I was lucky enough to attend a screening of The Fly Room (Ed note: The trailer is NSFW) at Harvard Medical School last week. The film, which combines my interests in science and cinema, casts scientists as characters in the story of the scientific process. The result is a unique story of a fascinating group of scientists that captures the excitement of life in the lab as well as the difficulties of balancing a passion for science with the demands of everyday life.

The Fly Room is set in the lab of Thomas Hunt Morgan at Columbia University, where he worked from 1904 to1927. Often considered the birthplace of modern genetics research, Morgan's lab was nicknamed "The Fly Room" for its pioneering use of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to study genetics. The lab made several major contributions toward understanding genetic mutations, heredity, and sex-linked traits, and Morgan went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for his research on the role of chromosomes in heredity.

Alexis Gambis, the film's writer and director, became interested in the Fly Room during his PhD in molecular biology at the Rockefeller University. While researching the history of the lab, he decided to find the daughters of three Morgan lab members, Calvin Bridges, Alfred Sturtevant (nicknamed Sturt), and Herman Muller. Through these conversations, particularly with Betsey Bridges, he found a new way to tell the story of the Morgan lab. Gambis describes the film as docufiction, combining the truth of the science, the memories of the three daughters, and a bit of dramatic license to fill in the traditional cinematic structure.

The film uses Betsey's visit to the Fly Room as a 10-year-old girl to explore the science at the heart of the Morgan lab and her relationship with her father, Calvin Bridges. Bridges was a well-coiffed and handsome genius who helped the Fly Room with his clever inventions and his keen eye for fly mutations. His passion for science was rivaled only by his passion for women, leading to difficulties with the demands of family life. These conflicts form the emotional core of the film, as Bridges struggles in his relationships with his wife and daughter. Gambis says he wanted to portray this complicated relationship in a delicate and respectful way; thus, many of the more unsavory details of Bridges' life are not explicitly stated (most notably his death from heart failure at 49, thought to be related to syphilis).

During her two days in the Fly Room, Betsey learns about science from her father as well as from Sturt and Muller. This narrative structure allows Gambis to tell the audience about science in relatively simple terms. The lab members teach Betsey how different genes reside on different chromosomes using the gene totem, seen in the background of the top image above, which Bridges designed to help the lab map genes. They discuss the basis of sex determination by the X and Y chromosomes, a process described by Nettie Stevens, an earlier member of the Morgan lab. Finally, they talk about genetic mutations, specifically by pointing out the various fruit fly mutants in the lab, which have names like white, yellow, frizzled, and bithorax.

The scenes in the lab were the most interesting, in part because of the well-written scientific dialogue but also because they provided insight into the relationships between labmates. The interactions between Bridges, Sturt, and Muller capture both the intensity and the humor of life in the lab. The scenes in the lab were also compelling to watch due to the amazing set design. The Fly Room website details how the designers took great pains to create an accurate depiction of the Morgan lab. During a Q&A at the screening, Gambis said this included hunting down floorplans from Columbia University from the early 20th century and finding the actual lab space, which today is hidden behind some offices in the art history department. The lab space was not much bigger than a closet, and it was filled with overripe bananas and old milk bottles that were brimming with fruit flies and stuffed with gauze. This attention to detail paid off—the lab space was evocative of a very different time and place.

The Fly Room also includes intermittent footage of fruit flies filmed with a macro lens. Gambis discussed the challenges of obtaining this footage not because of the filmmaking techniques but due to the difficulties in getting the fruit fly stocks he wanted. To this end, Gambis enlisted the help of several New York City Drosophila labs. The labs had a particularly difficult time getting a bithorax fly; Gambis described the hurried taxi ride from the lab to his apartment with the elusive mutant fly, which died shortly after filming. The scientific community also participated in other elements of The Fly Room. Thomas Hunt Morgan was played by Stuart Firestein, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, and Rockefeller neurobiologist Leslie Vosshall played Edith Wallace, the Morgan lab illustrator. The film credits include acknowledgments of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which Bridges visited in the summers; CSHL has an extensive collection related to Calvin Bridges, which is worth checking out if you want to learn more about this fascinating scientist.

The Fly Room begins a limited theatrical release on September 29. Check The Fly Room screening schedule for a showing near you.

