With the two Gold and one Bronze World Medals, the brain science documentary has won seven international awards and is shortlisted for a 2019 Brand Film Festival London Award. Watch a full version of the film at: https://youtu.be/dkyntB4POQY
Menlo Park, CA. Minds Wide Open, a film commissioned by the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, was recently awarded two 2019 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Gold World Medals – one in the Science & Technology Documentary category and the other for best Branded Documentary Production.
The film also won a Bronze World Medal in the Feature Documentary Film category at this year’s festival. “We are honored to receive such esteemed recognition for Minds Wide Open from New York Festivals TV & Film Awards,” explained Tianqiao Chen, TCCI® Co-Founder. “Making this film was important to us because it highlights just how close scientists studying the brain and mind are to making really meaningful breakthroughs that will help the world. We have made significant commitments to help advance the field, however more support is needed from other philanthropists, funders and members of the public.”
The 60-minute documentary, produced with Merchant Cantos, debuted on the Discovery Channel in September 2018 and shortly thereafter won three Gold Awards in the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards in the medical, educational and science & technology categories. In December 2018, the film won a Gold Standard Award in Hong Kong for Broadcast and Video from Public Affairs Asia and earlier this month, Minds Wide Open was short-listed for a Brand Film Festival London Award (May 2019).
“We commissioned Minds Wide Open as a way of advocating for the scientific community,” commented Chrissy Luo, TCC Co-Founder. “Our hope is that scientists and researchers can use the film to make the case for supporting early-career scientists and for taking an interdisciplinary approach to studying the human brain.”
The film features some of the world’s most innovative scientists and doctors from UC Berkeley, Caltech, Harvard, Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital, Oxford (Jesus College) and Stanford. These experts present compelling advances in brain research, psychiatry, biology, robotics and artificial intelligence – and demonstrate how they can help people whose lives are affected by brain disease and disorders. Monica Coenraad’s daughter Chelsea is one of these people. Chelsea has Rett Syndrome, a rare, devastating, genetic brain disorder which affects approximately 350,000 individuals worldwide.
In the film, Monica describes how working with Rett experts like Michael Greenberg, PhD at Harvard Medical School gives her hope. “I don’t expect a 100 per cent, “like it never ever even happened”, cure for Chelsea, but I do think that there can be dramatic improvements. I think we’re at the point now where we’re going to have an opportunity to try, and that’s really exciting.”
As part of their billion-dollar commitment to brain science, the Chens plan to create new cornerstone partnerships with international institutions and programs that will support scientists working on the brain and mind. They will create other films to highlight advances in the science, the challenges faced by scientists and opportunities they see for making progress in the quest to unlock the mysteries of the human mind.
Minds Wide Open is available for sale or rent on Apple iTunes, Amazon Video and Google Play. All proceeds are being donated to research and patient causes in the film such as The Rett Syndrome Trust. Watch a full version of the film at: https://youtu.be/dkyntB4POQY
About Minds Wide Open
Husband and wife philanthropists, Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, commissioned Tim May, an award-winning producer who started his career at the BBC, to oversee production of the film with MerchantCantos, a leading production company in the United Kingdom. The original soundtrack, composed by Sion Trefor, is brought to life by acclaimed singer-songwriter Charlotte Church. More information about the film can be found at www.MindsWideOpenFilm.com.
About the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute:
The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI®) was founded in 2016 by Tianqiao Chen and his wife Chrissy Luo, the founders of Shanda Group, who committed US $1 billion to help advance fundamental brain research. With a US $115 million donation, TCCI® created the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech later that year.
The couple has committed CNY 500 million to support TCCI’s work in China and in 2017, they created a strategic partnership with the Zhou Liangfu Medical Development Foundation and Huashan Hospital in Shanghai. In 2018, Shanghai Mental Health Center joined the partnership. Follow TCCI® news at www.ChenInstitute.org, on LinkedIn, or via Twitter @ChenInstitute.
Contact: Jason Reindorp Head of Global Communications Jason.Reindorp@cheninstitute.org +1 (206) 225-1570
NOTE TO EDITOR: The following is a summary of the scientists, patients and topics covered in the film:
| INDIVIDUAL | AFFILIATION | RESEARCH/PATIENT FOCUS |
| DAVID J. ANDERSON, PhD Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology; Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Director, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. | Caltech | The importance of fundamental brain research. |
| KARL DEISSEROTH, MD, PhD Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, D.H. Chen Professor | Stanford University | How optogenetics is helping scientists understand the role of specific neurons in the brain. |
| NOLAN WILLIAMS, MD Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. | Stanford University | Next-gen transcranial magnetic stimulation, rapid-acting neuromodulation therapy for treatment-resistant depression |
| LAURA ROBERTS, MD, MA Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor in the School of Medicine. | Stanford University | Exciting new ways to understand and treat mental disorders. The importance of young scientists. |
| LIANGFU ZHOU, MD PhD Director, Department of Neurosurgery; Vice Chairman of Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (Shanghai). | Huashan Hospital | The importance of neurosurgical and clinical treatment/research. |
| MICHAEL E. GREENBERG, PhD Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology Chair, Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School | Harvard Medical School and Harvard University | Understanding the mechanisms that control the development of the brain. (Rett Syndrome patient story: Chelsea Coenraad, with her mother Monica) |
| ROBERT TJIAN, PhD Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology | University of California, Berkeley | The critical role of young scientists in the field. |
| DIANA BAUTISTA, PhD Associate Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology | University of California, Berkeley | The study of the molecular mechanisms underlying itch, touch and pain. (Eczema patient story: Lisa Choy) |
| SERGIU P. PASCA, MD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences | Stanford University | How studying living brain tissue, which has been derived in the lab from patients, can lead to better understanding of diseases such as autism and epilepsy. (Patient story: Violet Walters, with her mother Julie) |
| SIR NIGEL SHADBOLT, PhD Principal and Professorial Research Fellow in Computer Science | Jesus College, University of Oxford | Next generation artificial Intelligence |
| THOMAS F. ROSENBAUM, PhD President, Caltech Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair Professor of Physics | Caltech | The impact of technology on the field and the urgency with which we need to act. |
| RICHARD A. ANDERSEN, PhD James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience; T&C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center Leadership Chair; Director, T&C Brain-Machine Interface Center | Caltech | Brain-machine interface and mind control of robotics. (Paralysis patient story: Eric Sorto) |