Film Premiere: SPOOL

Join us for the first screening of the documentary film SPOOL. SPOOL explores how Parkinson’s disease is a lived story of time – not only as duration, but as rhythm, process, and repetition, from the scale of brain cells to that of society. The film follows people living with Parkinson’s, while stem cell researchers work to understand the disease and develop new knowledge in neuroscience.

Spooling Time Back and Forth

The title SPOOL refers to a spool that can be wound forwards and backwards. For many people with Parkinson’s, it can feel as though time is being rewound as previously acquired skills are gradually lost. At the same time, researchers using new techniques can “rewind” and “fast-forward” the development of brain cells in the laboratory to better understand the disease.

Across Disease, Art, and Research

The film brings together people living with Parkinson’s, professional ballet dancers, and researchers from the NNF Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). By bringing patients, dancers, and researchers together, the film creates a community among people who rarely meet, but who share valuable experiences and insights into Parkinson’s. SPOOL shows how these encounters can enrich both research and science communication, while creating a deeper understanding of the different experiences of time that shape life with Parkinson’s and the hope for scientific breakthroughs. The film premiere is part of the events programme accompanying the exhibition Liquid Bodies – Stem Cells and New Biotechnologies.

Practical Information

Tuesday, 10 November at 19:00
Auditorium, Medical Museion, Bredgade 62, 1260 Copenhagen K
Free and open to everyone. Registration via Billetto
Please note: The museum is located in a listed building dating from 1787 and has no elevator or accessibility lift. Unfortunately, the auditorium is not suitable for visitors with limited mobility.

Programme

Introduction by researchers and filmmakers Tine Friis and Eduardo Abrantes
Screening of SPOOL
Conversation between Tine Friis, Eduardo Abrantes, and curator Pernille Lystlund Madtzen

Background

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic and progressive neurological disorder. It fundamentally alters the experience of time and can, in many ways, be understood as a lived story of time.

Around 1,500 people in Denmark are diagnosed with Parkinson’s each year. Of these, approximately 150 are aged 40 or younger. Together with their families, they live with the disease for decades, experiencing how the loss of specific brain cells gradually rewinds time for previously acquired skills, such as fine motor control.

Parkinson’s disease remains a scientific puzzle. Although the mechanisms of the disease in the brain have been extensively studied, its progression can currently only be slowed, not prevented or stopped.

In the neuroscience stem cell laboratory, researchers rewind and fast-forward the development of brain cells to better understand the disease. In Dance for Parkinson’s ballet classes, different dimensions of time are embodied through rhythm and movement as a way of living better with Parkinson’s.

SPOOL is a social science documentary film project.