Feature Documentary/2022/France, Switzerland, United States/155min /Directed by Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor

PERTH PREMIERE

Produced by the Sensory Ethnography Lab, De Humani Corporis Fabrica – the name comes from Andreas Vesalius’s set of anatomy books published in 1543 – explores the human body, effectively updating Vesalius’s project and opening the body up to the gaze of cinema. 

Surgeries unfold – sometimes recognisable, sometimes occurring inside organs with microscopic tools – doctors and nurses talk to each other, porters and caretakers move through corridors, patients – including those with dementia – wander the wards, and, in the five Parisian hospitals where the film was made, the body opens up for doctors, surgeons, researchers and the filmmaker’s camera.  

Winner Independent / Experimental Film and Video Award Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2022

Winner Documentary Award Luxembourg City Film Festival 2023

Nominee Golden Eye Cannes Film Festival 2022