A Life Illuminated

I’m an avid diver, and I myself have been down on Triton subs. Filmmaker Tasha Van Zandt and cinematographer Sebastian Zeck do great work capturing the thrill and adventure of such dives. This is no small feat, since they had to take two submersibles down to the sea floor to get external footage.   

There’s only one small thing I’ll ding the movie for, and that is that it indulges in the trope that we’ve explored so little of the ocean compared to space, partly because we’ve spent less money on it. This is a complicated subject — sure, funding is part of it, but as the film illustrates, it is partly because of technology. Physics plays a role too, because it is very hard to illuminate or explore vast areas of the ocean, compared to spacecraft that could easily map a whole planet from orbit, even with half-century-old technology. There was a Cold War reason for the space race as well. But my main beef with this argument is that we should never pit one form of science against another. All science deserves better funding, not just because it has a great return on investment, but because it is us at our purest and most noble — exploration not for financial gain, but for the joy of discovery.

“…profound and revelatory, a monument to science, technology, human ingenuity, and our understanding of life on Earth.”

It is this point that A Life Illuminated excels at making — humans are curious creatures, and when we bring incredible resources to bear to better understand the universe, we can unlock the awe and wonder present all around us. As a scientist myself, I’m not normally a fan of mixing the personal story with the scientific one — I just want more science! But in this case, Widder herself is a key part of our quest to understand bioluminescence. The fact that she had to overcome so many barriers to do so is all the more inspirational. It adds drama and reminds us that science doesn’t just happen automatically — it takes drive, dedication, determination, and working together with a large team that may include other scientists, engineers, ship builders, funding agencies, and even film crews.

A Life Illuminated is an incredible film. It takes us to one of the most extreme places on Earth, it reveals previously unseen phenomena, it takes us on the journey of scientific discovery, and it is an inspiration. All for the price of a single movie ticket.  I can’t think of a better deal.

A Life Illuminated screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.