A DOCUMENTARY

GOLDEN

GENES

OR HOW BIOBANKS ARE TRYING

TO SAVE ALL LIVING THINGS —

INCLUDING YOU



Available for download starting 27 March 2017

english version deutsche Version

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MOVIE

PUBLIC SCREENINGS

SYNOPSIS

The frozen, bodiless genes of millions of plants, animals and humans are stored in biobanks around the world. They rekindle dreams of old: re-creating extinct species, ending world hunger, human life without illness or disease. But biobanks do more than that. They pose a fundamental question to our contemporary beliefs: What does it mean to be part of nature in the age of the genome?

Saving the DNA of all life on Earth will be one of the greatest international research projects of coming decades. Golden Genes — part nature film, part political documentary — demonstrates the extent to which biodiversity research is not only challenging human society but also our very conception of humankind.

PROTAGONISTS

“There is only one basic genetic code for all life on earth.”

Ann Clarke

Zoologist

Co-Founder of The Frozen Ark, University of Nottingham (GBR)

“We are coming into a golden age of population health.“

Rory Collins

Epidemiologist

Principal Investigator, Chief Executive of UK Biobank (GBR)

“Nikolai Vavilov was one of the first who believed that we absolutely have to preserve old plant varieties.”

Nikolai Dzyubenko

Botanist

Director General of the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR), St. Petersburg (RUS)

“It is the most biodiversity of agriculture in the entire world – in one room.”

Cary Fowler

Agriculturalist

Former Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust

“If we imagine a collection of all mammals, it would fit into four to six cryotanks.”

Günter R. Fuhr

Biophysicist

Head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), Sulzbach (GER)

“Molecular biology brought with it a completely new view of the human being.”

Herbert Gottweis (passed away in 2014)

Political Scientist

Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna (AUT)

“We really must ask what is going to happen if we start genetically enhancing human beings.”

Pierre-Henri Gouyon

Botanist and Geneticist

Professor at the National Museum of Natural History, Paris (FRA)

“If you look at a field of corn or wheat or rice, everything looks the same. But the closer you look the more you see the differences.”

Ruaraidh S. Hamilton

Evolutionary Biologist

Expert at the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

“I think genetics alone will not suffice to comprehend the soul.”

Berthold Huppertz

Cell Biologist

Director of Biobank Graz (AUT)

“Microbiology has opened up whole new worlds. And it is a bit concerning that we only know perhaps one percent of it.”

Hans-Peter Klenk

Microbiologist

Head of School of Biology, Newcastle University (GBR)

“Anything alive has a script, and it is all written down in every single individual. Millions of times.”

Stephen J. O'Brien

Geneticist

Chief Scientific Officer at the Theodosius Dobzhansky Centre for Genome Bioinformatics, St. Petersburg State University (RUS)

“We might ask ourselves, what actually is a human being?”

Christa Schleper

Microbiologist

Head of the Archaea Biology and Ecogenomics Division at the University of Vienna (AUT)

“With crops we single out the good genes. And with humans we target the bad ones.”

Jian Wang

Geneticist

President of BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute), Shenzhen (CHN)

“Imagine a realistic future scenario where not only large genome centres generate genetic information. But all of us. Using our mobile phones.“

Kurt Zatloukal

Pathologist

Director at BBMRI.at (Biobanking and Biomolecular Recources Research Infrastructure), Graz (AUT)

“Our main task needs to be the creation of secure storage for biodiversity in its entirety.”

Xin Zhou

Evolutionary Biologist

Director of the China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen (CHN)

TEAM

A film by
Ursula Hansbauer
Wolfgang Konrad
Clemens Stachel

Camera
Leena Koppe

Music
Barbara Konrad and Klaus Lang

Voice
Anne Kozeluh (English version), Eva Löbau (German version)

Sound Mixing and Sound Design
Christoph Amann

Colour Grading
Andreas Daxer

Research Assistance
Julia Wieger, Barbara Zorman

Technical Support
Lukas Boeck

Titles
Philipp Haupt

Proofreading and Translation
Kevin Dooley

Interpreters
Galina Karalyun, Ling Ling Xu

Dramaturgical advisors
Christa Auderlitzky, Hannes Böck, Julia Pontiller

Script consulting
Ursula Wolschlager and Robert Buschschwenter (witcraft), Sandra Bohle

Spitsbergen Guide
Stefano Poli / Poli Arctici

A deep-felt thank you to the following individuals and institutions for their contributions and support:

Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton
Hans-Peter Klenk
Stephen J. O'Brien
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Spitsbergen, Norway
Cary Fowler
Roland von Bothmer
Ola Westengen
Simon Jeppson
Brian Lainoff
N. I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry
St. Petersburg, Russia
Nikolai Dzyubenko
Boris Makarov
Olga Kovaleva
Elena Potokina
Tamara Smekalova
Sergey Alexanian († 2014)
Larisa Bagmet
Natalia Doroshenko
Sergey Filimonenko
Antonina Kiseleva
Tatyana Kopylova
Irina Kotielkina
Igor Loskutov
Sergey Shuvalov
Serafima Teplyakova
Vladimir Verzhuk
Maria Vishnevskaya
Xenia Yegorova
National Museum of Natural History
Dept. of Systematics and Evolution
Paris, France
Pierre-Henri Gouyon
Florence Labalette
The Frozen Ark
University of Nottingham, UK
Ann Clarke
Jude Smith
Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical
Engineering (IBMT)
Sulzbach, Germany
Günter R. Fuhr
Dominik Lermen
Annette Maurer
Frank Obergrießer
Medical University of Graz, Austria
Biobanking and BioMolecular
Resources Research Infrastructure
(BBMRI.at)
Kurt Zatlouka
Cornelia Stumptner
Biobank Graz
Berthold Huppertz
Karine Sargsyan
Ruzica Micic
Elisabeth Süsser
Markus Wolf
Institute of Pathology
Penelope Kungl
Virginia Brenner
Iris Karner
Hannelore Neuger
Karl Kashofer
University of Vienna, Austria
Institute of Political Science
Herbert Gottweis († 2014)
Department of Ecogenomics and
Systems Biology
Christa Schleper
Silvia Bulgheresi
BGI
Shenzhen, China
Jian Wang
Aizhu Wang
Bicheng Yang
Min Tang
Qian Jin
China National Genebank
Shenzhen, China
Xin Zhou
UK Biobank
Manchester, UK
Rory Collins
Tim Peakman
Steven Jones
Andrew Trehearne
Natural History Museum
Vienna, Austria
Anita Gamauf
Christian Köberl
Hans-Martin Berg
Nora Wurzinger
Renate Kothbauer
Tiergarten Schönbrunn
Vienna, Austria
Harald Schwammer
Barbara Feldmann
Peter Hartmann
Thank you for the support during the research
Arche Noah, Schiltern, Austria Beate Koller, Bernd Kajtna
University of Vienna Gerd Müller, Ulrich Technau
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK James Beattie, Tarryn Barrowman, Robyn Cowan, Rogier De Kok, Félix Forest, Viswambharan Sarasan
Kew´s Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst Place, UK Paul Smith, Wolfgang Stuppy, Robin Probert, Bronwyn Friedlander, Anna Quenby
Natural History Museum London, UK Alfried Vogler, Jacqueline Mackenzie-Dodds
NZG-Biobank, Pretoria, South Africa Paul Bartels
LifeGene, Solna, Sweden Helen Larsson
Gen-ethisches Netzwerk e.V., Berlin, Germany Uta Wagenmann
Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany Frieder Mayer, Karl-Heinz Frommolt, Hannelore Landsberg, Thomas von Rintelen
Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Germany Birgit Gemeinholzer
Institut Mensch, Ethik und Wissenschaft, Berlin, Germany Katrin Grüber
Biohealth Norway, Oslo Kari Harbak
Technologie- und Methodenplattform für die vernetzte medizinische Forschung e.V. (TMF), Berlin, Germany Sebastian C. Semler, Antje Schütt
Zacharias Muthamia
Barbara Prainsack
Généthon, Evry, France Safa Saker-Delye
American Museum of Natural History New York, USA George Amato
Oliver Hanotte
Geno SA, Hamar, Norway Sverre Bjørnstad
BioBank AS, Hamar, Norway Sigbjørn Gregusson
NordGen, Ås, Norway Juha Kantanen, Benedicte Lund, Tore Skroppa
CEREEP-Ecotron - Ile de France, France Jean Francois Le Galliard

PRESSE MATERIAL

Click to download (16 MB)

Images and Film Stills

Click to download (700 KB)

Pressemappe Deutsch |
Press Kit German

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Press Kit English |
Pressemappe Englisch

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