SYNOPSIS

Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis documents the life of an artist who is drive to pursue questions that can only be answered in the space where science and art lose their individual distinction. Why would someone want to encode poetry into the eyes of a fly, fish for paramecium or send transgenic organisms into outer space? Joe Davis' projects can seem fantastical, impossible, even ill-advised. A deeper look into his work reveals a hidden logic that is surprising and contagious - more philosophy than art.

Working with hundreds of hours of footage shot over ten years from around the world, archival footage, photographs and interviews from respected scientists and artists, Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis not only answers these questions, but illuminates why these questions are important now, at this moment in human history.

FROM THE DIRECTOR / Peter Sasowsky

I first saw Joe Davis at a bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the late 1990s and he was twirling around on his peg-leg, giving a young woman the dance of her life. He fell hard on the ground, but got up, smiling. At that moment, I did not know - nor would have believed - what he does in his working life. I was simply drawn to a pureness of spirit that I sensed was present in him.

In the years that followed, I have traveled with him to Portugal, Germany, France, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Sweden, Canada, as well as all over the United States in order to understand his life and his work. He has created a particular type of artistic freedom for himself that is instructive and, at times, inspirational, but one that comes at a great cost.

He has been called the "Father of Bio-art" for his pioneering work with transgenic organisms. He has been featured on Nightline, in Scientific American, and has collaborated with some of the greatest minds in contemporary science. But that is not why I made this film.

What good art does is shape our perception of the world. The artists who offer the greatest leaps of imagination are often the least understood - at least within their lifetimes. It is not for me to say whether or not Joe is one of those pioneers. What I do know is that he offers a unique contribution to the discussion of what it means to be human.