1999 Film Events Guide Microbes in the Movies Wednesday March 3 Saturday March 6 Saturday March 7 Saturday March 11 Saturday March 18 Saturday March 25 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival of the American Museum of Natural History presents Microbes in the Movies The Satan Bug Series: $63 ($54 members/students/senior citizens) Individual programs: $8 ($7 members/students/senior citizens) Six dates in March Kaufmann Theater, first floor For tickets call 212-769-5200. (Please refer to program code.) The microbes that create epidemics are invisible; the diseases they produce, and their impact on individuals and communities are not. Ten provocative programs explore the depiction of infectious disease in film, as well as the cultural and historical contexts in which these portrayals were created. Included are examples ranging from the early years of silent cinema, to public service announcements, animation, documentary, and science fiction, to outrageous musical comedy. Discussions with filmmakers, media critics, health specialists, and activists follow the screenings. Wednesday, March 3 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Program STD1 "Hollywood Sci-Fi Meets Biological Terrorism" The Satan Bug (U.S.) John Sturges. 1965. 114 min. 35mm film. Drama. It's 1965, and a lethal virus has been stolen from a top-secret U.S. government laboratory. This psychological thriller and Cold War period piece captures the anxiety posed by the threat of an invisible invasion. Loosely based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name, with a script by Edward Anhalt and James Clavell and starring George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Ann Francis, Dana Andrews, Edward Asner, and Frank Sutton. John S. Marr, Senior Lecturer, New York Medical College, Graduate School of Health Sciences. Saturday, March 6 12 noon - 2 p.m. Program STD2 "From Hookworm to AIDS: Getting the Word Out" Unhooking the Hookworm Unhooking the Hookworm* (U.S.) 1920. 10 min. B & W. Silent. This educational drama was created by the International Board (later the Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation) in order to teach Southern rural communities about hookworm. Shown at fairs and other public events, "Unhooking the Hookworm" provides an early example of the innovative use of film to educate communities about public health issues. Discussion. Images of HIV/AIDS Around the World(U.S.) Stanford Public Health Service Project. 1994. 23 min. N.Y. Premiere. This compilation tape of live-action and animated sequences from around the world ‹ from Hong Kong to Zimbabwe, from India to Norway ‹ shows how worldwide media campaigns use comedy and drama to educate people about the AIDS virus. Discussion. Decision: Julio & Marisol (U.S.) 1990-present. Total Running Time: 30 minutes. "Decision," the multimedia, bilingual HIV-prevention campaign that has achieved significant respect and recognition, serves as a case study of the application of social marketing principles to public health practice. The program will include an explanation of the development of this captivating New York City subway poster campaign, from epidemiological review through message creation to execution and evaluation. Discussion with Ann Sternberg, New York City Department of Health. 2:30 - 4:15 p.m. Program STD3 "Targeting TB: Film in the Anti-Tuberculosis Campaign" Total Running Time: 51 min. This session will screen a range of American-produced media that brands "the other" ‹ women, Native Americans, and African-Americans ‹ as carriers of this disease. Titles include: "Let My People Live" (1938. 14 min.), in which a poor black southern woman applies home remedies to eradicate TB; "Another to Conquer"** (1941. 22 min.), a dramatization of TB transmission in a Navajo community; and "Target TB"** (1950. 15 min.), which linked TB prevention to issues of nationalsecurity, and was used to engage women in the TB screening campaign. This program is presented by Lisa Cartwright, associate professor of English and of Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester. She is the author of Screening the Body: Tracing Medicine's Visual Culture (Minnesota, 1995), and coeditor of The Visible Woman: Imaging Technologies, Gender, and Science (New York University Press, 1997). 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. Program STD4 "Ebola: In Our Backyard?" The Plague Monkeys The Plague Monkeys Elliott Halpern. 1995. 56 min. Video. Documentary. Few viruses have had such sensational press attention as Ebola. It has been the subject of mainstream film, as seen in the feature film "Outbreak," and of a best-selling book, "The Hot Zone." This film explores the 1989 Ebola scare in Reston, Virginia. It follows virus hunters and looks at the techniques that were employed to keep the potential epidemic under control. Discussion. with Stephen S. Morse, Joseph Mailman school of Public Health, Columbia University . 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Program STD5 "Leprosy: Dawn of Contagious Misconceptions" Secret People (U.S.) John Anderson, Laura Harrison. 1998. 59 min. 16mm film. Documentary. U.S. Premiere. Although it has conjured horrific images of society's most feared outcasts ever since Biblical days, leprosy is in fact a mildly communicable disease that has been treatable since the 1940s. "Secret People" recounts the shocking history of this disease in America through the voices of victims who live in the last remaining leprosy sanatorium, in Carville, Louisiana. Discussion with directors. Sunday, March 7 12:00 noon - 2:30 p.m. Program STD6 "Politics & Epidemic: Big Business &Government;" Sardinian Project* (Italy) Jack Chambers, Arthur Calder-Marshall. 1948. 35 min. B & W. Documentary. Video. This industrial film, produced by the Shell Film Unit, celebrates the what was once believed to be a groundbreaking way to eradicate the malarial mosquito: a mixture of DDT insecticide, petrochemicals, and simple fuel oil, used in Sardinia in the 1950s. Discussion with Darwin H. Stapleton, Director, Rockefeller Archive Center. Socialism or Death (Cuba) Bengt Norborg, Bo Sand. 1995.48 min. Documentary. Video. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, nearly 200 roqueros‹Cuban hard-core rock-and-roll fans‹injected themselves with HIV-infected blood. Their mission: to protest government involvement in their lives and to seek the relative comforts of quarantine, where they are better fed than their fellow countrymen and enjoy rock music in peace. Discussion. 3:00 - 5:30 p.m. Program STD7 "Native Communities Face Epidemics: Yesterday & Today" Yesterday: TB in the Central Arctic Coppermine Coppermine (Canada) Ray Harper. 1992. 55 min. Documentary. 16mm. N.Y. Premiere. In the late 1920s, the Coppermine Indians of Canada's central Arctic were nearly decimated by the tuberculosis, or "ship's illness," introduced by Canadian, American, and British entrepreneurs and missionaries. This historical documentary explores the politics of government indifference to this indigenous community, and includes both reenactments and remarkable footage from the early twentieth century by Canadian ethnologist Diamond Jenness. Discussion with director and producer. Today: AIDS in Indigenous Australia How Could I Know?(Australia) John Whitteron. 1991. 4 min. Music Video. U.S. Premiere. Rock video advocating safe sex and promoting AIDS awareness. Help Stop AIDS (Australia) CAAMA Productions. 1989. 17 min. Documentary. U.S. Premiere. From sex to scarification, this indigenous instructional video from the Borroloola community deals with AIDS prevention and community health concerns. The Adventures of Cuz Congress (Australia) David Batty. 1991. 15 min. excerpt. Drama. U.S. Premiere. This is a campy, humorous series about an indigenous Australian caped crusader who fights for "good health, good life and the aboriginal way." Everybody's Business(Australia) CAAMA Productions. 1993. 15 min. excerpt. Drama. U.S. Premiere. A dramatization of how a rural indigenous community copes with the AIDS virus ("whitefellas sickness") by challenging traditional notions of individual illness, and responding as a community. This material is presented by Faye Ginsburg, professor, Department of Anthropology, and director, Program in Media and Culture, New York University. Thursday, March 11 Program STD8 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. In Their Own Voices Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien(U.S.) Jessica Yu. 1996. 35 min. 16mm film. Winner of the 1996 Academy Award for best short documentary, this film questions all our notions about living with disability. Poet-journalist and National Public Radio commentator Mark O'Brien contracted polio as a child and lives in an iron lung. For more than forty years, he has fought against illness and bureaucracy for his right to lead an independent life. Discussion. The Spirit Within (U.S.) The Spirit Within Scott Thode. 1994-1996. 30 min. Slide Presentation. Stunning portraits and candid personal reflections, sometimes sober, sometimes playful and heartening, offer a range of responses to living with HIV-AIDS. Photo-projection will be accompanied by dramatic readings. Scott Thode is a photographer who has been documenting individuals with AIDS for over a decade. His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, LIFE, and shown nationally and internationally. Discussion with photographer. Thursday, March 18 Program STD9 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. "Syphilis at the Cinema": U.S. Public Health Service VD Films of World War II. Total Running Time: 50 minutes John Parascandola, historian, U.S. Public Health Service, presents the films "Know for Sure," "A Venereal Disease Rapid Treatment Center," and "To the People of the United States," which were produced for the Public Health Service as part of an information campaign about syphilis and gonorrhea. Please note::Some of the these films contain graphic sequences. Thursday, March 25 6:30 - 9:15 p.m. Program STD10 Sick Humor, Dark Comedy Don't Run Johnny (U.S.) Tom E. Brown. 1996. 7 min. 16mm film. B & W. Inspired by the B-movies of legendary schlockmeister Ed Wood, Jr., we follow the "average gay guy's" panic upon learning that he's HIV-positive. Discussion with director. Rubber Gloves(U.S.) Tom E. Brown. 1998. 6 min. 35mm film. B & W. N.Y. Premiere "Ah AIDS, you make me stronger baby, stronger than any superhero. . . ." Evoking the dark side of a greeting card, the narrator provides a twisted take on the social, psychological, and physical consequences of living with AIDS. Discussion with director. Zero Patience (Canada) John Greyson. 1993. 120 min. 35mm film. It's a musical! It's a drama! It's a comedy! It's outrageous! It's the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" of infectious disease. A modern-day Sir Richard Burton organizes a museum exhibition on epidemics. Discussion with director. Please note: Highly graphic. For mature audiences only. * Rockefeller Archive Center. ** Courtesy of the American Lung Association® © 1999 American Museum of Natural History