Genesis 2.0

It technically came out in 2018 but there was no way for me to see it until this year. The film follows both genetic scientists and a group of mammoth hunters who look for frozen remains in northern Siberia. This film covers many topics including survival, the resurrection of extinct species and even eugenics. The two sides of the film, the hunters and the scientists, don't always mix well and the film can kinda drag sometimes as a result, but there were so many amazing moments in this movie that excited me more than any blockbuster I saw this year that I don't dare reveal here. It is also very scary and raises many ethical questions. It's like a real-life Jurassic Park. Should we look more into this kind of technology or should we not open Pandora's Box? It makes you think. I recommend checking this one out if you like science or survival stories. I think you'll enjoy it. I sure did, and I can't wait to own a pet mammoth some day!

The movie shifts from documenting the conditions of Siberian workers, the science of cloning mammoths, and the ethics of cloning. Sadly he only touches very superficial on all three points, and the movie uses too much time flattering pseudo-scientists.

At least it woke my sympathy for the Siberian tusk hunters.

Can a woolly mammoth be resurrected? Various groups in the US, Russia, China, S. Korea are working toward that end - either an elephant/mammoth hybrid or a mammoth itself. We follow Siberian mammoth tusk hunters in the New Siberian Islands as they search for remains, and tusks. Russia exports 30 to 80 tons/year of mammoth ivory mostly to China for carving. The most well preserved mammoth found so far was found in 2013 where actual blood still flowed from a mammoth wound. Cloning is highly possible as both hybrid (zorse - horse + zebra) clones and fully cloned animals (e.g. recently dead pets) have been done since 2005. Engineering life will help all of life, e.g. saving honey bees; adding Vit. A to rice; halting genetic sourced diseases that can disable or kill.

The equally intriguing and disturbing film that tells two stories in parallel, one about tusk hunters and the other about scientific advances that raise the prospect of cloning mammoths. Maxim Arbugaev, co-director and cinematographer, becomes part of the team during the search for the fangs.