The Afterlife of Einstein’s Brain

Immediately after the death in 1955 of the 20th Century’s most renowned scientist, the brain of Albert Einstein was removed in the hope that it would help in the search for the physical origin of intelligence. But what followed and what lies at the heart of this production is a surreal journey for the brain and the filmmaker, each criss-crossing North America from Princeton New Jersey to the Midwest to the West Coast and back again, in the search for meaning in what may ultimately be unknowable, the mystery of genius. Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist at Princeton University who performed the autopsy and took custody of the brain is a central character in the documentary but the filmmaker’s wry sense of humor and naïve point of view sets the tone. The macabre and mundane travel together in this engaging road movie.