Fabián, now a Cullman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum
of Natural History, was delighted to be approached by Bayley-despite
the fact that it was only at the end of the conversation with Bayley
that he understood that he had 48 hours to pack and join the crew
in Caracas!
Fabián
knew well the locations shown in the film. He had been to Roraima
over 20 times, and 8-10 times to the other sites featured in Lost
Worlds. But it was a novelty for him to visit these places with
a film crew. He was fascinated by the complexity of the IMAX equipment
and even flew the helicopter once. Normally, his trips to Roraima
allow him to work at his own pace or with a few other scientists,
but the Lost Worlds experience was quite a contrast. Working
with such a different set of people and equipment required patience
and flexibility.
While his friends left for vacations at Disneyland, the young Fabián
and his family would go camping in the Andes—trips that would
often incorporate his father's fieldwork. Fabián enjoyed helping
his dad capture animals for study. This exposure to nature and science
made Fabián committed to a career in science. He obtained a
degree in biology from the Central University in Caracas—a huge
institution with over 55,000 undergraduate students—and continued
his studies, pursuing a doctorate at Cornell University in the United
States.
His childhood experiences engendered a love of fieldwork. To be a
good biologist, Fabián explains, you need to know everything
about the organism you study. And where better to see this than in
its natural habitat? He describes his job as a scientific researcher
as split evenly over four areas: fieldwork, lab work, data analysis,
and writing. Although Fabián recognizes that writing is crucial-scientific
research is worthless until it is communicated with others-he admits
that fieldwork is his favorite aspect of the work.
Fabián is a fan of IMAX movies. The superior sound and visual
quality of the large-screen experience, he says, help to make viewers
feel that they are actually right there in the action and connected
to that place. And this, he believes, helps people to understand and
feel committed to the issues surrounding the threats to global biodiversity.
Fabián suggests that this process is partly facilitated by
the film's focus on the work of regular scientists. This human touch
makes a faraway, exotic land full of weird plants and animals seem
less foreign and isolated to U.S. viewers. He's interested especially
in the ability of IMAX to influence young people—the scientists
of tomorrow. Lost Worlds, he hopes, will transmit general ideas
about biodiversity and conservation that will spark young peoples'
natural curiosity about their world.
Watch
Fabián talk about the film (4.5 mb)
