David Lebrun was driving along in Hollywood when he heard the perfect voice for his film. The noted Broadway actress Marian Seldes was narrating a story on National Public Radio.

"It was captivating. I pulled over and wondered, 'Who is that voice?'" Lebrun quickly tracked her down in New York and waited in the wings as she concluded her performance in an off-Broadway production of an Edward Albee play. On the advice of a friend in the theater business, Lebrun offered Seldes "a single white rose" and the deal was sealed. She agreed to narrate Proteus, a film that Lebrun had been personally nurturing for 22 years.

It is, in part, a story about a scientist, Ernst Haeckel ,who dedicated his life to the study of microscopic organisms on the ocean floor. But Lebrun, an anthropological film maker, saw Haeckel's work in a much larger context.

The great debate during Haeckel's life at the turn of the 19th century centered on reconciling new scientific theories with existing religious and cultural dogma. According to Lebrun's beautifully written narrative, the scientist's parents wanted their son to become a doctor. Haeckel, however, had an artist's temperament..

The two paths merge when Haeckel discovers and begins documenting an ocean-dwelling, one-celled organism, the radiolarian. The biologist/artist's stunning drawings of 4,000 species of radiolaria form the backdrop for Lebrun's documentary.

Lebrun's spin on Haeckel's work is understandable considering his own background. The filmmaker, whose father was a well-known painter, was born in Los Angeles and sent to an alternative high school in Arizona that emphasized world cultures. In college, Lebrun opted to study the philosophy of culture, myth and religion.

"Then someone put a camera in my hands", he says.

Lebrun's passion for examining diverse cultures led him to his own Plains Indian quest and later to an in-depth study of Mayan culture. A National Endowment for the Humanities grant eventually led to a four-part Public Broadcasting System series on a Maya village in the Yucatan.

But Haeckel stayed in the back of his mind and finally, Lebrun was able to set aside time to finish it. Not knowing if Proteus really fit any specific category, last fall Lebrun entered it in the Sundance Film Festival Documentary competition. When they called him, he said, "It was stunning to hear I was in; at times I thought the film would sink like a stone in the sea."

Sundance chose to place the film in the "Special Screenings" category, which is just fine with Lebrun. "To any degree I can get it shown, I'll be delighted", he said, adding that he is most looking forward to seeing his film with an audience and "seeing what the response is."

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