 Boom, what's up everyone? Welcome to simulation. I'm your host Alan Sakyan We are on site at the Ross science film festival the fifth annual one where we are awarding incredible humans for disseminating scientific wisdom and inspiration to Generations to the next generations. We are super excited and honored to be talking to the producers and directors of burden of genius We have Laura. We have Chartis and we have Carl joining us. Thank you so much for coming onto the show and talking to us Happy to be here. Thank you. It's actually quite an honor because I was crying during the screening of their film because it was Dr. Thomas Starzell correct Starzell who was a major pioneer in in surgical in surgical transplant transplant surgery of the liver and They did a gorgeous job of illustrating the burden of genius that it takes to run through walls of adversity and Be able to impact a hundred twenty-five thousand liver surgeries have now happened over the span of like 40-50 years and He taught so many people to become surgeons around the world. I I'm I Was just balling so I want to hear from you about the importance of What you did why it's so important to you and what we can take away from it because To me I made the comparison to the Wright brothers as one of the also burdens of genius of so many deaths so much hard work So many walls of adversity to help us have over a hundred thousand commercial flights happening around the world every single day now So so many people are doing this. So please Tell us about your journey and the importance of this It's really was kind of a gem that was dropped in our lap when we you know Carl actually conceived of the idea to to to you know to do the film and We started doing interviews with dr. Starzell in 2014 and We only did a few interviews at the time about five interviews With people who you know with him about 15 hours over the course of a week and then other people who had worked closely with him and At that point, you know, we were still looking for the rest of the money So so I went off and I and I edited, you know a short sizzle reel let's say it was about 14 minutes or so in order to raise the rest of the money and and then we On his 90th birthday there were people coming from all over the world who had been trained by him back to pay Homage to to him. So we were really lucky to get all these people We never could have interviewed all those people So we really did a marathon of interviews over the course of a weekend We're able to interview probably over 35 people I would say and ended up with about 70 hours worth of interviews and then the idea was, you know I mean with the documentary there's not really a script you you you know It's the it's the interviews that that are the glue that holds it all together So then it was about going through all the interviews and and pulling takes from that and I think the first cut was like Eight hours was just talking heads at this point, you know, and then slowly Compress it, you know get rid of all the repetitions and kind of find the structure, you know and it's really kind of written in the editing room in that way and And you know and Laura did all the interviews Which were Fantastic because I mean, you know, that's what I think you're hoping for is that you have You know if the interviews are gold you can make a good documentary. That's what it comes down to, you know If they're really heartfelt and yes, so so we really were very lucky that that Dr. Stars will trust us trusted us enough to really be able to tell it all, you know Can I just do a quick yes, so I just wanted to say why we have to tell this story and why we want science It's so important This is one of the greatest stories never told because of exactly what you said It's easy in the rear view mirror to say that's how the polio vaccine happened Transplants and immunology have changed modern medicine. It's the greatest significant thing that happened Most people don't know who dr. Starzel is but the reason it was so important is you can't repeat what it takes to do Scientific progress until you see this film and what they put together to really feel the impact of you know I have first thought when doc Ted copper was accusing him of literally putting people's lives at risk Why are you doing this and of course now all around the world? This is being replicated So that's really why it's great to be here to do this you know and it occurred to me that until you really not only have made the film but Begun to show it and in some ways you don't even know fully what your own film is about and I realize now that the most important thing I think about the film is Somebody said earlier he chose to do the hardest thing imaginable the impossible thing and that's so inspiring to me and that there was no careerism it was just about wanting to help people Overcome a seemingly insurmountable problem, and I would hope that students so we made it for everyone of course But I hope that students whether it's middle school kids college kids medical students will see this And take that kind of inspiration because you don't know who was the next stars all who was the next Elon Musk Who is the next Steve Jobs? Hopefully they'll be a little nicer than some of those people But I mean the size of their thinking and the way they've changed things and will continue to change things I think is really what the film is about There's there this sort of mentality of Putting everything on the line for the advancement of Humanity in some sort of regard Across some sort of scientific discipline that just pushes our edge of knowledge further and in just augments life in so many ways That inspiring that in in the next Generations is so important and I and I hope to see more film from you that Does that for other in other people continues that and seeing this in Schools like we were talking about as well showing this film in schools. What do you guys have on the roadmap? Well, I can say in terms of distribution We come from Pittsburgh where mr. Rogers believed that education in the classroom could change the world And the truth of the matter is there isn't great ways of getting media into education We have great. We're gonna see this movie on tour around the country and around the world It's already screening from India to Dallas but the real important thing is to partner with educators Organ donation organizations when people see this movie they change your organ donation status And we're working with all the medical people around the world and that's why festivals like lost science can really elevate You know what we see but we really need to put together the people in there The educators with the people from media to make sure it gets to the classroom So in the next year if they just go to burden of genius film calm They can see it around the world and they can follow and it'll be in their neighborhood soon So I love it bird of genius film comm is links in the bio for that and So next is just distribution then yeah Well, we actually are trying to put together a 20-city tour and we have a lot of requests to do the movie So they'll should be in some theaters and then it'll be available in about a year for the general public So thanks awesome. Okay. Thank you guys so much really appreciate even the short bit I look forward to a longer form conversation about the burden of genius at some point. Thank you all three of you Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Let us know where this is. I will I will I will definitely let you know Thank you. Thank you everyone for tuning in. We greatly appreciate it if you guys had a good time Let us know your thoughts in the comments below also Guys the burden of genius is so important really embody this really go and Create build go through walls of adversity much love check out the link in the bio And we'll see you soon peace