GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT "Toto le némato" (2007)
- documentary (52 minutes) -
GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT
Exploiting living organisms is an irresistible temptation… That’s why parasites and pathogenic agents have always existed, to exploit to their advantage the resources of living organisms. Omnipresent, sometimes dangerous for men and livestock, parasites account for 50% of the biodiversity on earth. They are present in various evolutionnary lineages. Leaders in matter of evolution, they can adapt to all ecosystems, even to those recently created by men, like in hospitals or urban areas. Currently, the evolution of climates as well as the movement of people and merchandise offer great opportunities of expansion for these parasites, as the threat of the avian influenza shows. Controlling them is now urgent, making thus scientific research on parasites and their way of transmission a worldwide topical issue.
PRESENTATION OF THE MOVIE
The French group of research OPM, which will be the subject of our documentary, is supervised by the young researcher Frederic Thomas. In a very efficient and original way, he is working on the exploration of the particular way of transmission of some parasites, including species infecting men: the manipulation of the host behaviour. The film will show the team in action, both in the field and at the laboratory; we’ll share the advances made by this group of research. Applied to human pathogens, this research allows to go further in the understanding of the transmission of some diseases and will contribute to the development of a new science: the Ecology of health
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"The manipulator" (2002)
- documentary (52 minutes) -
Distribution Planète Future / coproducts by the CNRS Images Media
with the support of the CNC, the French Ministry of Research and the Department of Herault.
During a whole summer, we will share the nights of a young biologist from Montpellier who is studying the suicidal behaviour of crickets which, on the board of a swimming pool, are driven to throw themselves to water by a strange parasite looking like a small aquatic snake, a parasite which needs to go into water to reproduce and to mate in spectacular Gordian knots.
Festivals
Festival International du Film de l’Insecte - Prades (66) - 2003
Festival Sciença – Portugal – 2003
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