Braga Science Film Festival 2023

<p>A little-told chapter in the story of black holes begins in 1930 Madras, India. 19-year-old Indian physics prodigy Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Chandra) is awarded a scholarship to go to England to study with Sir Arthur Eddington, the world&rsquo;s most famous astronomer. &nbsp;While on his sea voyage, young Chandra makes a major discovery that goes against everything his new advisor believes: that sufficiently massive stars, when they use the last of their fuel, must be crushed by gravity and collapse to something far more dense and mysterious than any object anyone has known. After years of work to refine this result under his mentor&#39;s watchful eye, at the most public of forums, Eddington denounces his prot&eacute;g&eacute; and his work, shattering him, driving Chandra from England to the United States. Despite his humiliation, Chandra perseveres, but pursues a more conservative path in physics, never again braving the limelight. Nearly a half-century later in 1983, Chandrasekhar is awarded the Nobel Prize for the work begun on board that ship to England. &ldquo;Shattering Stars&rdquo; tells the story of ambition and betrayal, of loss and perseverance at the pinnacle of scientific research. Making use of original audio recordings of Chandrasekhar, the film alternates its limited-motion animation between a representational-documentary and imaginative-subjective style.</p>

<p>A stunning visual exploration of matter in various states of microbial transformation begs fundamental questions about our complicated relationships with other species.</p> <p>Wrought begins with that universal moment of disappointment: despite all best efforts, our food has gone bad. But instead of turning away in disgust, Wrought zooms in, approaching the usually hidden world of decay with curiosity and stunning time lapse photography. Spoiling dinner leftovers bloom with successions of geometric bacterial colonies. Yeasts churn and froth in the torrential flood of juice leaking from a decaying melon. Cheese is slowly engulfed by carpets of furry, green mould. But, the film asks, would rot by any other name still reek?&nbsp;</p> <p>In answering this question, Wrought unfolds a larger story about the ways we humans construct categories for the world around us that can be limiting. It explores (and challenges) terms like spoil, ferment, compost and rot as it coaxes audiences to decompose these categories and their associated binaries: self and other, human and non-human, and nature and culture. As the film title implies, we are all forged out of the relationships that transgress such binaries; we are all, indeed, wrought.</p>

<p>Nothing really survives here. The bottom is so deep that no light ever reaches it. Very few boats go through. It is unknown when the falls will take place. This experimental documentary portrays a space object and its fall into the darkness of a space cemetery. A woman scientist reveals her attachment to this object and the absence of images documenting this mysterious place. As a reverse sci-fi journey, this essay mixes real and fictional archives to guide us, like a stalker, to the outskirts of an invisible place.</p>

<p>CARA-B is a desktop documentary that focuses on the golden record that NASA sent into space in the late 1970s. In an essayistic format, the piece reflects on issues such as the power of scientific discourse to produce revisions of the world, the future, and humanity, the evolution of the concept of the archive, and the resignification of borders in the rhetoric of space colonialism.</p>

<p>Documentary profile of Linnea Herzog, a professional neuroscientist and aspiring rock musician. Filmed in Lowell and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.</p>

<p>Iron in food &quot;travels&quot; through the human body, discovering an incredible world of proteins that capture, transform, store, release and use it to transport oxygen from the lungs to the muscles.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Cool For You&rdquo;, an animated film based on the book of the same title, explains global warming to children in a friendly way. Incorporating different characters and families, animals, and plants, children are introduced to CO2 and positive, easy ways to improve our impact on the earth.</p>

<p>Emi, a young girl with a stomach upset, enters the magical, microscopic world inside a zebrafish and aids the defenders of her cells to outwit the invading Shigella bacteria. At a time when there is increased anxiety around the viral attack on our cells by Coronavirus, this enchanting fairytale film decodes and celebrates the research happening in The Mostowy Lab at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine. In an accessible and engaging way it aims to convey cutting edge research about how our cells defeat invading pathogens, and how these scientific discoveries can improve wellbeing and save lives around the world.</p>

<p>Algae have helped shape life on Earth in ways we can barely imagine. But in his visually exquisite science fiction documentary &lsquo;The Two Faces of Tomorrow&rsquo;, film artist Patrick Hough gives us a speculative insight into this peculiar life form. Through the observations of an unseen scientist, we move from a Roman bathhouse to a high-tech laboratory where a team of scientists in space suits are developing bio-fuels and artificial food. The relationship between human and non-human life forms is a rich field that Hough&rsquo;s philosophically dizzying essay uncovers in thought-provoking threads that stitch together the relationships between algae and capitalism, the Earth and ourselves in new constellations</p>

<p>Natural selection says that only those who adapt will survive. What if humans have become stupid?</p>

<p>John Newell is a renowned physician and a tortured soul. He gathers two colleagues, their wives, and a mysterious medium for a seance, where he reveals a dark secret that will change the course of their lives and possibly the world, forever.</p>

<p>From the Pamirs in Central Asia to the Karakoram and Himalayas of South Asia &ndash; the roof of the world, Earth&rsquo;s largest repository of ice outside the poles, is melting. Increasingly frequent mountain disasters have put billions of lives at risk. Endangered wild species like the Snow Leopard are suffering and so are the 1.65 billion people dependent on these mountains and some of Asia&rsquo;s mightiest rivers originating here. In the villages of the upper Indian Himalayas, life revolves around basic survival in an uninhabitable environment. The snow that makes half the year unlivable is also the lifeblood of the agrarian populations that depend on it for the only harvest of the year. Today, low snowfall and receding glaciers threaten livelihoods in this region, forcing them to become climate refugees.</p> <p>&lsquo;No Water, No Village&rsquo; traces the water challenges faced by the agricultural villages of Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, and Zanskar, Ladakh. The film also highlights how scientists and activists work for local solutions when governments fail to protect their culture and interests. It is an ode to life in the frozen deserts and the resilience of the communities that rely on glaciers and snow to survive.</p>

<p>A short claymation info film about the climate crisis and collaboration between climate researcher Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf &ndash; Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and media artist Marcus Grysczok.</p> <p><br /> The film is a mixture of abstract animation and the climate researcher Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf as the protagonist, on whose head the causes and effects of climate change were artistically visualized. A torrent of water pours over the scientist&rsquo;s head, almost swallowing him, trees fall victim to deforestation and wild fires raze everything &hellip;</p>

<p>&ldquo;Harvest Queen&rdquo; tells the story of a mysterious woman who appeared in the West of Portugal at the beginning of the 20th century, but to whom no one has ever been able to see the face. At the same time, another woman tries to become a wine producer. The film proposes a reflection on the feminine and its connection to the land, but also a challenge for the viewer so he might question their own beliefs.</p>

<p>Recordings of a woman have been found with questions about humanity and our planet.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A contemplative film about the boundaryies between natural and technological beauty. Can an AI-generated image recreate the beauty of a flower?</p> <p dir="ltr">In 1772, artist Mary Delany imitated flowers through decoupage. By pasting together hundreds of paper cuttings, she managed to depict flowers with exquisite botanical precision. Centuries later, a programmer is working to invent an algorithm that can also replicate the patterns and radiance of fauna. With the help of an artificial intelligence, the beauty of plants is recreated down to the smallest detail. The technology is groundbreaking, even though reproducing nature is not new. &lsquo;Algorithms of Beauty&rsquo; moves across science and beauty, technology and emotion in its examination of the AI inventions of our time, questioning the limits of our vision. Can we tell the difference between a computer-generated image of a flower and the real thing?</p> <p dir="ltr">Can a picture contain all the beauty of a flower? This is what the narrator is looking for. To try to make it, she takes a revolutionary tool, an Artificial Intelligence. Through the film, she creates a link with Mary Delany. Indeed, the flowers created 300 years ago by the English botanist are strangely in resonance with those created by the algorithms. Between technology and emotions, Algorithms of Beauty questions the limits of our gaze when faced with AI images.</p> <p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>The story of one woman&#39;s determination and how she changed the field of astronomy forever.</p>

<p>A young fossil hunter makes a groundbreaking discovery, challenging the worldview of 19th century England.</p> <p>More on the film at https://www.seadragonfilm.com/</p>

<p>A story from the past, yet about a future that feels frighteningly similar to ours, where even a simple walk at night can become abnormal.</p>

<p>A cheeky historical odyssey through mythology, science fiction, and genuine science behind the ever-increasing understanding of our planetary neighbour, Mars.</p>

<p>Earth-human connections lead you on a fascinating journey through the Earth&rsquo;s history. The timeline starts with the formation of our planet and spans billions of years when humans became Earth&rsquo;s inhabitants. On the one hand, the intelligent human brain allowed for the development of various brilliant technologies and a complex society. On the other hand, humans have participated in the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and are thought to have caused many problems for other living beings on our planet.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Drinking wine is giving bread to 1 million Portuguese&rdquo; is the slogan of the new Estado Novo campaign. The anti-fascist movements don&rsquo;t waste a second and launch a counter-campaign to warn the Portuguese about the dangers of alcohol. Which campaign will be victorious?</p>

<p>Julian rolled to the wrong side of the bed. Scared and frightened, he departs on an adventure to find out if he is old enough to prevent cancer. But will anyone be able to help him?</p>

<p>In a heavily polluted world, a young woman mourns the disappearance of animal species. When she falls ill due to a bacterial infection, nature appears to send her a message in her hallucinations.</p>

<p>Cystinosis is a rare, genetically determined lysosomal storage disease. Unfortunately, cystinosis often affects young children. This film was developed to encourage them to take their vital medication on a regular basis.</p>

<p>James Lea grew up dreaming of sharks &mdash; enigmatic monsters of the deep. In his first few years as a field biologist, he fell in love with silky sharks in the Red Sea, where he got to interact with them and learn their individual personalities. But, in the space of just a few years, he watched as almost each and every animal he had come to know was lost to the shark fin trade. Feeling heartbroken and helpless, James resolved to use his expertise as a scientist to protect sharks in places where they still have a chance to thrive. Older Than Trees highlights Lea&rsquo;s work in the field and the success he&rsquo;s contributed to in getting protection for these ancient species through the creation of marine protected areas.</p>

<p>You think you know what a physicist&rsquo;s life is like? Follow a day in the life of a typical physicist using a mixture of live action and cartoon drawing, with a few fascinating facts and anecdotes along the way.</p>

<p>In the middle of the Bosnian War, a teenage math-wiz is given a way out of the bloodshed when his math club gets an invitation to compete at the 1995 International Math Olympiad in Canada. Inspired by true events.</p>

<p>The sun rises happily over the horizon, and it is welcomed by the most beautiful landscape. The humans also wake up and do what they always do: cut down trees, construct aimlessly, and pollute without shame. Their ideas and actions, usually very disrespectful to the planet, are putting the whole environment in jeopardy. What they do not realise, is that whatever they do, it will affect them sooner or later. However, the cosmos is not that patient&hellip;</p>