Late Shift's Matt Genesis Brings Rutgers' Breakthrough Cancer Research to Life in Emotional Film

Late Shift has partnered with Agency Pure, Legend Labs, and Rutgers University on a powerful new film spotlighting groundbreaking cancer research underway at Rutgers, and the people whose lives it has the potential to transform.

Developed by Agency Pure and Legend Labs, the film’s strategy and creative center on the idea that breakthroughs happen when someone is willing to try “one more thing,” bringing the potentially life-changing impact of Rutgers’ cancer research into deeply human terms.

Directed by Late Shift co-founder Matt Genesis, the film takes viewers on an emotional journey from the devastating reality of a terminal cancer diagnosis toward something once thought impossible: a future beyond it.

Click here to watch the spot

That idea comes to life through work being done at Rutgers Cancer Institute to engineer a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and attack cancer. The research is focused on one-time treatments designed not simply to slow the disease, but to eliminate it and prevent it from returning.

Genesis and the team grounded the film in the human experience behind the science. The story moves through the fear and uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis before opening into the moments that suddenly become possible again – another birthday, another memory, another moment with the people you love.

“The science behind this work is extraordinary, but what really struck us was what that science means on a human level,” says Late Shift EP John Hollingsworth. “We wanted the film to live in that emotional space. It’s not just about a treatment or a breakthrough – it’s about the possibility of getting your life back, and all of the seemingly-ordinary moments that become incredibly meaningful when you thought you might never have them again.”

Late Shift handled both production and post-production on the film, working closely with Agency Pure and Legend Labs to bring the creative vision to life through a cinematic visual language that could carry the story’s emotional progression while keeping the research and the people behind it at the center.

The resulting film brings a deeply personal lens to an ambitious area of cancer research, ultimately arriving at the film’s defining message: “It’s only incurable until it isn’t.”