Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis rocked the boat and started a scientific revolution

Thrive Research Hub at the Melbourne School of Design, and BioCultural Futures are excited to be hosting the Australian premier of Symbiotic Earth.

Symbiotic Earth is the story of a scientific rebel. A model of female empowerment, Lynn Margulis fought the male establishment and, through her persistence, triumphed. As a young scientist in the 1960s, Margulis was ridiculed when she articulated a theory that symbiosis was a key driver of evolution. Instead of the mechanistic view that life evolved solely through random genetic mutations and competition, she presented a symbiotic narrative in which bacteria joined together to create the complex cells that formed animals, plants, and all other organisms. The idea that all of life is deeply interconnected and collaborative has radical implications for how we look at and understand our selves, our species, our kin, relationships, sex, death, ecology, evolution, and our changing environment and climate.

The film runs for 150 minutes and will be followed by a panel Q&A.

This splendid film gives us insights into Lynn Margulis’ prolific career; and into the woman, whose vitality explodes across the screen with the force of a slow-motion supernova. I was by no means the only person who came away feeling I’d just witnessed a fifth force of nature. Margaret Wertheim (Science writer) Read the full review

Global Premiere Screenings

There have been three other Symbiotic Earth Global Premiere screenings:

Oxford University
Large Lecture Theatre, Sherrington Building
Sherrington, Oxford 0X1 3PT United Kingdom
Presented by Voices from Oxford
Sponsors: Chelsea Green Publishing and Dan Sackett
Post screening discussion with filmmaker John Feldman and physiologist and evolution scientist Denis Noble, author of The Music of Life

Natural Science Museum of Barcelona
Carrer de Leonardo da Vinci, 4-6
08019 Barcelona, Spain (with Spanish subtitles)
Presented by Ricardo Guerrero, microbiologist, academic director of the Academia Europaea-Barcelona Knowledge Hub
Post screening Question and Answer session with filmmaker John Feldman

David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
Presented by Bioneers and the David Brower Center
Post screening discussion with filmmaker John Feldman and systems theorist Fritjof Capra, co-author of A Systems View of Life