PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Christian Frei, director of the film Genesis 2.0.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

An interview with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Christian Frei on his latest documentary, Genesis 2.0, screened at the 2019 One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. The film talks, on the one hand, about the potential of genetic research and synthetic biology and on the other hand, is the search for mammoth tusks in the New Siberian Islands. In this interview, Frei discusses his interest in these topics and the nature of his collaboration on this film with co-director Maxim Arbugaev. Frei also considers the similarities between the figure of the geneticist and the filmmaker and whether there is anything about the future that frightens him, among other things.

Genesis 2.0: A kilo of high-quality mammoth ivory costs $1000. Every year, Yakut men risk their lives to find some. Young filmmaker Maxim spends an Arctic summer with them in a captivating but raw landscape. He exchanges letters with his colleague, Christian, busy in the scientific world as he follows various genetic projects which might resurrect the woolly mammoth – or create completely new hybrid beasts. This film, which has already received many awards, including a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival, offers a unique opportunity to enter a world of primitive nature and futuristic science. And where they intersect there are some fundamentally urgent existential questions.