The Story
Filming since 2014, WHAT A TRIP follows Dr. Rick Doblin, the colorful founder of MAPS, on his half-century odyssey to legalize psychedelics. Filmmaker Nirvan Mullick, who has never tried psychedelics, spends a decade following Doblin’s tireless efforts to make MDMA into a prescription medicine. Nirvan and Rick’s stories converge as Doblin’s unlikely psychedelic dream gets closer to becoming real.
Our Team
NIRVAN MULLICK | DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
Nirvan Mullick is an award-winning filmmaker working at the intersection of storytelling and social impact. Nirvan has created viral films and campaigns, from the short documentary “Caine’s Arcade” that launched Imagination.org, to the UN Foundation’s #EarthToParis campaign leading to the Paris Climate Agreement. Nirvan’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Christian Science Monitor, as well as the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. He speaks about creativity and storytelling to companies and non-profits worldwide. Nirvan received an MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts and a BA in Philosophy and Fine Arts from New College — the same college where Rick Doblin first experimented with psychedelics in 1971. Nirvan lives in Ojai, California under a 250-year-old pecan tree.
DARREN ARONOFSKY | EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Darren Aronofsky is an Academy Award–nominated American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University and AFT to study both live-action and animation. Darren’s films include Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Noah, Mother! and The Whale. Darren directed Postcard from Earth, the first film to screen at “The Sphere” in Las Vegas, and is working on the Elon Musk biopic with A24. Aronofsky is the founder and head of the production company, Protozoa Pictures.
DREAM MULLICK | PRODUCER
Dream Mullick is a producer and teacher who curates programs at the intersections of ancient ceremony and modern psychedelic science. As Interconnected's Director of Development, she helped create the UN Foundation's #EarthToParis Campaign that built momentum toward the Paris Climate Agreement. Dream has hosted the Psychedelic Healing Summit for the Shift Network, brought psychedelic curriculum to the Esalen Institute, and created Esalen's first digital hybrid program, Entheowheel. She has been producing with her brother Nirvan since 2013, after working in commercial production in Albuquerque. Dream holds a BA in Business from the Anderson School of Management at University of New Mexico.
VICKIE CURTIS | STORY CONSULTANT
Vickie Curtis is an Emmy-winning filmmaker, writer, and story architect who has worked as a story consultant for documentaries including The Social Dilemma (Sundance, Netflix), Chasing Coral (Sundance, Netflix), and the upcoming Immortality Key documentary. The focus of her work involves elevating nonfiction film with the same strong characters and narrative arc that make great fiction so compelling. A theatre nerd at heart, she seeks stories that reveal the transformational and nourishing power of artistic expression.
JEFFREY SCHNEIDER | CINEMATOGRAPHER
Jeffrey Schneider is a Los Angeles-based Director of Photography with over 15 years of experience filming documentaries, television shows, commercials, and feature films. His work has appeared on Showtime, ESPN, MTV, the History Channel, as well as at festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, South by Southwest, Berlin, and Seattle International Film Festival. Commercially he has worked with brands including Google, Dior, Nike, Microsoft, and Canon. Jeffrey has a BA in Film and Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and studied Documentary Filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.