“Memory is everything. Without it, we are nothing.” —Eric Kandel

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY, a critically-acclaimed biographical documentary on the life and work of neuroscientist Eric Kandel, winner in 2000 of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his research on the physiological basis of the brain’s memory storage, will premiere theatrically in New York on January 8th at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street, New York.

Kandel, born in Vienna in 1929, emigrated to the U.S. at the age of nine to escape Nazi persecution. After early studies in history and literature, he focused on medicine and became a psychoanalyst before devoting his life, for the last fifty years, to neuroscience. His research field, which is closely linked with his traumatic childhood experience during the Nazi era in Vienna and the Holocaust, is the search for memory. He relates his life story and scientific work in his award-winning autobiography, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, in 2006.

The documentary interweaves Kandel’s life story with the latest advances in neuroscience. Petra follows Kandel on a very personal journey into his own memory, which takes us to the external and internal locations of his childhood in Vienna, using both archival footage and dramatic re-creations, to his laboratory work at Columbia University in New York, and, through his research, right into the center of the brain, as he explains where and how our memories are stored.

Eric Kandel will be available for press interviews. For press kits, captioned stills, or advance DVD screeners, contact Gary Crowdus at Gary at IcarusFilms dot com

For more detailed information about IN SEARCH OF MEMORY on the filmmaker’s Web site, including a trailer (please excuse the German text), click here.

For biographical and professional information on Eric Kandel, click here and here.

To read The New York Times book review of Kandel’s autobiography, click here.

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY: THE NEUROSCIENTIST ERIC KANDEL
A film by Petra Seeger
2008 / color / 95 minutes / 1.85:1 / Stereo Digital
English and German with English Subtitles
An ICARUS FILMS Release

Opening January 8th, 2010 at the IFC Center, New York

“Mentally stimulating and emotionally affecting.” —Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

“This is not just a dry doc about brain functions. Seeger makes a convincing connection between Kandel’s work and his life as a Jew who escaped from Vienna during World War II. Kandel demurs early in the film that he isn’t easy to live with, but he’s certainly a pleasure to spend time with in a doc, and his story and his passion, which Seeger easily conveys, are, if you’ll pardon the inevitable pun, memorable.” —Hank Sartin, Time Out Chicago

"Conveys the breadth of neuroscience and the scientific process." —Alison Abbott, Nature

"Because of Kandel's powerful charm and energy, the science-less and more personal aspects of the documentary add an engaging and often comical texture to this very delicate quest for memory and remembrance." —Stephanie Lee, NYPress.com

"A passionate exploration of the life and work of Eric Kandel, the brilliant and irrepressible neurobiologist, whose pioneering work has illuminated the very workings of memory. But, like Eric, Petra Seeger's film resonates in all directions, illuminating not only the trajectory of psychology and neuroscience in the last century, but the nature of art and science, history and remembrance, work and love, inspiration and achievement. It is an unforgettable journey." —Oliver Sacks