genetically manipulating the retina of fruit flies to alter signals from the eye to the brain. This hybrid documentary depicts the perspective of the neuroscientist and the fly as they meet eye to eye.
Credits
Created by Jaime Sunwoo and Sromana Mukherjee
Original Score by Gideon Broshy
Filmed and Animated by Jaime Sunwoo
Research by Sromana Mukherjee
Special thanks to Desplan Lab - Department of Biology - NYU and Sriivatsan G. Rajan This film was made possible by Imagine Science Films, Simons Foundation, Science New Wave, and Labocine.
This film was made as part of the 2024 Symbiosis initiative presented at the Science New Wave Festival XVII and supported by the Simons Foundation
Produced by Free Rein Projects

The Perfect Apple

Maria Juranic Rachel Meyer

For as long as humans lived around malus species, they've been eating apples. The apple tree has been domesticated, diversified - it has evolved in new ways via natural and artificial selection. But what is the perfect apple?
Evolution of crop species: genetics of domestication and diversification.
Imagine Science Film Festival 2014, 48hr Competition
Scientist: Rachel Mayer, Filmmaker: Maria Juranic
Prop: Time Piece
Line of Dialogue: "They said it would be ready at noon."
Character: Eleanor Drew, Principal Investigator

Replicate (2014)

Gigi Polo Tal Danino

A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks.

How to Connect Two Bodies

Grace Zhang Bargeen Turzo

Through the principles of hinge protein design, How to Connect Two Bodies is an experimental documentary exploring the invisible choreography in meaningful connections of objects across various scales.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

Who Cares about Gravitational Waves?

Kyle Finnegan Lieke van Son

Far off in the universe, two black holes smash into each other and send waves through space time. Waves that we can't feel, can't touch, and are hard to predict. So who cares? Lieke van Son walks through the streets on Manhattan to reveal ways these gravitational waves are already a part of your daily life.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

Self Interacting Dark Matter

Na'ama Keha

The more she studies dark matter, the more a lonely astrophysics student must confront the gravity of her inner world.
The film follows a protagonist (Manuel Elkaslassy Vardi, V.O: Lucia A. Perez) as her subconscious wrestles with understanding her place in the world—and within the vastness of the cosmos. Features the haunting original musical compositions of Guy Barash, and a special performance by singer Noa Fort of "O Quam Mirabilis Est", a song composed by Hildegard Von Bingen, a woman prodigy of the High Middle Ages who studied science and had vivid religious visions about space. Shot by Hannah Engelson and Uri Ackerman, the film is an experimental audiovisual odyssey, exploring dark matter both among far-away galaxies and within the shadows of the human spirit.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

Molecular Duet

Mahsa Mofidi Anne Sofie Norskov

Molecular Duet brings to life the dynamic world of microtubules, the cell's structural filaments that assemble and disassemble in a rhythm scientists call dynamic instability. This is an exploration through the lens of both microscopy and molecular simulations with a poetic visual storytelling. The film invites viewers to witness how even within the smallest scale of life, beauty emerges from instability, and order dances with chaos.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

Did you know that space can sing?

E. E. Oliver Dr. Carrie Filion

In an office in New York City, Dr Carrie Filion makes galaxies sing. Using sonification, she builds up an audible representation of our universe, adding a whole new dimension to how we perceive space.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

Beyond The 20

John Marty Vikram K. Mulligan

Beyond the 20 is a poetic science essay film that explores the natural boundary between the built environment in New York city and the design challenges in molecular engineering. Shot primarily on Super 8, the film layers nostalgic texture with speculation, imagining a world beyond the canonical 20 amino acids. Layered between stop-motion animation, cyanotypes, and digital renderings, the film explores the keys to shaping molecules with purpose. The film reflects on curiosity, limitations, and what lies just beyond the edges of nature's design.
This film was created as part of Symbiosis 2025, which took place from May 5 to May 19, 2025. The project was made possible with support from the Simons Foundation.

electron_matter (2026)

Yan Shao Olivier Gingras

How can one represent a quantum material? How can an electron, a fundamental particle with its own energy, freedom, and uncertainty, shape solid matter and its emergent properties? This film is a visual abstract journey from a single electron to a collective quantum state. Alone in a sea of vacuum fluctuations, an electron is both wave and particle. It emits and absorbs photons, encounters other electrons, and often binds to nuclei. Atoms form a lattice, propagating electrons influence its vibrations, and pairs form and synchronize, forming a coherent state such as a superconductor. In matter, electrons matter.

MOSS (2026)

Elsa Wong Marc Ritter

How does it feel to do science? We find patterns in nature, and craft a model from it, a faint impression of nature. As we refine it more and more, the model gains clarity and structure. Yet, nature is fundamentally boundless. We never know what we will find, so we must find a new path of ideas at each step. Our ideas are shaped by the natural environment, and by the ideas that have come before us. Our ideas will form an environment for new ideas to grow. It is this endless feedback cycle in which our fingerprint remains.

Concrete Cosmos (2026)

Adonis Williams Adrian Bayer

A British physicist and a Brooklyn filmmaker move through New York City, tracing a conversation between the deep Universe and life on Earth. The Cosmic Microwave Background emerges not as a distant echo, but as an infinite field of frequencies, the original hum of existence.
As these patterns unfold, they begin to echo in the rhythms of the city; movement, sound, and human connection. What emerges is not a translation, but a reflection: a search for harmony across scales, from the cosmos to the everyday.

Lacunae (2026)

Danya Abt Lukas Devos

To understand something is to translate it, to shape it, to choose what survives until the picture comes into view. Lacunae is a short experimental documentary about what this shaping leaves behind. Noise crackles in the details of a digital video, at once a flaw and a kind of beauty. A small poem is passed from language to language, warping as it goes. A riddle refuses to cross over. Words are struck through until new meaning surfaces in the gaps between.

Absolute Zero (2026)

Diego Andres Murillo Sonya Hanson

The case of a New York City scientist and her peculiar relation to a microscoping being.