Science Meets Magical Realism in Son of Monarchs | Scientific American

MBL Director Nipam Patel's lab participated in the production of this film, which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival.

Every year millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the northeastern U.S. and Canada to the mountain forests of Mexico’s central highlands. In breathtaking swarms, they seek warmer lands where milkweed grows and they can mate—an annual pilgrimage spanning upward of 2,500 miles. The new film Son of Monarchs, starring Tenoch Huerta of Narcos: Mexico fame and directed by French-Venezuelan biologist and filmmaker Alexis Gambis, is set against the backdrop of this great wildlife migration.

This stunningly photographed semi-autobiography draws on CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome research into the iconic butterflies to step into a narrative about hybrid identities, diminishing spaces, social evolution and divided territories. The film goes, in the director’s own words, “from the vein of a butterfly wing to the border between countries.” Read more of the article here ...

Source: Science Meets Magical Realism in Son of Monarchs – Scientific American