Film Screening: Sons of Monarchs (Alexis Gambis, 2020)

Film at AUP is delighted to present a special film screening of Sons of Monarch, with director Alexis Gambis in attendance. Please note: the event will begin with a wine reception at 17h00. Film screening begins promptly at 17h30, followed by a Q&A with the director. Prior to the event, Gambis will deliver a masterclass and a filmmaking workshop to AUP film students.

→ Please register for the event using the form at the bottom of this page.

ABOUT THE FILM

After the death of his grandmother, 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 new hybrid identity, launching him on a personal and spiritual metamorphosis.

Awards & Press Highlights
Alfred P. Sloan Feature 2021 Feature Film Prize Winner @ Sundance Film Festival 2021
Grand Jury Prize / New American Competition @ Seattle International Film Festival 2021

• “The film’s rich imagery will be imprinted in your memory, returning to you in dreams.” - The New York Times - Critic’s Pick, Isabelia Herrera
• “A daring mosaic which floats like a butterfly...a visually flamboyant film” - Screen International, Jonathan Romney
• “a powerful, necessary intervention whose intellectual rigor and emotional heft cannot be denied” - Variety, Manuel Betancourt
• “Science Meets Magical Realism in Son of Monarchs” Scientific American, Pakinam Amer

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

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.

In 2008, he founded the Imagine Science Film Festival that recently celebrated its 13th year of showcasing science in film from around the world. In 2016, he launched the sister portal Labocine. Coined the "Netflix for science," the VOD platform provides a virtual ecosystem to experience science cinema in all its flavors by hybridizing forms, and fostering a dialogue between scientists, artists and educators.

His latest feature Son of Monarchs dissects through issues of identity, (im)migration and animal/human evolution. This Mexican-American bilingual allegorical drama had its home premiere in October 2020 at the 18th Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia and International Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film has been awarded 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Prize, awarded every year to a film at the Sundance Film Festival that focuses on science or technology as a theme, or depicts a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. The film will be premiering in the Next competition at Sundance, dedicated to “pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling.”

As a recipient of the 2019 TED Fellowship, his TED Talk makes a case for more science in fiction to humanize the scientist in the public eye and to inform a broader audience on the interplay of research advancements, scientific representations and social issues.

He is currently working on two feature-length projects. His upcoming French-American docu-fiction entitled “Mousetrap” brings together memory, mice and magical realism in a haunting story about a young behavioral scientist obsessed by his childhood home. His next biopic, currently in development, entitled “El Beso” is about a retro-futurist journey into the life and science fiction writings of early 20th century Spanish father of neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

Alexis Gambis’ first feature biopic The Fly Room is based on the true story of the birth of modern genetics at the turn of the 20th century. Reviews applauded the biopic for its "witty script" and ability to "communicate science in a subtle way." He is also one of the ten filmmakers of the omnibus 2014 film The Color of Time, inspired by the poetry of C.K. Williams, starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Jessica Chastain. He has also written, directed and produced over a dozen shorts that have played at festivals worldwide.

He has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, VICE, Nature, Science, Cell, and on WNYC. His mixed media installations have also been presented in a range of art and science spaces, notably dOCUMENTA, Smithsonian Museum, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Nobel Museum.

He is an Assistant Professor in the Sciences and Arts & Humanities at New York University in Abu Dhabi where he teaches interdisciplinary courses at the intersection of biology and film. He also teaches in the NYU Tisch Special Program, notably a J-term course in Havana entitled “Postcards from Cuba.” In the Fall 2021, he was offered a Visiting Scholar position at Harvard University in the History of Science department, where he will be working on his biopic on neuroscientist Cajal and giving master classes on science and art.

Alexis received a Masters of Fine Arts in Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a PhD in Molecular Biology from The Rockefeller University. He lives between Brooklyn, Paris and Abu Dhabi.