Our participants took part in a three-day hackathon from the 24th to the 26th of September 2021 at Campus Biotech. There, scientists, filmmakers and black-boxes were paired in teams of three to five people to create a short film based on a scientific subject. The teams had to face several challenges: how to best communicate with each other, how to create a meaningful story to explain their scientific subject, and how to film it, edit it, and finalize it in three days. The participants were followed by a
team of accomplished mentors to help them face these challenges.
This event also marked a new step for SciFilmIt, as we organized the first ever international SciFilmIt Hackathon. This took place at Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia on the same dates as the event in Geneva. This international collaboration lead to the creation of an additional 4 science films and of a new partnership for future SciFilmIt events in Colombia.
All of our participants from Geneva and Bogotá were then invited to show their film to the public at the SciFilmIt Cinema Event on the 10th of October 2021, which took place at the Auditorium Arditi and was streamed live.
Organizing Team
These are the people behind SciFilmIt hackathon Geneva 2021. We are a mix of PhDs, post-docs, artists and educators. All sharing our passion for film-making, storytelling and science communication.
Fabien Caruzzo
Fabien is a PhD student in neurosciences at the University of Geneva. He works with patients with schizophrenia to study the way their brain works when they anticipate rewards using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Always curious, Fabien loves learning scientific facts from all fields, from astrophysics to microbiology. Outside of work, Fabien dabbles in many creative endeavours: he enjoys dancing, writing songs and acting in plays. Fabien participated in the 2020 edition of the Geneva SciFilmIt Hackathon as a scientist, and he is now very excited to be part of the organization of its second edition!
Kenneth Rioja
Kenneth is a young psychology scientist and is currently working as a lab tech. He had the opportunity to start few projects investigating the links between technology use (such as media multitasking: are you writing an email while reading this bio?), personality and sustained attention. In his early career, he thinks that science should always be communicated through simple and understandable words. He is convinced that this is the more efficient and trustworthy way to share scientific knowledge. That’s why, he is looking forward to this edition to see how the participants and mentors will give birth to beautiful films. For this year’s SciFilmIt Hackathon in Geneva, Kenneth is our logistic guy. He will take care of our stomachs by ensuring delicious food as well as keeping the general flow between the open spaces.
Noémie Kuenzi
Noémie is a Research Assistant in neurosciences. She splits her time between the University of Geneva, where she's working on the topic of schizophrenia, and the HUG, where she studies the effect of the use of violence and coercion on the health care professionals. Outgoing and curious, Noémie is always eager to expand her knowledge on various topics within and outside science. When she's not leading scientific experiments, Noémie is active hiking and practicing yoga. On top of that, she's working since many years in Summer Camps to organise cool holidays for children. She is very excited to be part of projects that involves good communication and sharing new insights.
Beatrice Valentini
Beatrice is a PhD student in psychology at the university of Geneva. Her research focus on child development. For the SciFilmIt hackaton, she goes in search for filmmakers and manages the equipment needed for the hackaton.
Fleur is PhD student in Global Health at the University of Geneva. She uses geographical data to assess where people lack access to healthcare and to better estimate disease distribution. She mainly focusses her research on Sub-Saharan Africa. In her free time, she likes to explore the outdoors in Switzerland or in other foreign destinations. While doing this she often looks at the world through a lens. She has always been passionate about science communication to make sure that a wider audience gets a grasp of the work she is ambitious about. Having participated in the Geneva SciFilmIt edition in 2020, she looks forward to creating an event that tickles the inspiration and creativity of everyone involved!
Ricardo Pinzón
Ricardo has an eclectic background, he went to study law, cinema and sociology. These three dimensions revolve in his head but cinema is the cornerstone of this triangle. He did his cinema studies at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, a public institution where he met many students who struggled with the difficulties produced by social and economic inequalities, sparkling his sensitivity for social issues and the complexities of human nature that he explores in his films. He participated last year in Geneva’s SciFilmIt Hackaton, where he transferred this sensibility to science communications and now is excited to make part of the organizing team this year.
Sara Amara
Sara is a pharmacist, and she is currently doing a master's degree in Global Health at the University of Geneva, with a particular interest in protecting health care in humanitarian crises. Creative and passionate about photography, she believes that popularising science through art and storytelling is a powerful tool to raise awareness and make abstract science more accessible. For the SciFilmIt hackathon, she is excited to supervise the satellite events that will take place in other parts of the world.
