In an unusual marriage of art and science, Death by Design takes viewers on a fantastic journey through remarkable terrain. Its destination: the land of cells. In this invisible world, cells communicate with each other, work together, reproduce, and die, all to benefit the larger organism of which they are a part. Death by Design is a guided tour through this invisible world, told through a collage of metaphors. State-of-the-art micro-cinematography is playfully intercut with parallel images from life at the human scale: a hundred lighted violins, imploding skyscrapers and pieces of film on the cutting room floor. Well grounded factually, the program contains interviews with noted biologists including Rita Levi-Montalcini, a programmed-cell-death pioneer and winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Death by Design is anything but a dull science film. It is one which, in the words of co-director Friedman, should be seen by "everyone with cells!"

Produced and directed by Peter Friedman & Jean-François Brunet.

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Presented by ITVS