Raw Science

Topic: Determined | Raw Science Film Festival 2020, FINALIST Best Feature Documentary Moderator: Keri Kukral, Raw Science Guests: Director, Melissa Godoy | Producer, Therese Barry-Tanner | Key Subject, Gina Green-Harris | Key Subject, Karen McElwee Description: This podcast explores how a Black community in Milwaukee, led by Gina Green-Harris, is contributing to medical research in a safe, supportive, and innovative way. Karen, a research participant from this community and film protagonist in the film, is also featured in the podcast. Film: Three women at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease offer their brains and bodies to a medical study. After losing their mothers to the disease, these daughters are determined to contribute to the search for a cure. Meanwhile, they anxiously watch for signs of the disease in their own brains. This independent documentary, filmed over five years, intimately shows what happens when human test subjects – who are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease – offer their blood, brains, and hearts to conquer it. At the heart of the Alzheimer’s study are the test group participants – middle-aged adults with a deceased or living parent with Alzheimer’s disease. Parental history makes the test group 2.5x more likely to get the disease than those without a history of it in their families. The human research subjects are followed by the scientists for a minimum of 15 to 20 years and undergo periodic and rigorous cognitive tests. The test group also shares one of life’s most difficult trials – a parent’s decline from Alzheimer’s disease. This is a story about the fight to stop Alzheimer’s disease as told by the people with the most on the line. | Length: 35 minutes

Topic: The High Frontier | Raw Science Film Festival 2020, Official Selection Feature Documentary Moderator: Keri Kukral, Raw Science Guests: Director, Ryan Stuit | Producer, Will Henry | Producer, Dylan Taylor Film Description: THE HIGH FRONTIER reveals the untold story of the life and influence of the late physicist and space colony pioneer Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill. In 1969, Dr. O’Neill released the book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space, which sparked the enormous grassroots movement to “open the high frontier” with the goal of making space colonization available and beneficial for all mankind. The film is told through “Gerry’s Kids” as they affectionally call themselves; his peers, family, and the younger generation who followed that movement and are now leading the modern day space industry.| Length: 25 minutes