The Invisible Extinction

Co-Producer

Directed by Sarah Schenck & Steven Lawrence
2022 | 85 min

World Premiere, CPH:DOX, 2022

Our microbes are rapidly vanishing and life-threatening diseases are skyrocketing. But what makes these ‘good germs’ so important? They evolved alongside us for 200,000 years - and are collectively called our microbiome - they keep us healthy by regulating our immune systems and digesting our food. Over the last seventy years we’ve lost half of our microbial diversity at the same time we’ve seen stratospheric increases in deadly diseases like asthma, food allergies, obesity, and diabetes. Is the destruction of our microbiome making us sick?

Two globetrotting microbiologists, Gloria Dominguez-Bello and Marty Blaser, race to stop the vanishing microbiome before it's too late. The Invisible Extinction joins them on this urgent quest from the USA to Venezuela, China, Israel, and Switzerland, showing us how the overuse of antibiotics, elective C-sections, and processed foods are driving the destruction of our inner ecology, which is happening even faster than climate change. At the same time, the film tells the stories of three patients, in the USA and China, who suffer from life-threatening diseases triggered by microbial loss and are trying experimental treatments that hold hope. As the Covid-19 pandemic hits, Marty pivots to focus on how our microbes may help protect us from the virus and future pandemics, while Gloria spearheads the creation of an international microbe vault to safeguard precious specimens.