We are Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford. We are parents to a 7 year old girl and we're also award-winning documentary filmmakers. Corny as it might sound, we genuinely want to make films that change the world.

(Photo Above: Alex Wakeford and Toni Harman  accepting the top prize, the Grand Prix Award for their previous documentary "Microbirth" at the Life Sciences Film Festival in Prague in October 2014. Copyright LSFF 2014)

Our next project is a feature-length documentary for worldwide cinema release that we hope could become a kind of self-help plan for the species!

What's The New Film?

It might be called A PROBIOTIC LIFE (working title) but it isn't about probiotics!

It's about what we can do from birth to protect our microbiome for the best possible health.

The film is a celebration of new discoveries in the human microbiome. The message is simple - to improve our health as a species, perhaps it's time for us to re-learn who we are as human beings. To become aware that we're not just human; we're actually part human, part microbe. If we want better health, maybe it's time for us all to start making choices from birth that benefit the whole human super-organism!

This is an urgent message right now as many aspects of our modern way of life seems to be impacting our microbiome; from eating processed foods to using anti-bacterial products, from life-saving practices like antibiotic therapies to C-Sections combined with the loss of our close connection with nature.

Many modern-day health problems have been linked in some way to an imbalance of our human microbiome - everything from allergies, asthma, diabetes, obesity, bowel disorders, some cancers and because of a gut-brain connection, even conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and autism.

So what will it take to make ourselves and in particular, our kids, stronger, more robust and ultimately resistant to disease? With your support, we hope to find out!

As the film reveals, the most critical time period for the human microbiome is from birth to infancy as the microbiome stabilizes sometime between 2-3 years of age. This means that how we give birth and feed our babies plus their microbial exposures during these early years could play a major part in determining their lifelong health.

(Photo above: Jarrad Marcel, Research Laboratory Coordinator, Argonne National Laboratory, collecting a swab sample from his nephew. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015).

The film explores what can new parents do to protect a child's developing microbiome and to give that child the strongest possible immune system.

After the age of 3, the microbiome shifts a little over the course of our lives and so there are still things we could all do to help restore our microbiome.

The film explores the latest science on the impact of diet on the microbiome, including finding out which type of diet might be best for your microbiome, for example, which is more microbe-friendly, paleo, vegetarian or high fibre diets? The film looks at whether or not to take prebiotics, probiotics or antibiotics, the simple changes we could make to how we live and why we all perhaps should get more down and dirty with nature.

(Photo above: Grant Fisher (the little boy on the right) and his family, one of the youngest ever recipients of a fecal transplant that "cured" recurrent C-Difficile)

The film tells emotionally-engaging personal stories; from an Amish family living in northern Indiana (a community with remarkably low rates of asthma and allergies) to a family whose infant son was "cured" of the debilitating disease C-Difficile after a fecal transplant (yes, a poo transplant!). The film also looks at the potential for microbiome-related treatment further down the road for allergies, asthma and obesity plus conditions such as Parkinson's and autism.

The film also looks at the latest advances in the medical and scientific worlds like "gauze-seeding" of the microbiome for C-Section babies, probiotic replacement body parts and fecal transplants plus exciting things that lie around the corner in terms of designing buildings that are actually good for your microbes.

(Photo above: Dr John Alverdy filmed in his lab at the University of Chicago. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015).

Scientists we have already filmed for this project include professors from Cornell University, New York University, Chicago University, Northwestern University and Kings College London with more scientists lined up to be filmed this summer!

(Photo Above: Dr Jack Gilbert in his lab at Argonne National Laboratory. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015).

Will It Change The World?

Anything is possible! We would love the film to become a kind of self-help guide for the species.

We certainly hope it inspires people to make positive changes to their lives. As the film reveals, simple small changes to diet and lifestyle could go a long way to protect, restore and rebalance the human microbiome - these changes could benefit ourselves and our families but also, potentially impact future generations.

We want this to be more than a film, we want to inspire a movement uniting forward-thinkers from around the world. We want these forward-thinkers to tell their friends in real-life and across social media, so one simple idea spreads wider and wider - the benefits of starting to live "a probiotic life".

We need your support to make this happen. Yes, we need money to complete the film - but more importantly, we need good word of mouth, to spread the idea across the world. 

(Photo above: Alex Wakeford, co-Producer / Director, "A Probiotic Life" - filming at one of the University of Chicago hospitals. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015.)

Why Are We Doing This?

Why are spending two years of our lives making a documentary about bacteria?

Honestly, we want to help shape the future. We want to play a small part in ensuring that the next generation of children is more robust and more resilient to disease. That way, future generations will be best equipped to deal with whatever health challenges lie ahead.

Isn't that ultimately what everybody wants - for ourselves, our families and our friends and even wider, for whole populations and for future generations to be the healthiest they can possibly be? 

(Photo above: Toni Harman, co-Producer /Director, A Probiotic Life - filming at the University of Chicago Gnotobiotic facility. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015.)

Who Are We To Do This?

We are professional filmmakers. We met at the London Film School where we trained twenty years ago and since then we've been making films together.

We have a strong track record. Over the past six years, we have made four feature-length films that have been distributed internationally including CREDO a psychological thriller (2008, 90 mins - released as THE DEVIL's CURSE by Lionsgate in the US), DOULA! a documentary about doulas (2010, 60 mins), FREEDOM FOR BIRTH a documentary about human rights in childbirth (2012, 60 mins).

Our last film MICROBIRTH (60 mins, 2014) about how the way we give birth impacts a baby's lifelong health - won the top prize, the Grand Prix Award, at the Life Sciences Film Festival in Prague. It's had over 1,000 public screenings all around the world and is now being distributed internationally. It's sparked massive international media interest and more importantly, it's changed people's lives. 

Why Should You Trust Us?

We will finish the film no matter what.

If we raise more than our target - terrific! We'll set some stretch goals. Every dollar raised will go towards the direct costs of making this project the best it can be. So if we raise more than our target, we'll spend more money on marketing and promotional materials to spread the word as far and wide as possible.

And you can trust us with the perks. We delivered all our perks for our FREEDOM FOR BIRTH and MICROBIRTH Indiegogo campaigns to all our contributors on time and on schedule!

And we really do care about this. We have spent the past year and spent all of our own money to get to this stage, now we need one big boost and your support to get us over the finish line for maximum global impact!

What Do We Need The Money For?

Our journey so far has taken us from an Amish farm in Indiana to a US Government Research Lab, from inside homes to operating theatres and into influential architectural firms. This summer we plan to continue our journey by doing more filming in Europe and North America. We want to film projects that are unraveling the impact of the gut microbiome on autism, Parkinson's, allergies and obesity.

We are aiming to premiere A PROBIOTIC LIFE in the Spring of 2016 at a big festival followed by a theatrical release in cinemas!

After what we hope will be a very successful cinema and VOD release, then we'll be opening the film up to you to hold your own public screening (if you choose this perk) in order to spread the message even wider. With our film FREEDOM FOR BIRTH, we had over 1,100 simultaneous public screenings all over the world on one day  - with over 100,000 seeing the film on that single day!

How Can You Help?

Please choose a perk now and contribute. That would simply be amazing!

And if you can, please tell your friends about this campaign.

And of course, please share, like, tweet and shout about it across social media.

Like our Facebook page : http://facebook.com/aprobioticlife

Follow us on Twitter @aprobioticlife : http://twitter.com/aprobioticlife

And if you're tweeting, please use the hashtag #APROBIOTICLIFE

And if you have any questions or suggestions - please let us know via the contact form on the A PROBIOTIC LIFE website, via Facebook or Twitter. We really appreciate all feedback. It helps us make this project the best that it can be.

Thank you so much. We are so excited by this project and we can't wait to get on and finish the film so we can help spark real change.

(Photo Above: Toni Harman (left) and Alex Wakeford (right), Producers/Directors, A Probiotic Life. Copyright Alto Films Ltd 2015.)

Please join us for an amazing adventure into the microbiome.