GENE:SIS
Kia wanted to make a cinematic poem centered on the life and death of lab rats. Birth, childrearing, play, experiment after experiment and eventually a forced death, while the cycle begins anew for another newborn rat. No matter whether we think animal testing is ethical - there is a tragedy to be witnessed here, as these intelligent and lovable creatures pass through a scientific life and death machine.
Kia and I chose to shoot GENE:SIS in super close-up - closer than anyone had seen rats before, so close that the bodies of the caged animals would become an abstraction. I shot on ARRI AMIRA and Zeiss HS Primes, mostly on a 60mm macro lens pressing up against the rats's cages. Because of its flexibility and its soft, organic light quality, the Arri Carpetlight 42 was my go to key, with some smaller, colorful LEDs adding fill and background ambient. GENE:SIS premiered at Visions Du Reel in 2024.
Laboratory rats are born under neon lights, in endlessly stacked plastic trays. Here, the relationship between man and animal is ambivalent: tenderness comes gloved in latex, and the violence of experiments looms on the horizon. With remarkable framing and sound design, Gene:sis takes us right into the animal’s point of view.
***
17 min, color, 2.38:1, 2024
Directed by: Kia Krebs
Producer: Max Gebhardt
Editor: Silvan Marty
DOP: Philipp Schaeffer
Mix: Jan-Eric Heitland
Grading: Anian Krone
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
WATCH TRAILER
GENE:SIS
17 min, color, 2.38:1, 2024
***
Kia wanted to make a cinematic poem centered on the life and death of lab rats. Birth, childrearing, play, experiment after experiment and eventually a forced death, while the cycle begins anew for another newborn rat. No matter whether we think animal testing is ethical - there is a tragedy to be witnessed here, as these intelligent and lovable creatures pass through a scientific life and death machine.
Kia and I chose to shoot GENE:SIS in super close-up - closer than anyone had seen rats before, so close that the bodies of the caged animals would become an abstraction. I shot on ARRI AMIRA and Zeiss HS Primes, mostly on a 60mm macro lens pressing up against the rats's cages. Because of its flexibility and its soft, organic light quality, the Arri Carpetlight 42 was my go to key, with some smaller, colorful LEDs adding fill and background ambient. GENE:SIS premiered at Visions Du Reel in 2024.
Laboratory rats are born under neon lights, in endlessly stacked plastic trays. Here, the relationship between man and animal is ambivalent: tenderness comes gloved in latex, and the violence of experiments looms on the horizon. With remarkable framing and sound design, Gene:sis takes us right into the animal’s point of view.
Directed by: Kia Krebs
Producer: Max Gebhardt
Editor: Silvan Marty
DOP: Philipp Schaeffer
Mix: Jan-Eric Heitland
Grading: Anian Krone
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
WATCH TRAILER
GENE:SIS
Kia wanted to make a cinematic poem centered on the life and death of lab rats. Birth, childrearing, play, experiment after experiment and eventually a forced death, while the cycle begins anew for another newborn rat. No matter whether we think animal testing is ethical - there is a tragedy to be witnessed here, as these intelligent and lovable creatures pass through a scientific life and death machine.
Kia and I chose to shoot GENE:SIS in super close-up - so close that the bodies of the caged animals would become an abstraction. I shot on ARRI AMIRA and Zeiss HS Primes, mostly on a 60mm macro lens pressing up against the rats's cages. Because of its flexibility and its soft, organic light quality, the Arri Carpetlight 42 was my go to key, with some smaller, colorful LEDs adding fill and background ambient. GENE:SIS premiered at Visions Du Reel in 2024.
Laboratory rats are born under neon lights, in endlessly stacked plastic trays. Here, the relationship between man and animal is ambivalent: tenderness comes gloved in latex, and the violence of experiments looms on the horizon. With remarkable framing and sound design, Gene:sis takes us right into the animal’s point of view.
***
17 min, color, 2.38:1, 2024
Directed by: Kia Krebs
Producer: Max Gebhardt
Editor: Silvan Marty
DOP: Philipp Schaeffer
Mix: Jan-Eric Heitland
Grading: Anian Krone
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
