Ms. Maggio, Ms. Hua and Mr. Papagayo coordinated last week for Stuyvesant to host a screening of The Invisible Extinction.
Just back from their worldwide premiere in Copenhagen, The Invisible Extinction features two globetrotting scientists as they race to save our microbiome—the germs in our bodies that keep us healthy—as a brave group of patients try experimental treatments, in the early days of a scientific revolution.
The screening was followed immediately with a Q&A with the film’s stars: internationally renowned microbiologists Dr. Martin Blaser and Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello and with the film’s directors (& Stuy parent) Sarah Schenck and Steven Lawrence. (photos courtesy of Ms. Maggio)
Read about the actors and directors here:
Martin J. Blaser holds the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome at Rutgers University, and serves as Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. Previously, he served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at New York University. A physician and microbiologist, Dr. Blaser has been studying the relationships we have with the human microbiome, the bacteria that live in us. Over the last 20 years, he has also been actively studying the relationship of the human microbiome with both health and important diseases including asthma, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Dr. Blaser has been the advisor to many students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty. He has served as President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, and Chair of the Advisory Board for Clinical Research of the NIH. He currently serves as Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB). He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy for Arts and Sciences. He has authored over 600 original scientific articles, holds 24 U.S. patents, and he also wrote Missing Microbes, a book targeted to general audiences, now translated into 20 languages.
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health at the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and of Anthropology at Rutgers University. She serves as the Director of the New Jersey Institute for Food Nutrition and Health (IFNH). Her research focuses on the microbiome and impacts exerted by urban practices, including practices that impair early life microbiota transmission and colonization -such as C-sections-. A Venezuelan-born, she has been working for 3 decades in the Amazon, where she studies changes on microbiomes across urbanization gradients. Dr. Dominguez-Bello has published extensively on symbiosis, impacts of modern practices on microbiomes, and strategies for restoration. She is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), and of the American Academy of Microbiology, and is a member of the Editorial Board and reviewer at several scientific journals. She is a co-founder of the Microbiota Vault, a global initiative to preserve the diversity of the microbes relevant to human health.
Sarah Schenck (Director/Producer) is deeply passionate about using filmmaking to advance public health goals for diverse audiences. She makes shorts for nonprofit organizations including the Park Slope Food Coop, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, the NYC public schools, and the Supportive Housing Network, where she served as Chief Digital Officer. Sarah also leads a long-running meditation class for individuals with mental health challenges at St. Francis Friends of the Poor. Sarah taught herself filmmaking while working as the NYC Comptroller’s Senior Policy Advisor for Education, where she received a Commendation for Excellence in Public Service. Sarah produced Virgin, starring Elisabeth Moss and Robin Wright for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature Film Under $500,000. Her feature comedy Slippery Slope won prizes at film festivals worldwide. For the PBS weekly news program “Need to Know,” Sarah was director, producer, and correspondent for Saving Carla, an acclaimed episode that focused on childhood obesity.
Steven Lawrence (Director/Producer) is a producer-director and media pioneer who has been making documentaries for over 30 years about artists, activists and everyday heroes - from underground Soviet rockers, to a Senegalese rapper fighting FGM, to cat rescuers in Brooklyn, and now scientists racing to save the human microbiome. As a producer his work includes three feature docs in collaboration with Michael Apted, including The Long Way Home and Married In America. He created the International Emmy-award winning series Born In The USSR producing the first film, Age 7 In The USSR. Among his many other producing credits are The Furious Force Of Rhymes, Sarabah (Movies That Matter Golden Butterfly award), and Heddy Honigmann’s 100 UP. His directing credits include Tell Tchaikovsky The News: Rock In Russia For MTV, the Vis à Vis series for PBS and The Cat Rescuers, winner of the 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival animal rights award. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, Helen Garrett.
