NeuroVision Film Contest 2011

… we had asked neuroscientists and film students alike, and we did so for a reason:

The insights from brain research and the advances in neurotechnology are of great importance, nevertheless it is often quite hard to communicate them to the general public; to make our work accessible. Neurons are microscopically small, their activity invisible to the eye. Descriptions of brain function and the technological possibilities to interact with it are often quite abstract and not intuitively understandable.

Film, on the other hand, has the ability to illustrate complex ideas, using a single, striking image where many words were necessary otherwise. For this reason, the Bernstein Conference features for the first time a competition for neuroscientific films.

The entries we received from several countries couldn’t be more diverse in respect of their topics and their filmic approaches. There are, of course, the classic forms of reporting about current scientific findings; and new forms of visualization for brain data indeed make the invisible visible to us. But there’s also room for a hint of film noir, parody, and a rather “retro” look at the promises of neurotechnology…

The conditions for entering the contest were rather straightforward: A film had to be shorter than 5 minutes, its language had to be English, and the film’s creators should not have completed an education as a media professional. On the one hand, these requirements should entice scientists to think about ways to present their field of research to lay audiences. Communication with colleagues from the same field is part of the daily routine in science, whereas the need to present one’s own work in a generally understandable way is rather the exception. On the other hand, the conditions were formulated in order to invite film students to approach our complex, but thrilling field of research.

And the winners are...

Florian Rau (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) won the audience and jury award for his film "The Brain Modulator".

The film also won the Video Slam in Freiburg (video report by students from Hochschule Furtwangen), the Jury's Award at the "Dresdener Schmalfilmtage", received a Special Mention at the 14th backup_festival Weimar and won Best Film at the 11th Szeged Super 8mm Festival.

He shares the jury award with Denys Jörg Christian Matthies (FH Potsdam, Germany), who received the prize in recognition for his film "MindArt – visualizations of real EEG data".

The awards were presented by Walter Sucher (SWR), who was the chair of the jury, which further included Paul Pévet (President of Neurex), Ursula Biermann (tv/radio journalist) and Wulf Rüskamp (science journalist for the "Badische Zeitung").

All entries were received very positively by both the jury and the participants of the conference, and we are very happy that the following filmmakers allow us to present their productions here as well:

Alistair Jennings & Jack Burke, "Love Story"
Dmitry Kobak, "Structure Learning in human motor control"
Daniel Margulies, "Resting State Network"
Henriette Walz, "Spying on an Invisible Sense"