Gattaca

In a dystopian future that prizes ideal DNA above all, a genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel. 

Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and Gore Vidal star in this landmark 1997 sci-fi film, which takes place in a perfection-obsessed future society in which genetic discrimination is the law of the land and children are conceived only through genetic selection. Before the film, Dr. Immaculata De Vivo, molecular epidemiologist and professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, will discuss the scientific and ethical implications of the future presented in the film.

About the Gattaca

In the not-too-distant future, a less-than-perfect man wants to travel to outer space. Society has categorized Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) as a genetically inferior "in-valid," and he has become one of the underclass of humans that are only useful for menial jobs. He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a perfect genetic specimen. He assumes Jerome's identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman). Just when Vincent is finally scheduled for a space mission, a Gattaca officer (Gore Vidal) is killed and the police begin an investigation, jeopardizing his secret.

About Immaculata De Vivo 

Immaculata De Vivo is an international leader in the area of molecular and genetic epidemiology of cancer. De Vivo’s unique interdisciplinary approach—combining molecular biology, genetics, and epidemiology—to understanding the impact of natural variation on cancer risk has been invaluable to the field of cancer research, and her work has been recognized by the American Cancer Society, from which she received the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant. Her research focuses on how the environment interacts with genetic variants to influence susceptibility to hormonal cancers, primarily endometrial cancer.

She is the Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71 Faculty Codirector of the Sciences at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health. In 2010, she was named scientific director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Genotyping and Genetics for Population Sciences Core. She was recently named the editor in chief of the internationally recognized journal Cancer Causes & Control.