Reproduction project gives birth to film series on dystopian futures

Films that visualise a future where human reproduction is controlled, prevented, modified or simply made impossible are to be examined during Cambridge Science Festival. 'Reproduction on film: Reproductive Dystopias' will spotlight films such as Children of Men, Gattaca, Code 46 and The Stepford Wives - all films containing pessimistic visions of the future where childbirth is not necessarily natural. The film series is the brainchild of the University's Generation to Reproduction project, supported by the Wellcome Trust, which is looking at the history of reproduction - from fertility rites to IVF. In total seven films will be shown ranging from the 1930s to the present day; all with something to say about the continuity and discontinuity of concern. The series runs at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse from Monday, March 7-23 and begins with Code 46, a 2003 film by Frank Winterbottom that starred Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton, where the protagonists discover, despite their forbidden love affair, that they are genetically incompatible. Kate O'Riordan (Film and Media, Sussex University) will introduce the film and lead a discussion on it. She will also present a special History of Medicine seminar on 'Cloning and film: fictational vectors of factual imaginaries' on Tuesday, March 8 at 5pm in Seminar Room 1, HPS, Free School Lane, Cambridge.