'Music Instinct' Documentary Takes Paris Prize

A new television documentary on the neuroscience behind our love of music has won the prestigious Grand Prix award at the international science film festival Pariscience 2009, according to a press release from the National Science Foundation.

Titled The Music Instinct: Science and Song, the NSF-funded television documentary examines the work of a number of prominent researchers and musicians "to investigate the biological, emotional and psychological impact of music."

In the film, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin and his colleagues looked at how we perceive the music of musicians such as Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Jarvis Cocker, Evelyn Glennie and Richard Hawley, among others, "to explore the connections between music and the human mind, the body and the universe."

The Pariscience festival is the largest annual science film festival. It is held, as one might expect, in Paris, France.

According to the group, "Forty films dealing with scientific subjects are presented to more than 6,000 people — 2,500 schoolchildren, 3,500 large audience including professionals," and "each screening is followed by a debate with filmmakers and scientists."

The festival is organized by France's Association Science & Télévision, "which seeks to promote the role of science on television and promote co-productions between international producers, institutions, researchers, filmmakers and television."

The Music Instinct producers "split a prize of 10,000 euros as part of being awarded the best film in competition."

You can learn more about the documentary here.

Photo courtesy of NSF/Trix Rosen Photography