Once a famous neuroscientist, Dr. Phil Kennedy, made global headlines for implanting wire electrodes in the brain of a paralyzed man and then teaching the patient to control a computer with his mind. That was in the 1990s and he was compared to Alexander Graham Bell in The Washington Post and became known as "Father of the Cyborgs". He made headlines more recently in 2014 when he travelled to South America and had tiny electrodes implanted inside his own brain in order to continue his research. Director David Burke creates a fascinating portrait of this brilliant yet divisive figure in the neuro-surgery field as well as a nuanced exploration of neuro-security, ethics and self-experimentation. —Dan Hunt (Tribeca)
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A neurologist known as "the father of cyborgs" confronts the ethical quandaries of self-experimentation and a future where human brains and technology combine. Neurologist Phil Kennedy made global headlines in the late 90’s by connecting the brain of a paralyzed man to a computer. He was compared to Alexander Graham Bell and became famously known as ‘The Father of the Cyborgs’. Then in 2014, he shocked the medical and scientific community and his family when he traveled to Belize to implant his own brain in an attempt to continue his research. That brazen act nearly incapacitated him for life. Undeterred, the controversial inventor now wonders whether the field he pioneered might lead to unintended consequences in a future where technology and human brains seamlessly combine and create class differences as a result of extreme cognitive advantages. FATHER OF THE CYBORGS explores Kennedy’s single-minded and relentless quest to unlock the mystery of speech for locked-in patients, the knotty history of brain-computer interfacing and mind control, and the emerging debate about neuro-ethics and mental privacy. (Science on Screen)