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HUMAN NATURE

  • SYNOPSIS
  • WATCH ON DEMAND
  • IMAGES
  • FILM MAKERS
  • FEATURED VOICES
  • PRESS

Download the trailer here

Now on Netflix
As seen on NOVA PBS

“Human Nature tells the story of CRISPR genome engineering with a gripping mix of science and heart. It gives audiences a front row seat to a technological revolution that could reshape our planet and humanity itself. As we embark on a global conversation about our future, this film is essential viewing.” – Jennifer Doudna

“Every “Oh wow” in “Human Nature” is matched by an “Oh no” somewhere down the line. Together, these two competing emotions — excitement and unease — make for one pretty fascinating documentary.” – The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)

“Those who lament the state of science journalism should take note of Human Nature.” – Hollywood Reporter

“Human Nature” a new film on the technology, braids the tool’s promise and potential perils into a riveting double helix.” – The Washington Post

“Far and away the most intelligent, thought-provoking movie of the young year…See it and be amazed.” – East Bay Express

“Thorough, lucid, and engaging” – The Boston Globe


SYNOPSIS

From executive producer Dan Rather and director Adam Bolt, the co-writer and editor of the Oscar-winning film Inside Job, comes the story of the biggest tech revolution of the 21st Century. And it isn’t digital, it’s biological.

A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. Human Nature is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.


WATCH ON DEMAND

Watch on Netflix
Watch on PBS

Or download the Netflix and PBS apps directly onto your smart TV!



PAST SCREENINGS

Date(s) Festival/Theater Location
3/10/19, 3/12/19, 3/14/19 SXSW Austin, TX
3/25/19, 3/27/19, 3/29/19 CPH:DOX Copenhagen, Denmark
4/5/19 Full Frame Durham, NC
4/26/19, 4/28/19 AFO Olomouc, Czech Republic
4/27/19, 4/28/19, 4/30/19 Hot Docs Toronto, Canada
5/2/19 Newport Beach FF Newport Beach, CA
5/17/19, 5/25/19, 5/27/19 Seattle International FF Seattle, WA
6/22/19 AFI Docs Washington, D.C.
6/23/19 Silbersalz Science & Media Festival Halle, Germany
7/31/19 Woods Hole FF Woods Hole, MA
8/17/19 Savonlinna International Nature FF Savonlinna, Finland
9/12/19 Visioni dal Mondo Milan, Italy
9/14/19,9/15/19,9/16/19,9/18/19 Homer Documentary Film Festival Homer, AK
9/23/19 Jackson Wild Summit Jackson, WY
9/28/19 Sausalito Film Festival Sausalito, CA
9/26/19, 10/1/19, 10/2/19 Bergen International Film Festival Bergen, Norway
10/3/19 Globe Docs Boston, MA
9/27/19,9/28/19,10/10/19 Vancouver International Film Festival Vancouver, Canada
10/4/19 – 10/10/19 Hot Docs Cinema Toronto, Canada
10/13/19 Orcas Island Film Festival Eastsound, WA
10/5/19, 10/14/19 Doctober Bellingham, WA
10/21/19 Hot Springs Documentary FF Hot Springs, AR
10/18/19-10/24/19 Bytowne Cinema Ottawa, Canada
10/25/19 FilmColumbia Chatham, NY
10/26/19 Pariscience Film Festival Paris, France
10/28/19 Bay Area Science Festival, Roxie Theater San Francisco, CA
10/31/19 41 North Film Festival Houghton, MI
11/2/19 Windsor Film Festival Windsor, ON
11/3/19 Doctober Bellingham, WA
11/1/19 – 11/7/19 Hyland Cinema London, ON
11/5/19 Scottsdale International Film Festival Scottsdale, AZ
11/6/19 Cinemateket Oslo, Norway
11/7/19 Life Sciences Film Festival Prague, Czech Republic
11/9/19 DOC NYC New York, NY
11/11/19 Goucher College Towson, MD
11/12/19 – 11/26/19 Broadcast/Streaming on DBS – YesDocu! Israel
11/15/19, 11/19/19, 11/20/19, 11/28/19 Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn, Estonia
11/17/19 Yukon Arts Centre Whitehorse, YT
11/21/19 Vega Scene Oslo, Norway
11/29/19 Science Museum London, UK
12/2/19 Midlands Arts Centre Birmingham, UK
12/6/19 Bertha DocHouse London, UK
12/7/19 Global Health Film Festival London, UK
11/7/19-12/26/19 Screenings in various German cities Germany
12/3/19 Broadcast/Streaming on NRK Norway
12/18/19 Regent Street Cinema London, UK
1/8/20 Broadcast/Streaming on VPRO Netherlands
1/15/20 Soho House Oxfordshire, UK
1/23/20 – 1/26/20 Reframe Film Festival Peterborough, Canada
1/22/20, 1/27/20 Tournai Ramdam Festival Tournai, Belgium
1/29/20 Shuswap Film Society Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
2/6/20 Paramount Theatre – Kamloops Film Society Kamloops, BC, Canada
2/7/20 Everyman Cinema Liverpool, UK
2/12/20 MAC Birmingham, UK
2/15/20 Woods Hole Film Festival’s Film Falmouth series Falmouth, MA
2/19/20 The Ultimate Picture Palace Oxford, UK
2/22/20 KDocsFF Surrey, Canada
2/24/20, 2/28/20 Sedona International Film Festival Sedona, AZ
2/28/20 Salt Spring Film Festival Salt Spring, BC, Canada
3/7/20 Belleville Downtown DocFest Belleville, ON, Canada
3/13/20 – 3/20/20 The Village East Cinema  NYC, NY
3/13/20 – 3/20/20 Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas  Berkeley, CA

IMAGES

FILM MAKERS

ADAM BOLT

Director

Adam Bolt edited and co-wrote the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, for which he received the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay and was nominated for an American Cinema Editors award for Best Edited Documentary in 2011. He won an Emmy in 2014 for his work on the Showtime documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, where he served as senior producer, writer, and editor. His other credits include director Alex Gibney’s Park Avenue: Money, Power & The American Dream, which premiered on PBS’s Independent Lens and went on to win a Peabody Award in 2013; Page One: Inside the New York Times, which was nominated for two Emmys (including Best Editing) in 2012; and the HBO documentary The Recruiter, which won a Columbia duPont award for excellence in broadcast journalism in 2010.


ELLIOT KIRSCHNER

Executive Producer

Elliot Kirschner is the Executive Producer of the Wonder Collaborative, a New York Times best-selling author, and Emmy-award winning news and documentary producer. He got his start at CBS News, producing for such programs as 60 Minutes, Sunday Morning and the Evening News. In 2007, Kirschner joined legendary news icon Dan Rather to help manage a cable news and documentary program where he commissioned and oversaw numerous science reports. He joined iBiology in 2015 and is currently leading the group’s efforts to create content for the general public. His 2017 book What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism, written with Dan Rather, was a bestseller.


REGINA SOBEL

Editor/Co-Writer

Regina Sobel is a Brooklyn-based film editor and producer. She was the editor and co-writer of Fail State (Starz), a feature documentary about inequality in higher education which premiered at DOC NYC in 2017. She also served as editor and producer on Old Dog, a verite documentary about sheep dog training in New Zealand, and associate editor on Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth (IFC Films), starring Elisabeth Moss. Previously, she produced and directed graphics for film and TV, including PBS’s Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream, Showtime’s “Years of Living Dangerously,” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”


MEREDITH DESALAZAR

Producer

Meredith DeSalazar is an award-winning news producer with over 13 years experience. She started at ABC News covering the presidential election, then researching and producing for World News Tonight. She joined news legend Dan Rather 10 years ago producing investigative stories, often with a science focus such as: the environmental impact of stormwater runoff, the dark underworld of shark finning and the invasion of lionfish into foreign waters. She was the first television reporter to raise red flags about the danger of concussions and the NFL’s efforts to sweep the issue under the rug.


SARAH GOODWIN

Producer

Sarah Goodwin is the leading science advisor on the film. She is the Executive Director of the Wonder Collaborative and iBiology, a non-profit that produces videos by the world’s leading biologists. Before joining iBiology, she got her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. Under her leadership, iBiology has grown in staff and scope, and has produced hundreds of videos with millions of yearly views. Sarah has worked with a wide variety of scientists on communicating their research and stories, and has ensured the science content in this film is accurate in depicting the state of knowledge and the spirit of discovery.


DEREK REICH

Cinematographer

Derek Reich is an Emmy Award winning cinematographer who has traveled to datelines around the globe to capture the images needed for visual storytelling. After getting his start covering the American West for CBS News, Derek expanded into documentary filmmaking with an emphasis on cinematically arresting narratives. He will regale you with stories of bears and dogs.


STEVE TYLER

Editor

Steve Tyler is an Emmy Award winning documentary film editor and long-time collaborator with Human Nature executive producers Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner. Before taking up editing, Steve could be found on Broadway or in theaters around the country as an accomplished music director for shows like The Producers, Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music.


GREG BOUSTEAD

Executive Producer

Greg Boustead is the Program Director at Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation that he helped launch in 2015 to inspire a deeper interest in science, especially among those who don’t think of themselves as science fans. With a background in neuroscience, film, and journalism, Greg has dedicated his career to bringing sophisticated science content to general audiences, across many platforms. Other credits include executive producer of the feature-length documentary The Most Unknown, co-produced with VICE Media/Motherboard and released by Netflix in 2018.


DAN RATHER

Executive Producer

Dan Rather is one of the world’s best-known journalists for much of the last half century. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and personally covered almost every important dateline of the last 60 years. Rather joined CBS News in 1962 and in 1981 assumed the position of anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News—a post he held for 24 years. His reporting across the network helped to turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award winning, Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. Now, he is president and CEO of News and Guts, an independent production company he founded that specializes in high-quality non- fiction content. He has a special interest in telling the stories of science.


FEATURED VOICES

DAVID BALTIMORE

California Institute of Technology

JILL BANFIELD

UC Berkeley

RODOLPHE BARRANGOU

NC State University

ALTA CHARO

U of Wisconsin – Madison

EMMANUELLE CHARPENTIER

Max Planck Institute

GEORGE CHURCH

Harvard University

GEORGE DALEY

Harvard Medical School

JENNIFER DOUDNA

UC Berkeley

HANK GREELY

Stanford University

IAN HODDER

Stanford University

STEPHEN HSU

Genomic Prediction

KELSEY MCCLELLAND

DNA Dialogue

FRANCISCO MOJICA

University of Alicante

RYAN PHELAN

Revive and Restore

MATT PORTEUS

Stanford University

ANTONIO REGALADO

MIT Technology Review

DAVID SANCHEZ

Sickle cell patient

SYNTHEGO

RNA synthesis company

FYODOR URNOV

Altius and IGI

ETHAN WEISS

Ruthie’s father

PALMER WEISS

Ruthie’s mother

RUTHIE WEISS

5th grader

LUHAN YANG

e-Genesis

FENG ZHANG

Broad Institute


PRESS

‘Human Nature’ Review: We Can Now Alter Our DNA. But Should We? -The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)

Review: The biotech doc ‘Human Nature’ offers both hope — and caution -Los Angeles Times

‘Human Nature’: Film Review: Adam Bolt’s CRISPR documentary brings together scientists, journalists and potential test subjects for an engaging look at genetic modification. – Variety

CRISPR is fueling a modern-day scientific revolution. ‘Human Nature’ documentary looks at its promise and potential perils. -The Washington Post

‘Human Nature’: Film Review: Maybe the best-yet guide for those mystified by CRISPR. – Hollywood Reporter

The Gene Revolution Is Already Here – National Review

Crispr’s Origin Story Comes to Life in a New Documentary – Wired

Gene Genie: Rewarding new doc explains the intricacies of the genetic tools that are ready to reshape the world. – East Bay Express

Movie Review: ‘Human Nature’- Red Carpet Crash

Review: ‘Human Nature’ explores the dilemmas of genetic engineering – San Francisco Chronicle

‘Human Nature’ A stunning work of science journalism -Glide Magazine

Human Nature review – quiet revolution that began in a yoghurt pot – The Guardian

CRISPR doc ‘Human Nature’ embraces the hope and peril of gene editing -Engadget

New documentary has a good time asking how gene editing might change the world -Ars Technica

Reviews: Human Nature -Film Threat

DOCNYC review: ‘Human Nature’ – When You’re Not Working

Film Review: Human Nature – the Biologist

Real reels: 8 SXSW documentaries to watch for -Austin 360

Annette gets nerdy with Director Adam Bolt and his DNA splicing doc CRISPR! -Aint it Cool

SXSW 2019 Review: Human Nature -A Reel of One’s Own

Dan Rather: ‘Human Nature’ doc is part of global conversation about life -Austin 360

Human Nature – Hammer to Nail


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“Chromosome broken,
awaits sounds of strands pairing,
preserving the life’s thread.”

-Jim Haber  Haiku about homology-directed repair
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