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1543 lines
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<title>Medicine on Screen</title>
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<title>Promoting Birth Control in 1970s Colombia: Unlikely Alliances On and Off the Screen</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2024/07/09/promoting-birth-control-in-1970s-colombia-unlikely-alliances-on-and-off-the-screen/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2024/07/09/promoting-birth-control-in-1970s-colombia-unlikely-alliances-on-and-off-the-screen/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Circulating Now]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=21334</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[<strong>NEWEST ESSAY & FILM </strong><br>By Paula Orozco-Espinel, MA<br>
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This essay focuses on six films on “population issues” and family planning projects in Latin America, specifically Colombia. Produced by Airlie Productions during the 1970s, many of these films were supported by Profamilia—arguably the most successful associate to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in the world and the most important Colombian family planning organization. Together, the films illustrate some of the difficulties the population movement faced in the 1970s in promoting birth control in the Global South, some of the strategies implemented to tackle those difficulties, and the unexpected alliances that were formed along the way.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2024/07/09/promoting-birth-control-in-1970s-colombia-unlikely-alliances-on-and-off-the-screen/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href=" https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-city-implications-for-the-future/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Paula Orozco-Espinel, MA (University of Pittsburgh)</p>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/la-bandera-verde-programa-rural-pro-familia-the-green-flag/">La Bandera Verde: Programa<br />
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Rural Pro Familia [The Green Flag]<img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15726" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/maturation_100897071_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Maturation of a Medic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15726 size-medium alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/bandera-verde_9918401887306676_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A close up of a priest wearing traditional black robes." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-city-implications-for-the-future/">The City:<br />
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Implications for the Future<img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15734" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/st-louis-encephalitis_101683147_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15734 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/the-city_101194160_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Two women having an exchange, one of whom is holding an infant in her arms." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/vamos-donde-ellos-we-go-where-they-are/">Vamos Donde Ellos<br />
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[We Go Where They Are]<img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15732" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/space_101684315_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15732 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vamos_101194671_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A green cabinet with a key dangling from a lock on the door to open it. The door has an illustration of a woman taking a pill on the front." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/y-manana-que-and-tomorrow-what/">Y Mañana, ¿Qué?<br />
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[And Tomorrow, What?]<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15730" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/pharaohs_100938376_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Pharaohs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15730 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/manana_101774513_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A close up of a smiling brunette child." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/a-new-health-system-candelaria/">A New Health System: Candelaria<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15724" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/kyanasur_101491206_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Kyanasur Forest Disease" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15724 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/candelaria_101774521_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Two women wearing white medical uniforms, walking down the street together." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/socio-dramas-social-dramas/">Socio Dramas [Social dramas]<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15728" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/monsoon_101478296_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Monsoon Mosaic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15728 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/dramas_101774738_play.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A young boy and girl standing across from and speaking with one another." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="video">
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<hr />
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<div id="__essay" class="sec" style="text-align: left;">
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<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his essay focuses on six films produced by Airlie Productions during the 1970s that present family planning projects and alert the public to the “population issue”—the supposedly devastating political, economic, and cultural consequences of the world population’s exponential growth. Five of these six films focus exclusively on Colombia, and one refers to Latin America as a whole, including references to Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. The production of five of these films was supported by Profamilia, arguably the most successful associate to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the most important Colombian family planning organization. Together, the films under analysis illustrate some of the difficulties the population movement faced in the 1970s in promoting birth control in the Global South, some of the strategies implemented to tackle those difficulties, and the unexpected alliances that were formed along the way.</p>
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<p>Airlie Foundation’s story is deeply intertwined with the transnational population-control movement. The foundation was established in 1972 by Dr. Murdoch Head with the goal of collaborating closely with the Population Information Program (PIP), which had been recently created at George Washington University by Phyllis T. Piotrow, a leading figure in the population movement. Between 1971 and 1978, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded $16.6 million to the Airlie Foundation and the PIP.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> As a result, the Airlie Foundation made over 100 films on population and health issues during this time, set in various locations, including Colombia, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Jamaica, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States. At around $1,800 to $2,058 per minute of finished film, these high-quality and location-filmed productions were costly, compared to the $1,236 per minute average cost of films made for government agencies.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a></p>
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<p>USAID’s investment in the Airlie Foundation and the PIP was part of a broader trend. After World War II, U.S. private organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation started investing significant funds in Latin America and advancing pilot population-control programs. By the 1960s, the U.S. government had joined such efforts and was also exerting economic and political pressure to curb fertility in the region.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> Immersed in Cold War concerns, U.S. actors feared that poor, overpopulated countries in the Global South would feel unsatisfied with Capitalist governments and embrace Communism.</p>
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<p>In this context, Colombia received an extraordinary influx of government and philanthropic funds, partly due to the great deal of local support found in the country for population growth control. Spearheaded by a handful of renowned Colombian doctors, Profamilia and the Colombian Association of Medical Schools resourcefully leveraged international funding to expand reproductive services, particularly to the countryside.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> Moreover, with the robust endorsement of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966-1970) and his Minister of Health Antonio Ordoñez Plaja, in the late 1960s the Colombian Ministry of Health included family planning as an integral part of its maternal and child health programs.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
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<blockquote><p><strong>The union of international and local efforts to advance family planning led to an abrupt change in the country’s demographic profile. In 1960, the Colombian birth rate was 6.735, meaning that, on average, every woman had almost seven children during her lifetime. Only twenty years later, the birth rate in Colombia had dramatically fallen to 3.967.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></strong></p></blockquote>
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<h3><strong>Divergent Perspectives on Social Well-Being and Birth Control</strong></h3>
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<p>These films provide evidence of the local support that facilitated the drop in Colombian fertility and the sometimes divergent interests that motivated it. Two examples, very different from one another, are <em>Y Mañana, ¿Qué?</em> [And Tomorrow, What?] (1975), and <em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em> (1972). These films show different levels of local compliance with the population discourse that equated birth control and development by linking lower fertility rates with economic growth and social well-being. Furthermore, <em>Candelaria</em> provides evidence of how local actors took advantage of population funds to advance their own purposes, in this case expanding healthcare services.</p>
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<p>The film <em>Y Mañana, ¿Qué?</em> puts together fragments of interviews with, as the voice-over narrator describes them, “aware men [who] see the problem from […] slightly different angle[s].” Monsignor Luis Bambarén from Peru, for example, highlights factors creating social imbalance, including the irrational foreign extraction of Peruvian resources starting in the colonial period, as well as the abandonment of the traditional family structure of Inca families. Meanwhile, Mariano Baptista Gumucio, Bolivian writer and historian, states that his country needs to defend its “living human capital,” meaning decreasing infant mortality. Both Bambarén and Baptista express anti-imperialist and humanitarian perspectives with indigenous ruins as their background.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_15473" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15473" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/y-manana-que-essay-1.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15473" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/stanford-medical-class-1942/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=1499%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1499,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Stanford Medical Class 1942" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=740%2C593&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15473 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/y-manana-que-essay-1.png?resize=740%2C593&ssl=1" alt="A man, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, sitting in a green chair and appearing to be mid speech." width="740" height="593" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15473" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/y-manana-que-and-tomorrow-what"><em>Y Mañana, ¿Qué?</em></a>, 1975<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101774513"><em>National Library of Medicine #101774513</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The film does not call attention to the fact that Colombian ex-president Carlos Lleras Restrepo’s “angle,” also included in the film, is more than “slightly different” from those of Bambarén and Baptista. He does not seem to be preoccupied with the conditions of disadvantaged communities or global inequalities. Instead, he blames underdevelopment on rural people, claiming that they are of the “lowest cultural level in each [Latin-American] country,” and that their migration to urban areas, along with the perpetuation of their reproductive patterns and modes of life, is asphyxiating the progress of cities.<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> Aligning with the content of his words, Lleras Restrepo is shown surrounded by objects symbolizing high-class status and modernity, such as a television and an elegant watch. Lleras Restrepo’s perspective as captured in <em>Y Mañana, ¿Qué?</em> reflects his broader support of the population discourse. During his presidency, he promoted population policies to the point that he has often been credited with Colombia becoming “a pioneer and leader in the formulation of population policy in the Latin American context.”<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Lleras Restrepo believed controlling Colombians’ fertility was a required step to accomplish economic success and to “modernize the State.”<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
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<p>In contrast, <em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em> reveals how other people in Colombia prioritized providing health services to marginalized communities for the sake of improving their life conditions. <em>Candelaria</em> is the only film among those under analysis here whose production did not receive support from Profamilia, but from the Universidad del Valle. In 1958, the Universidad del Valle Medical School started a new experimental health system in Candelaria, a county (<em>municipio</em>) located approximately 20 miles outside of Cali whose inhabitants lived in rural and semi-rural zones. A census from 1973 indicated that there were 8773 inhabitants in Candelaria, split into 1952 families.<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15464" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15464" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/candelaria-essay-1.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15464" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/id-in-arabic/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=1600%2C1025&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1025" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="ID in Arabic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=300%2C192&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=740%2C474&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15464 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/candelaria-essay-1.png?resize=300%2C192&ssl=1" alt="An infographic showing different levels of health services, from the home up to the hospital." width="300" height="192" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15464" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/a-new-health-system-candelaria/"><em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em></a>, 1972<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101774521"><em>National Library of Medicine #101774521</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>During the 1960s and 1970s, Candelaria’s health program received a significant influx of economic resources from the U.S., mainly from the Rockefeller Foundation. Still, the program maintained its core objectives as defined by local doctors. Over the years, doctors from Universidad del Valle upheld their commitment to primary health care (PHC) ideals and a broad understanding of what “health” meant.<a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> Likewise, even though they incorporated a family planning program into the Candelaria system in 1965, this never became the sole focus of their work. Their family planning program was quite inconspicuous at first, as the doctors did not want to start a conflict with the local church. They used to proclaim that “one would have to rely on the rhythm method, supported only by limited use of anovulatory drugs (‘the pill’) to regularize menstrual periods.”<a href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> This approach changed in 1968, when the program openly incorporated modern birth control methods.</p>
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<p>That birth control was part of but not at the core of Candelaria’s health care system is evident in <em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em>. The 25-minute documentary explains the varying tiers of healthcare administered by personnel with different levels of education, including young local female volunteers trained for six to eight weeks. The film spends less than four minutes on the family planning services and the rest of the time discussing prenatal control, birth, and postpartum attention, as well as children’s nutrition, preventive immunization, and dental care. The voice-over narrator informs the viewer that “now in Candelaria, 90 percent of the couples know about the [family planning] program, and 35 percent are using the method offered. The birth rate has dropped 33 percent in the last 10 years.” Those numbers were probably not remarkable for people focused on population control, as they expected higher acceptance rates and more dramatic decreases in fertility.</p>
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<p>Instead of blaming rural poor people for blocking urban development, <em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em> ends by stressing that “the children who are cared for through an integral health program will grow strong and will be able in the future to put their healthy minds and energy to work for the development and welfare of their nations.” The film thus suggests, even if only indirectly, that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the racialized and impoverished community it portrayed. If offered sufficient services, its members can thrive. In doing so, it supports the message that the path to social well-being is better care for the population, rather than fewer people, as advocates of the population discourse would have generally argued.</p>
|
||
<p>The film’s empathetic portrayal of rural people, combined with its marginal focus on family planning and comprehensive definition of health, suggests that doctors affiliated with Universidad del Valle may have played a meaningful role in shaping its narrative. This influence was perhaps most pronounced in the case of Dr. Emilio Aguirre Castaño, a former dean of the university’s Health Division. Dr. Aguirre Castaño was known for fostering collaborative relationships with various U.S. foundations and institutions to enhance the education of his peers and students. Not by chance, he makes a brief appearance in the film and is credited as a “Special Consultant” in the end credits. His involvement and the final result indicate behind-the-scenes negotiations between the film producers and Universidad del Valle’s medical community.</p>
|
||
<h3><strong>Family Planning as a Communication Problem</strong></h3>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15751" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15751" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/candelaria-essay-2.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15751" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/beware-of-ticks/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Beware of Ticks" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15751 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/candelaria-essay-2.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A film still of the end credits in 'Candelaria: A New System of Health', showing Dr. Alfredo Castaño's name." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15751" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/a-new-health-system-candelaria/"><em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em></a>, 1972<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101774521"><em>National Library of Medicine #101774521</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p><em>Candelaria: A New System of Health</em> is not the only Airlie film that portrays the efforts undertaken in Colombia to incorporate local people into the promotion of health services. This is also true of four films focused exclusively on the promotion of birth control: <em>Socio Dramas</em> [Social Dramas] (1974), <em>La Bandera Verde</em> [The Green Flag] (1974), <em>The City: Implications for the Future</em> (1977), and <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em> [We Go Where They Are] (1977). The widespread effort to portray the participation of local communities in birth control programs probably responded to two sets of pressure then facing Airlie Foundation: on the one hand, the need to efficiently communicate the intended message to people who may be unfamiliar with Western media conventions; and, on the other, the need to defuse criticism regarding the use of media to persuade people about health-related issues, rather than simply to inform them.<a href="#_edn13" name="_ednref13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Airlie Foundation’s efforts to speak in an accessible language and to include locals in its family planning message are particularly evident in <em>Socio Dramas</em>. This film opens with an introductory segment, in which a specialist in communications talks about how they have incorporated the “sociodrama technique” to bring the message of family planning to male peasants in Colombia. Created in the 1930s by psychiatrist and psychosociologist Jacob Levi Moreno, sociodrama is the group counterpart of the individual-oriented method of psychodrama.<a href="#_edn14" name="_ednref14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> It is a participative methodology in which a directed group of people theatrically represents a real-life event or situation to analyze social roles and improve group dynamics.<a href="#_edn15" name="_ednref15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> According to the expert, sociodramas created and interpreted by peasants themselves were the best way to ensure that the message was understood and appreciated by rural audiences. This kind of reasoning was also invoked by health communications experts involved in family planning elsewhere in the world who were incorporating a “grassroots model based on indigenous media, such as puppet shows, dramatic performances, and songs.”<a href="#_edn16" name="_ednref16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> Even though in Colombia the use of sociodramas seems to have differed from Moreno’s original method—by being filmed, likely being scripted and departing from therapeutic goals—these dramatizations provided participants a space for normalizing talk about birth control and articulating the tensions that its use could create inside families.</p>
|
||
<p>The Airlie Foundation’s emphasis on communication techniques was likely driven by the interests of Profamilia’s leaders as well. This was true of Lily de Bucheli, who served as director of Profamilia’s Information and Communications Department. An elite woman who had been educated in the United States, de Bucheli was familiar with communication techniques, including audiovisual production and screenwriting.<a href="#_edn17" name="_ednref17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> After having been both a participant and consultant at the University of Chicago Summer Workshop on Family Planning Communications, she developed the project proposal for the rural pilot program functioning when Socio Dramas was filmed. She then served as the project’s general director.<a href="#_edn18" name="_ednref18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>After the communications expert’s introduction and a series of various sketches filmed on location in which local, amateur actors dramatize scenarios that are designed to encourage the use of birth control, the film ends with a little girl reciting a <em>copla</em>—a poetic form popular in the coffee-growing area where the sketches are set. She hails Profamilia and “clarifies” that women affiliated with a club supported by the organization were “good women and not rebels.” The distinction alludes to the traditional dichotomization of women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores. The girl’s words attempt to link the use of birth control with the former archetype thus easing fears about contraception as a path towards moral degradation via extramarital sex. In short, through this <em>copla</em> and the sociodrama sketches, the film shows how rural people appropriated and adapted the family planning discourse to their specific realities and communications modes.</p>
|
||
<p>The sketches in <em>Socio Dramas</em> aim not just to encourage people to use birth control but also to inform them about the available methods and how to access them. In doing so, the film overcomes a problem that, according to Manon Parry, marred the Nigerian film My Brother’s Children (1970), which was produced for the Family Planning Council of Nigeria and sponsored by the IPPF. According to Parry, because <em>My Brother’s Children</em> “was more motivational than informational (because it dealt with the reasons for using contraception rather than any detailed discussion of techniques), those who lacked technical knowledge were likely to remain ignorant and therefore unsupportive.”<a href="#_edn19" name="_ednref19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> In contrast, the sociodramas filmed in Colombia stand out for both their clear explanation of different birth control methods and stress on the accessibility of Profamilia’s personnel.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15755" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15755" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/socio-dramas-essay-1.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15755" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/communal-laundry-washing/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Communal Laundry Washing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15755 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/socio-dramas-essay-1.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="VA woman wearing a scarf and sunglasses seated beside a man wearing a hat." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15755" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/socio-dramas-social-dramas/"><em>Socio Dramas</em></a>, 1974<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101774738"><em>National Library of Medicine #101774738</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>Moreover, the sketches in <em>Socio Dramas</em> reveal how its Airlie Foundation producer and Profamilia leaders have a shared focus on recruiting new birth control users rather than on addressing the broader situation of women. Throughout the film, a recurring theme emerges: while women are motivated to use birth control, they require their husband’s approval. In the film, husbands consent after a Profamilia promoter calmly and confidently advocates for family planning and reassures them about the safety of available methods. One sketch even culminates in the husband unilaterally deciding that his wife will use birth control, stating, “I am going to take you to a health center and make you take birth control.” This closing statement is unsettling from a women’s rights perspective, even if the woman had initially expressed interest in contraception.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15756" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15756" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/socio-dramas-essay-2.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15756" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/interpreting-hieroglyphs/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Interpreting Hieroglyphs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15756 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/socio-dramas-essay-2.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A group of children waiting in a line while a few adults handle their laundry." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15756" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/socio-dramas-social-dramas/"><em>Socio Dramas</em></a>, 1974<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101774738"><em>National Library of Medicine #101774738</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>Similarly, birth control is sometimes presented as an alternative for lessening women’s household work, rather than for addressing the gendered, unequal distribution of labor. In one sociodrama sketch included in <em>La Bandera Verde</em>, a man arrives from working in the fields and starts yelling at his wife and two older daughters, who are cooking and cleaning the house. He demands to be served lunch. And when one of the women says that food is not yet ready, he shouts, “What do you mean food is not ready? I come here to eat, and you say you have not made food. What have you been doing then?” When his daughter starts explaining the difficulties of their daily life, he screams once again, “silence!” and the sketch ends. This might be an overstatement, but this sketch seems to present family planning as a means of avoiding conflict by ensuring that food would be ready on time rather than as a way for women to have more freedom over their bodies, schedules, and workloads.</p>
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<h3><strong>Community-Based Distribution of Birth Control</strong></h3>
|
||
<p>Incorporating local people into a family planning program was not only a communication strategy but also a strategy for making birth control available to populations that were hard to reach. Consider <em>The City</em>, which uses a dramatic tone to present the supposedly catastrophic impact of rural and undereducated people migrating to Latin American cities. Halfway through the 20-minute film, there is a sudden shift in tone towards a more hopeful approach as the voice-over narrator states that Colombia has developed a way to reach women in <em>barrios</em> with birth-control methods. The film then describes Profamilia’s network of distribution posts of nonclinical contraceptives, staffed by local volunteers who offered birth control in their family-owned stores, answered their peers’ questions, and referred them to Profamilia clinics when necessary.</p>
|
||
<p><em>La Bandera Verde</em> and <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em>, in turn, focus on Profamilia’s community-based distribution system based not in peripheral urban neighborhoods but in the countryside. These films (as well as <em>Socio Dramas</em>) were shot in Risaralda, a coffee-growing region located in the Colombian Andes. This area had been selected in the early 1970s by Profamilia for a community-based pilot educational program in family planning that was funded mainly by the Population Council.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p><strong>The project aimed to increase contraceptive use among rural people based on the idea that “larger numbers of rural residents would adopt family planning methods if information and services were more readily available.”<a href="#_edn20" name="_ednref20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></strong></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>With the project undertaken in Risaralda, Profamilia expected “to acquire the experience and develop the techniques needed for integrating family planning education, into on-going community education programs elsewhere in Colombia and Latin America.”<a href="#_edn21" name="_ednref21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> This was probably a realistic goal at the time, as Fernando Tamayo, Profamilia’s founder, was then the president of the IPPF and could thus promote the expansion of the system if successful. Because Profamilia was anticipating expanding this system, it is likely that one of the benefits this organization gained from collaborating with Airlie Foundation was collecting high-quality audiovisual evidence of its work to later impress potential donors.<a href="#_edn22" name="_ednref22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Considering that <em>The City</em> and <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em> shared the same producer, screenwriter, and year of release, it is striking how differently these two films speak of the people portrayed in them. With the information available at this point, we can only guess that they probably had different intended audiences. If the narrator of <em>The City</em> talks with much disdain about the “persistence of the countryside ways,” the “surplus of <em>barrio</em> children,” and the “nightmare growth of the new city,” <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em> instead expresses sympathy for the capacity of rural Colombian women to overcome adverse circumstances and do much good for themselves and their communities.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15755" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15755" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vamos-donde-ellos-essay-1.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15755" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/communal-laundry-washing/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Communal Laundry Washing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15755 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vamos-donde-ellos-essay-1.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Two women seated next to one another, discussing something." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15755" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/vamos-donde-ellos-we-go-where-they-are/"><em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em></a>, 1977<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101194671"><em>National Library of Medicine #101194671</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>The system of community-based birth control distribution, as portrayed in <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em>, indeed relied heavily on the dedication and hard work of promoters and distributors, the great majority of whom were women. Typically, Profamilia promoters visited one of the many <em>veredas</em><a href="#_edn23" name="_ednref23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> under their responsibility, engaged in conversations with various community members, and sought their assistance in identifying individuals who were widely respected and admired to serve as birth control distributors. In <em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em>, a woman named Rosita is selected to illustrate the qualities sought in distributors and the significance of their role. We learn that Rosita is a very community-oriented person and serves as president of a local women’s club. When her living conditions are presented, the film does not hide her limited economic resources. Yet, shots of her and her house are respectful, and the voice-over narration puts emphasis on her labor and capacity to cover her family’s needs, not on her lack of resources. The voice-over later explains that the importance and value that all the Rositas have for non-clinical contraceptive distribution programs is the trust they inspire in other women.</p>
|
||
<p><em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em> thus highlights the role of volunteer distributors and the promoters who supervised and supplied the former. The film ends with a memorable message:</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p><strong>Societies can be changed in many ways. Occasionally they can be transformed by the action of tenacious peasant women who do not pay attention to the difficulties of the roads or the long distances […] and sow the idea that other rural women can also take responsibility for their own reproductive health.<a href="#_edn24" name="_ednref24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></strong></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>These words are first accompanied by an image of a Profamilia promoter walking away from the camera. As she disappears on the to the right-hand corner of the frame, the image changes to a panned view of the green mountains, a reminder of the vast territory covered by the program.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15756" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15756" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vamos-donde-ellos-essay-2.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15756" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/interpreting-hieroglyphs/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Interpreting Hieroglyphs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15756 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vamos-donde-ellos-essay-2.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A person walking down an overgrown road." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15756" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/vamos-donde-ellos-we-go-where-they-are/"><em>Vamos Donde Ellos</em></a>, 1977<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101194671"><em>National Library of Medicine #101194671</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>The recognition granted to promoters and distributors in this film is quite significant. These women were not only either underpaid or performed volunteer work at the time, but since then they have been erased from the historiography on family planning in Colombia. As a result, the immense impact of their work has been lost to history.<a href="#_edn25" name="_ednref25"><sup>[25]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<h3><strong>Personal Motivations and Unlikely Alliances</strong></h3>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15755" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15755" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/la-bandera-verde-essay-1.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15755" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/communal-laundry-washing/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Communal Laundry Washing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15755 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/la-bandera-verde-essay-1.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A woman handling medical supplies at a counter." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15755" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/la-bandera-verde-programa-rural-pro-familia-the-green-flag/"><em>La Bandera Verde</em></a>, 1974<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918401887306676"><em>National Library of Medicine #9918401887306676</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>In Arlie films, we do not hear directly from promoters and distributors. Yet thanks to other sources, we know that these women’s motivations did not always align with the expectations of Profamilia and the Airlie Foundation. For example, <em>The City</em> presents female leaders in <em>“barrios”</em> who provided supplies and guidance to their peers as selfless individuals willing to perform unpaid labor for the wellbeing of their communities. Similarly, <em>Bandera Verde</em> says that volunteer distributors “put their stores at the disposal of the Profamilia program […] because they are motivated and selfless people who know that they are contributing to […] the progress and well-being of the Colombian peasant family.” In their published testimonies, however, female distributors reveal that they were also driven by economic incentives, such as increasing traffic to their businesses. As former distributor Elvia González put it, “I did not make much money from selling pills but having them [in the store] was good for me. Along with pills, people would buy a pair of socks, a lipstick, or some face powder.”<a href="#_edn26" name="_ednref26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>In the case of female promoters, evidence suggest that at least some were motivated by their interest in advancing women’s living conditions and promoting gender equality. Luisa de Murillo, a former Profamilia promoter in urban areas, recalls being introduced to the idea of a “population problem” by the organization. But she confesses that she was actually motivated by her commitment to help women make decisions about their own lives. That was what encouraged her to visit multiple neighborhoods and small towns, negotiating with a range of people, from Catholic priests to communist cell leaders.<a href="#_edn27" name="_ednref27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> Similarly, former promoter Concepción Quesada recalled that, when visiting women in their houses, she did talk about the economic improvement of families and the wellbeing of kids to encourage them to use birth control. However, in contrast to promoters in Airlie films, she also spoke about justice and gender equity, because women’s submission was what outraged her the most.<a href="#_edn28" name="_ednref28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15756" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15756" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/la-bandera-verde-essay-2.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15756" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/interpreting-hieroglyphs/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Interpreting Hieroglyphs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15756 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/la-bandera-verde-essay-2.png?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A priest standing in front of a framed drawing of Jesus hung up on the wall." width="300" height="231" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15756" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/la-bandera-verde-programa-rural-pro-familia-the-green-flag/"><em>La Bandera Verde</em></a>, 1974<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918401887306676"><em>National Library of Medicine #9918401887306676</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Finally, the Arlie films also illuminate the unexpected alliance that emerged in Colombia between birth control advocates and some local Catholic priests, despite the Church’s doctrinal opposition to contraception. It has traditionally been considered a paradox that Colombia, a predominantly Catholic country, became one of the world’s most successful cases of family planning. Films like <em>La Bandera Verde</em> show that this was partially possible because Catholic leaders’ position on the topic was not monolithic. Although the 1968 release of the Papal Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae condemning contraception undoubtedly had repercussions in Colombia, some priests continued supporting birth control in the communities they served.<a href="#_edn29" name="_ednref29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> Mora Mora is one such priest depicted in <em>La Bandera Verde</em>. In the film he acknowledges that Catholic doctrine does not accept the term “birth control,” but he says that it does supports the supposedly different idea of family planning. According to him, couples committed to one another through conjugal love should have the number of children they can responsibly educate and love. By portraying Priest Mora Mora’s perspective, this Arlie film likely sought to persuade Catholics that, <em>pace</em> the Vatican, birth control was not a sin.</p>
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<h3><strong>Conclusion</strong></h3>
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<p>The Airlie films on family planning projects in Colombia during the 1970s shed important light on the complexities and contradictions marking international population control efforts in the Global South. In particular, they offer a nuanced understanding of the diverse perspectives and motivations of local individuals and organizations collaborating with U.S. actors. Some influential figures like ex-president Carlos Lleras Restrepo viewed family planning policies as a vehicle for state modernization and economic advancement. But the films’ depiction of doctors from Universidad del Valle show that other prominent actors prioritized community well-being and embraced a broader notion of health. Furthermore, these films offer a glimpse into the poorly documented role of local promoters and distributors who participated in family planning programs to gain personal growth and contribute to the well-being of their communities.</p>
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<hr />
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td bgcolor="#f5f5f5">Paula Orozco-Espinel, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh under a Fulbright scholarship, studies the history of women and sexuality in Latin America and the United States. Her dissertation focuses on Colombian women’s role in the country’s demographic transition between 1959 and 1991, when population growth in the country was effectively halted through policies advanced by male politicians and doctors. Her research examines how local women supported and/or contested these policies and unravels the characteristics, contradictions, and boundaries of the Colombian feminist movement. Orozco-Espinel received her BA in History (2016) and MA in Gender Studies (2019) from Universidad Nacional de Colombia.</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<hr />
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<div class="footnotes">
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<h3>Notes</h3>
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<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">[1]</a> Manon Parry, <em>Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media and Family Planning</em>, Critical Issues in Health and Medicine (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2013), 94.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">[2]</a> Parry, 98.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">[3]</a> Marcos Cueto and Steven Paul Palmer, <em>Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History</em>, New Approaches to the Americas (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 157. and 193.</p>
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||
<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">[4]</a> Anthony R. Measham and Guillermo Lopez-Escobar, «Against the Odds: Colombia’s Role in the Family Planning Revolution», in <em>The Global Family Planning Revolution: Three Decades of Population Policies and Programs</em>, ed. Warren C. Robinson y John A. Ross (Washington, D.C: World Bank, 2007), 123.</p>
|
||
<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">[5]</a> Mario Hernández Álvarez and Diana Obregón Torres, <em>La Organización Panamericana de la Salud y el Estado Colombiano. Cien Años de Historia. 1902-2002.</em> (Bogotá: Organización Panamericana de la Salud, 2002), 163-64.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6">[6]</a> Banco Mundial, “Colombia,” <em>Data Commons</em> (webpage), accessed September 18, 2021, <a href="https://datacommons.org/place/country/COL?utm_medium=explore&mprop=fertilityRate&popt=Person&cpv=gender%2CFemale&hl=es">https://datacommons.org/place/country/COL?utm_medium=explore&mprop=fertilityRate&popt=Person&cpv=gender%2CFemale&hl=es</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7">[7]</a> Lleras Restrepo’s interview in <em>And Tomorrow, What?</em> aligns with the argument advance in the first half of the film <em>The City: Implications for the Future</em> (1977), in which the voice-over argues that peasants who are migrating to the city are not skilled enough to perform required jobs, and they are instead producing a “surplus of children,” which is the reason why “one of the many changes which must take place in the shift from country to city is the shift away from the large farm family.”</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8">[8]</a> Measham and Lopez-Escobar, “Against the Odds: Colombia’s Role in the Family Planning Revolution,” 123.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9">[9]</a> Daniel Pécaut, <em>Crónica de Dos Décadas de Política Colombiana 1968-1988</em> (México D.F.: Siglo XXI, 1989), 82.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10">[10]</a> William D. Drake and Luis F. Fajardo. “The Promotora Program in Candelaria: A Colombian Attempt to Control Malnutrition and Disease, 1968-74”, June 25, 1976. P. 33. Rockefeller Foundation Records, General Correspondence, RG 2, 1958-1970 (FA400), Reel 36, 311 – Candelaria Health Center (papers). Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, United States.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11">[11]</a> In contrast to others’ perspectives, including that of the Rockefeller Foundation itself, PHC advocates believed that the health of a population was less related to medical advances than to living standards and nutrition. See Cueto and Palmer, <em>Medicine and Public Health in Latin America</em>, 204–14.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref12" name="_edn12">[12]</a> “The Candelaria Experience,” May 1978. P. 45. Rockefeller Foundation Records, General Correspondence, RG 2, 1958-1970 (FA400), Reel 36, 311 – Candelaria Health Center (papers). Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, United States.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref13" name="_edn13">[13]</a> Parry, <em>Broadcasting Birth Control</em>, 76–110.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref14" name="_edn14">[14]</a> Ana María Fernández Espinosa, “Sociodrama: Características y Aplicaciones,” <em>Master en Teatro Aplicado – Universidad de Valencia</em>, 2018, 1–8.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref15" name="_edn15">[15]</a> For a detailed description of sociodrama as a method, see: Patricia Sternberg and Antonina Garcia, <em>Sociodrama: Who’s in Your Shoes?</em>, 2nd ed (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2000).</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref16" name="_edn16">[16]</a> Parry, <em>Broadcasting Birth Control</em>, 79.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref17" name="_edn17">[17]</a> Silvia Galvis, <em>Se Hace Camino al Andar. La Otra Historia de La Planificación Familiar</em> (Bogotá: Gráficas Ambar, 1995), 127–33. and 145.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref18" name="_edn18">[18]</a> “´A´ Status Recommendation for grant of $52,000 to the Colombian Association of Family Welfare (PROFAMILIA) for a pilot community-based education program in family planning,” March 16, 1972, p 5. Population Council Records, Accession 2, Series 2. CN FA432, RG 2, box 54, folder “Colombia: Correspondence, Reports, Studies, 1972-1973.” Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, United States.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref19" name="_edn19">[19]</a> Parry, <em>Broadcasting Birth Control</em>, 105.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref20" name="_edn20">[20]</a> “´A´ Status Recommendation for grant of $52,000 to the Colombian Association of Family Welfare (PROFAMILIA) for a pilot community-based education program in family planning,” March 16, 1972, p 2. Population Council Records, Accession 2, Series 2. CN FA432, RG 2, box 54, folder “Colombia: Correspondence, Reports, Studies, 1972-1973.” Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, United States.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref21" name="_edn21">[21]</a> Ibid.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref22" name="_edn22">[22]</a> When requesting funds for this project from the Population Council in 1972, Profamilia had stated that “the [Colombian] National Coffee-growers Federation is interested in the possibility of financing a nation-wide campaign of the type being tested here. Before they agree to support such an effort, however, they have asked that PROFAMILIA demonstrates the efficacy of such undertaking through a pilot program” (Ibid.)</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref23" name="_edn23">[23]</a> <em>Veredas</em> are small rural communities composed of 50 to 1200 people (approximately 50 families). There is not a stablished center, such as a main square or a market. In <em>Veredas</em>, families are dispersed over a broad area.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref24" name="_edn24">[24]</a> “Las sociedades pueden cambiarse de muchas maneras, ocasionalmente pueden transformarse por la acción de tenaces mujeres campesinas que no reparan en las dificultades de los caminos ni en las largas distancias para llegar a donde sea necesario y sembrar la idea de que también otras mujeres del campo pueden tomar también en sus manos la responsabilidad de su propia salud reproductiva.”</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref25" name="_edn25">[25]</a> Two exceptions to the general obscuring of promoters work are Galvis, <em>Se Hace Camino al Andar. La Otra Historia de La Planificación Familiar</em>; and Johana María Agudelo Echeverri, “‘Éramos Unas Profes Raras’: Promotoras Rurales de La Anticoncepción Moderna En Antioquia,1975-1979”,” in <em>Género, Prácticas y Representaciones En La Historiade Colombia, Siglos XIX y XX</em>, by Ruth López (Medellin: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2013), 80–105. For more on local women’s erasure in the history of family planning, see: Paula Orozco-Espinel, “The Women on the Ground: Rural Health Promotors and Family Planning in Colombia (1969-1974)” (MA Thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 2022).</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref26" name="_edn26">[26]</a> Galvis, <em>Se Hace Camino al Andar. La Otra Historia de La Planificación Familiar</em>, 27.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref27" name="_edn27">[27]</a> Luisa de Murillo, interviewed by Paula Orozco-Espinel., In-person, Bogotá, September 11, 2023.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref28" name="_edn28">[28]</a> Galvis, <em>Se Hace Camino al Andar. La Otra Historia de La Planificación Familiar</em>, 48.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref29" name="_edn29">[29]</a> For more information on Colombian Church stand on Family Planning and some of the communications projects specific catholic sectors advanced to promote birth control, see: Juan Alejandro Lopera López, “Paternidad o Procreación Responsable: Iglesia Católica, Acción Cultural Popular y Control de La Natalidad En Colombia (1964-1978),” <em>Historia y Sociedad</em>, no. 31 (2016): 235–67.</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<h2>More Medicine on Screen</h2>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2024/07/09/promoting-birth-control-in-1970s-colombia-unlikely-alliances-on-and-off-the-screen/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">21334</post-id> </item>
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<title>Psychiatric Interview Films in the Age of Reform: Notes on the Depressive Neurosis Series Filmed by the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1969</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Circulating Now]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:32:04 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[All]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Clinical & Surgical]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=17033</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By Linnéa J. Hussein, PhD<br>
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When one thinks of audio-visual recordings of psychiatric patients in the United States in the 1960s, the distressing images of Frederick Wiseman’s observational documentary <em>Titicut Follies</em> (1967) may come to mind. The <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> series from 1969 bears no resemblance to these films. Instead, the series offers a rare glimpse into the day-to-day world of late 1960s psychiatric practice, in which people with addiction, mental illness, or mental disabilities seek help and are received with an open mind and treated with dignity by the doctors they speak to and the camera crew that films them.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href=" https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/depressive-neurosis/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Linnéa J. Hussein, PhD (New York University)</p>
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<hr />
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<div class="video">
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<p><a class="video-title" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/depressive-neurosis/">Depressive Neurosis</a><a class="video-thumb" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/depressive-neurosis/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1807" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/neural-and-humoral-factors-in-the-regulation-of-bodily-functions/research-on-conjoined-twins-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Research-on-Conjoined-Twins" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1807" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/101718650_ID-b.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Black and white film still showing two men sitting in chairs, facing each other, with a small table between them. The man on the left is wearing a button down shirt and slacks, and the man on the right is wearing a suit and tie. There is a 'play' button overlay on top of the entire image." width="200" height="154" /></a></p>
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<div class="video-meta">
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<p><strong>DATE: </strong>1969<br />
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<strong>LENGTH: </strong>63 min<br />
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<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER:</strong> University of Mississippi Medical Center<br />
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<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Clinical & Surgical, Educational & Instructional</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
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<div class="video">
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<p><a class="video-title" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/drug-dependency-barbiturates-excerpts-from-two-interviews/">Drug Dependency, Barbiturates: Excerpts from Two Interviews</a><a class="video-thumb" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/drug-dependency-barbiturates-excerpts-from-two-interviews/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1807" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/neural-and-humoral-factors-in-the-regulation-of-bodily-functions/research-on-conjoined-twins-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Research-on-Conjoined-Twins" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1807" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-main.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Title Screen reads Department of Psychiatry over an image of a sign for the University of Mississippi Medical Center. There is a 'play' button overlay on top of the entire image." width="200" height="154" /></a></p>
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<div class="video-meta">
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<p><strong>DATE: </strong>1969<br />
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<strong>LENGTH: </strong>59 min<br />
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<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER:</strong>University of Mississippi Medical Center<br />
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<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Clinical & Surgical, Educational & Instructional</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
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<hr />
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<div id="__essay" class="sec">
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<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hen one thinks of audio-visual recordings of psychiatric patients in the United States in the 1960s, the distressing images of Frederick Wiseman’s observational documentary <em>Titicut Follies</em> (1967) likely come to mind. Or, perhaps, the horrors of Sam Fuller’s fiction film <em>Shock Corridor</em> (1963).</p>
|
||
<p>The <a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/discovery/search?query=any,exact,University%20of%20Mississippi,AND&pfilter=rtype,exact,videos,AND&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=MyInstitution&sortby=rank&vid=01NLM_INST:01NLM_INST&facet=searchcreationdate,include,1964%7C,%7C1969&mode=advanced&offset=0"><em>Depressive Neurosis</em> series from 1969</a>, housed in the National Library of Medicine’s audiovisual collection, however, bears no resemblance to these films. Instead, the videotape series offers a rare glimpse into the day-to-day world of late 1960s psychiatric practice, in which people with addiction, mental illness, or mental disabilities seek help and are received with an open mind and treated with dignity by the doctors they speak to and the camera crew that tapes them. These videotapes were not meant to circulate publicly, and yet, as astonishing historic records <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">used and studied responsibly</span>, they exemplify a calm, perhaps a bit dry, but nevertheless respectful treatment of mental health patients that is still not a given in today’s cinematic representations, and as such could, some fifty years after their initial recording, easily serve as important source material for fiction films to come. In today’s context of patients’ rights, HIPAA would prevent any of these recordings from seeing the light of day. Written consent, as well as a timeline for the destruction of tapes, would now be required.<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> These laws were not yet in place in the 1960s, however, which provides a rare opportunity to examine the <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> series as an example of an historical record that serves as a counter-text to popular cinematic depictions of psychiatry.</p>
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<blockquote><p>The series offers a rare glimpse into the day-to-day world of late 1960s psychiatric practice, in which people with addiction, mental illness, or mental disabilities seek help and are received with an open mind and treated with dignity by the doctors they speak to and the camera crew that records them.</p></blockquote>
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<figure id="attachment_18252" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18252" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17-300x223.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="18252" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/101225717-17/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Intertitle" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?fit=300%2C223&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" class="wp-image-18252 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?resize=300%2C223&ssl=1" alt="Title card that reads: 69 - 9 Adjustment Reaction of Adolescence." width="300" height="223" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?resize=300%2C223&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?resize=690%2C513&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-17.jpg?w=720&ssl=1 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-18252" class="wp-caption-text">Title card from <em>Drug Dependency, Barbiturates: Excerpts from Two Interviews</em>, 1969</p>
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<p><!--<em><a href="TBD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Library of Medicine #101225717</a></em><!-- --></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The series was produced by the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s (UMMC) Department of Psychiatry in 1969. Following typical archival practice, these untitled videotapes are named after the first episode on the tape.<a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> These episodes were used in the department’s teaching sessions so that medical students could learn how to recognize major psychiatric symptoms.<a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> Most episodes are moments from intake interviews, in which the patient is asked to narrate their condition. Usually prompted by the question, “What brought you here?” the patient enters into a dialogue with a psychiatrist or medical student. Professionally shot with a multi-camera set-up, each episode begins with a simple title card stating the number of the recording and the topic. Among the titles are “69.3 Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type,” “69.4 Alcoholic Addiction: Differential Diagnosis, Passive Aggressive Personality,” “69.6 Psychosis with Drug Intoxication,” and “69.2 Hermaphrodite.” The patients’ demographics are as diverse as these diagnoses, featuring White and African-American Southerners, with ages that range from sixteen to sixty years old, and a variety of class backgrounds and sexual orientations.</p>
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<blockquote><p>With the help of an archivist at UMMC, I managed to track down and interview people who worked in UMMC’s Department of Psychiatry in the 1960s.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> episodes are short fragments without a cohesive narrative. Sometimes scenes end abruptly with no explanation, sometimes a diagnosis is part of a title, sometimes the title just refers to the number of interviews we are about to watch. The tapes exist in the archive without any further information about the authors or subjects. There is no narrative to the individual episodes, and different archival listings group different episodes together, so that we also cannot easily read a larger framing or narrative from the compilations themselves. How, then, do we make sense of these partial interviews that do not reveal any information about their makers, their use, or the people they feature other than their location? With the help of an archivist at UMMC, I managed to track down and interview people who worked in UMMC’s Department of Psychiatry in the 1960s. In this article, I weave together their memories of the making of the tapes with the information we can gather through the surviving moving images themselves in an effort to piece together a moment of psychiatric media history currently fragmented in the UMMC archive. My goal is to place the tapes into their historic context as well as to discuss their importance for posterity. In doing so, I concentrate on speculations about three main functions of the tapes: (1) the establishment of a catalog of sample lessons for medical lectures, (2) the creation of self-reflexive approaches to therapy, and (3) the accountability created through the act of recording itself.</p>
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<p><strong>Function (1): the establishment of a catalog of sample lessons for medical lectures</strong></p>
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<p>Most of the tapes deal with cases of sub-differentiations of what was then called schizophrenia followed by multiple episodes on neuroses and anxiety disorders, both acute and chronic.<a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> Other titles in the series deal with alcoholism, addiction, sexual orientation, what at the time was called “mental retardation,” teenage angst, and passive-aggressive behavior. Given the range of topics, it seems that the goal in 1969 was to establish a catalog of major psychiatric diagnoses for students to consult.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_18258" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18258" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Schizophrenia_8700092A-300x233.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="18258" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/101225717-15/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-15.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="drug-dependency_101225717-15_interview-1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-15.jpg?fit=300%2C223&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101225717-15.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" class="wp-image-18258 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Schizophrenia_8700092A.jpg?resize=300%2C221&ssl=1" alt="Movie frame that reads: Schizophrenia (dementia praecox) is the most prevalent of mental disorders. About one percent of the population eventually develop it." width="300" height="221" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-18258" class="wp-caption-text"><!--<em><a href="TBD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Library of Medicine #101225717</a></em><!-- --></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The use of moving images for psychiatric education is almost as old as the medium itself. The German neurologist Paul Schuster filmed patients exhibiting neurological disorders for the purpose of teaching as early as 1897. Not long thereafter, the Romanian clinician Gheorghe Marinesco was fascinated by the frame-by-frame analysis the new medium offered to his practice.<a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> Silent instructional films such as <em><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2014/09/17/symptoms-in-schizophrenia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Symptoms in Schizophrenia</a></em> (James D. Page, University of Rochester School of Medicine, 1930) relied on intertitle cards to give the audience information beyond the filmed patient’s image. The German doctor Hans Hennes remarked in 1910 that while films should never, if possible, replace clinical demonstrations, they have a crucial advantage in portraying patients with a mental disorder, for “they could be projected at any time, whereas psychotic patients often would not produce their symptoms in the lecture room or could not be taken there at all.”<a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> In other words, unlike physical conditions, psychiatric disorders cannot be queued up for medical rounds, and it is important for the safety of the patient—as well as for the safety of the doctors—to have a more controllable environment, which films and videotapes provide.</p>
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<p>Even though the use of film to teach psychiatry began at the turn of the century and continued through World War II, it was not until the postwar period that the mental-health movement joined other disciplines in their enthusiasm for training and information film.<a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> The National Institute of Mental Health of the United States Public Health Service collaborated with the former National Committee for Mental Hygiene to establish the <a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/discovery/search?query=any,exact,Mental%20Health%20Film%20Board,AND&pfilter=rtype,exact,videos,AND&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=MyInstitution&sortby=rank&vid=01NLM_INST:01NLM_INST&mode=advanced&offset=10">National Mental Health Film Board</a> in 1949. Among other things, the board helped to finance productions for state mental health agencies.<a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Alfred Nichtenhauser’s co-edited volume <em>Films in Psychiatry, Psychology and Mental Health</em> from 1953 offers a contemporaneous look into the production and consumption of mid-century psychiatric films. <a href="https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2022/03/03/adolf-nichtenhauser-documenting-the-history-of-movies-and-medicine/">Nichtenhauser</a>, as well as his co-authors Marie L. Coleman and David S. Ruhe, thought of their book as a guide through the psychiatric motion-picture world for professionals, community organizers, students, as well as patients and their families. What is remarkable is that besides medical accuracy, Nichtenhauser gives astute attention to the quality of filmmaking itself, writing, “There are books on the techniques and structuring of films […] and useful film production courses are given in a few places. Not every specialist, however, has the time and talent needed for such training. The best he can do is find a competent film maker (not a ‘photographer’) with whom to work.”<a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> In a refreshing (and rare) way, Nichtenhauser accords an equal amount of respect to the filmmaker as well as to the doctor, instead of seeing the filmmaker as the doctor’s subordinate. When writing about the fields of neurology, psychiatry, and psychology in 1953, Nichtenhauser critiques the lack of sufficient production standards by noting, “Despite the proven effectiveness of motion pictures as a means of professional instruction in these areas, an organized market large enough to attract commercial producers does not yet exist.”<a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
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<blockquote><p>In a refreshing (and rare) way, Nichtenhauser accords an equal amount of respect to the filmmaker as well as to the doctor, instead of seeing the filmmaker as the doctor’s subordinate.</p></blockquote>
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<p>In 1967, fourteen years after Nichtenhauser voiced his critique, the National Medical Audiovisual Center (NMAC) was launched in Atlanta, creating a national program to improve the “quality and application of current instructional methodology, materials, systems, services, and functions in biomedical professional schools and among its practitioners.”<a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> With funding from the Center and Office of Audiovisual Educational Development of the National Institute of Health’s Bureau of Health Manpower Education, a variety of programs, activities and workshops were designed to strengthen the production of not just psychiatric films but all medical teaching films on a national level.</p>
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<p>Among the thirteen educational institution sites surveyed that were part of the NMAC’s consultation program was the University of Mississippi Medical Center.<a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> When Dr. William Stewart Agras arrived at UMMC in the Summer of 1969 to become the new Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, the department’s videotaping of patients was already established. He remembers the department having an excellent audiovisual capacity: a well-equipped recording studio with two full-time employees just for the Department of Psychiatry. These employees would record short episodes of patient intake interviews as well as set up equipment to show videotapes in lectures.<a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> By the time Dr. Agras started recording his patient interviews a few months later, the Department had already produced many of the episodes in the <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> series.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_20879" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20879" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="20879" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/drug-dependency-barbiturates-excerpts-from-two-interviews/101225717-15-b/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Interview" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Still from Drug Dependency, Barbiturates: Excerpts from Two Interviews, 1969</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?fit=300%2C223&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-20879" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?resize=300%2C223&ssl=1" alt="Black and white film still showing a man dressed in a suit, sitting in an armchair, facing a woman wearing a blouse and skirt, who is seated in an adjacent couch with her hands in her lap." width="300" height="223" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?resize=300%2C223&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?resize=690%2C513&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/101225717-15-b.jpg?w=720&ssl=1 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-20879" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Drug Dependency, Barbiturates: Excerpts from Two Interviews</em>, 1969</figcaption></figure>
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<p>In line with Nichtenhauser’s emphasis on cinematic standards, the videotapes may not necessarily look polished compared to documentary or fiction films of the same period; however, they do have a television studio feel to them that resembles the simple set-up of many 1950s television news shows. Additionally, these videotapes exhibit a three-dimensional understanding of patients as well as doctors that deserves special attention. While simple in set-up, the individual episodes are edited to reveal different camera positions such as establishing shots showing us how the chairs are set up in the office space, medium close-ups that reveal body language between doctor and patient, and close-ups revealing tears, fidgety hands, or nervous scratching behind the ear. These interviews capture early encounters between a new patient and a doctor. Judging from the patients’ testimonies, they have not always worked with or even seen the doctor before. There is a remarkable calm in these videotapes. Each tape is set up in different medical office spaces. There is either a big desk with the doctor on one side and the patient on the other, or two chairs, arranged like a talk-show set, usually with a small table with some sort of plant, telephone, or lamp in the middle. Compared to other teaching techniques of the time, such as teams of student clinicians observing a therapy session live, as was common for example at the University of Massachusetts, the camera set-up seems less intrusive, and one can infer that most patients seem to forget about the presence of cameras quite quickly, given that no one ever directly looks into a lens.<a id="_ednref14" class="anchor" href="#_edn14"><sup>[14]</sup></a></p>
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<p>There is no rush to these interviews; the patients are asked to say what brought them there, how they are feeling today, and then the doctors usually ask some follow-up questions that occur naturally within their conversations. In the case of “69.3 Schizophrenia Paranoid Type,” for example, the doctor listens to the patient, a white man in his 40s, talking about the importance of books, of reading, of having owned a dictionary once, human existence, the universe, the Army and the Navy, his engineering studies, and how he is now reading more words to become a doctor one day. The doctor actively listens, interjects follow-up questions here and there, and then proceeds to ask the patient whether he has ever heard of the saying, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” He goes through different sayings to see how the patient reacts to figurative speech, without ever correcting, mocking, or treating the patient with condescension. Throughout the ten-minute episode, the camera cuts to a close-up of the patient indicating that there is more than one camera in the recording studio. The video cuts back and forth between doctor and patient, sometimes lingering on a close-up of a face or hands, sometimes cutting back to an establishing shot. This trend can be observed in all of the episodes: an embodied approach to studying both the patient’s actions and the doctor’s reactions, which represents the therapeutic setting as the interpersonal, dynamic context it should be.</p>
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<p><strong>Function (2): the creation of self-reflexive approaches to therapy</strong></p>
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<p>In two different episodes, we learn something else about the series: some patients were invited to view their own recordings. In an episode called “Excerpts from Two Interviews,” we see an unnamed female patient in two sessions, videotaped one week apart. In the first interview, the White, seemingly middle-class woman in her 50s tells the doctor about a sleeping pill addiction that she has had since 1946. She says she would like to get off the pills, but every time she tries, she starts seeing colors, and it is too difficult to quit. She gets emotional and starts to cry, saying she was tired and seeing colors again at the moment. The second interview, as an intertitle card reveals, was taped one week later, and it starts with an establishing shot showing her sitting across the room from the doctor and exclaiming, “I just feel wonderful!” She proceeds to say seeing herself on the videorecording was “the greatest shock of my life.”</p>
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<p><!--https://youtu.be/RmKQpO6kHQA?si=QSdBs1HBxvfiVPN7&t=375-->
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When the doctor asks her if seeing herself on tape influenced her, she replies:
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<blockquote><span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>I told Dr. Lee, that for whatever reason you all decide about televising patients or seeing it, I’m sure you have to decide that, but it was a little like a divine revelation to me. (…) And, as I said, it was just not my outward appearance, ‘cause it was horrible, understandably, but it somehow showed me what I had allowed to happen. (…). I thought it was cruel as anything to show it to me.</blockquote>
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In her case, the therapeutic approach of actively seeing herself as others saw her helped her jump start a change in behavior towards her addiction (at least for the short time between the recordings we do not know about subsequent relapses or successes).
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In the case of Ms. B___, however, a woman featured in “69.9: Psychosis with Drug Intoxication,” the same approach did not yield the same result. Ms. B___ does not remember her first interview when asked about it in the second interview.
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<a href="https://youtu.be/igaLK5layJ0?si=gXK1AHzT-sgqzfkg&t=2703" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/igaLK5layJ0?si=gXK1AHzT-sgqzfkg&t=2703</a>
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The doctor asks, “Do you remember going next door and seeing yourself on television?” She says yes, but she does not remember him. He then asks her if she remembers how she felt when she was watching herself on television, to which she replies, “I thought that was a terrible old-looking woman sitting up there!” and laughs. From these two episodes, we can see that some patients were invited to watch their recordings. As such, their presence and recording served not only a teaching purpose but also perhaps a therapeutic one, allowing patients to self-reflect, remember, and be invited to be critical of their own appearance and behavior. The recordings provided a record of the previous week that might challenge patients’ assumptions about the reality of the present-day.
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From the videotapes, we do not learn more about the specific approaches to video as a self-therapeutic tool at UMMC in 1969. However, a number of studies from the same time period (mid- to late-1960s) indicate that “video self-observation” or “video self-confrontation” was a trendy topic for research, as attested by a number of articles: P. S. Holzman’s “On Hearing and Seeing Oneself” (1969); I. Alger and P. Hogan, “The Use of Videotape Recordings in Conjoint Marital Therapy in Private Practice” (1967); and A. Paredes and F.S. Cornelison’s “Development of an Audiovisual Technique for the Rehabilitation of Alcoholics” (1968).<a id="_ednref15" class="anchor" href="#_edn15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> Conclusions about the use of video self-observation in these articles vacillate between optimistic assertions arguing that the stress induced by it can “function as a productive catalyst” and serve as “one method to facilitate personality change and/or the reorganization of a person’s behavioral repertoire,” or, conversely, negative evaluations noting that the technique can lead to unnecessary stress “which is detrimental to the therapeutic rapport.”<a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> The woman with the pill addiction and Ms. B___ offer us just two instances of how patients reacted to this approach. Given their different attitudes towards seeing themselves, it is likely that video self-observation—its “successes” or “harms”—is influenced by a number of factors besides individual diagnoses, such as personality type, age, willingness to cooperate, time of day, or, perhaps, relationship to the medium outside of the therapeutic experiment.
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<strong>Function (3): accountability created through the act of recording itself.</strong>
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As we learn from one of the doctors in Ms. B___’s episode, patients occasionally were invited to an adjacent room to watch themselves on television. And the doctors, of course, watched not just the patients on tape but also themselves conducting the interviews. Aware that their own reactions, questions, and body language would be as scrutinized as their patients’ by students during a lecture, the doctors’ performances evince a vulnerability that I speculate has something to do with their awareness of the cameras. They seem awkward at times, concerned with how to sit or stand, as if wondering how not to block the view or ruin the take. Knowing that their performance as doctors would be studied by students as examples of how to—or how not to—interact during the interview process, I suspect, added an extra layer of accountability that we can ascribe to the presence of cameras, the presumed presence of the people in charge of the cameras, and the act of filmmaking itself.
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<blockquote>Aware that their own reactions, questions, and body language would be as scrutinized as their patients’ by students during a lecture, the doctors’ performances evince a vulnerability that I speculate has something to do with their awareness of the cameras.</blockquote>
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<div class="mceTemp">
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<dl id="attachment_18263" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 300px">
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main-300x223.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="18263" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/101718650-main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="depressive-neurosis_101718650-main_interview-1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?fit=300%2C223&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?fit=720%2C535&ssl=1" class="wp-image-18263 size-medium" src="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main-300x223.jpg" alt="Black and white film still showing two men sitting in chairs, facing each other, with a small table between them. The man on the left is wearing a button down shirt and slacks, and the man on the right is wearing a suit and tie." width="300" height="223" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?resize=300%2C223&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?resize=690%2C513&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/101718650-main.jpg?w=720&ssl=1 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></dt>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd">Still from <em>Depressive Neurosis</em>, 1969
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<!--<em><a href="TBD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Library of Medicine #101225717</a></em><!-- --></p>
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</div>
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<p>Teaching films tended to be part of a larger context instead of standing on their own.<a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> We can only speculate about the contextualization of the <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> episodes. Perhaps some student clinicians personally knew some patients from live therapy observations, medical rounds, or case reports. Perhaps some students had never met a patient exhibiting symptoms of a mental disorder and received a first exposure to a variety of mental disorders through the tapes. Observational in the context of clinical observation, these videotapes and their calm, ordinary, dedramatized nature offer us a sight of people with a mental illness as people we recognize from our everyday lives; people who are momentarily having a difficult time, but not necessarily people whose lives are in the complete disarray that Hollywood portrayals would suggest. Yes, the doctors all wear suits and a tie and most of them have the black-rim glasses familiar from Hollywood films. Contrived and dramatized medical films such as <em><a href="https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-9605878-vid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Out of Darkness</a></em> (1956), a schizophrenia awareness film hosted by Orson Welles (also available at the NLM), presented patients at the height of their mental crisis in dirty and unrefined clothes. In the <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> episodes, however, well-dressed and composed patients implicitly counter the common cinematic stereotype that outward appearances reflect inner turmoil and that the doctor is the only well-dressed person in the room. There are no overarching narratives, and it is a given that the therapeutic process takes time and cannot conclude in five to ten minutes. In the two episodes in which we see patients a week later, we can observe little changes. As for the others, we do not know.</p>
|
||
<p>As mentioned earlier, today this type of recording could not be watched by someone like me, outside the clinical context. For those of us outside, however, these videotapes—recorded two years after Frederick Wiseman visited Bridgewater State Hospital and four years after Senator Robert F. Kennedy was publicly appalled by the living conditions of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/nyregion/willowbrook-state-school-staten-island.html">Willowbrook State School</a> in New York—point perhaps towards a rare shimmer of hope that signifies a shift in the treatment of mental health patients at the turn of the decade.<a id="_ednref18" class="anchor" href="#_edn18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> Videotapes played at least a small role in these reforms. In the smaller context of the <em>Depressive Neurosis</em> recordings, I will end with two conclusions: (1) The presence of cameras as well as the understanding that the recordings would be watched by students and peers created an extra layer of accountability for the doctors during the interviews that possibly influenced how they treated the patients. The respectful attitude toward patients is markedly different than other nonfiction or fiction films of the same time (e.g., <em>Titicut Follies</em> or <em>Shock Corridor</em>). (2) These recordings become more and more important as the number of clinicians and patients who remember the making of these recordings declines. The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s archive holds minimal information on the establishment of the recording studio or its use. The videotapes themselves are therefore the only record we have of a time and place in which new approaches to psychiatric practice in the late 1960s can be observed from a historical, cultural, and cinematic perspective. While Nichtenhauser may not have been pleased with the series’ lack of dramatic engagement and storytelling, the videographic capture of patient and doctor details nonetheless reflects a professional aesthetic and understanding of camerawork that demonstrates what collaboration between a specialist and a “competent film maker (not a ‘photographer’)” can achieve.</p>
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<hr />
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td bgcolor="#f5f5f5">Linnéa J. Hussein is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Liberal Studies at New York University, where she is affiliated with the Art, Text, Media concentration in Global Liberal Studies. Her current research project, <em>The Cinematic Straitjacket</em>, examines discourses on mental illness, race, and disability in fiction, documentary, and news media, to reframe censorship as acts of restriction that privilege comfort and protection over the right to self-represent. Her articles and reviews have appeared in <em>Film Quarterly</em>, <em>Studies in Documentary Film</em>, <em>Social Text</em>, and <em>Film & History</em>.</td>
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||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
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<hr />
|
||
<h2>Filmography</h2>
|
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<p><em>Adjustment reaction of adolescence, Differential diagnosis: hypochondriacal neurosis, conversion type, Differential diagnosis: psychotic depressive reaction, Schizophrenic reaction, acute undifferentiated type: differential diagnosis: homosexuality, Schizophrenic reaction, acute undifferentiated type, Acute undifferentiated schizophrenia</em> (University of Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry. Jackson, Miss.: University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry, 1969)</p>
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<p><em>Depressive neurosis: differential diagnosis: schizoid personality</em> (University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry. Jackson, Miss.: The University, 1969)</p>
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<p><em>Depressive neurosis, hermaphrodite, schizophrenia (paranoid type), alcoholic addiction, organic brain syndrome, psychosis with drug intoxication, adjustment reaction of adolescence,</em> (University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry. Jackson, Miss.: The University, 1969)</p>
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<p><em>Out of Darkness</em> (Al Wasserman, 1956)</p>
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||
<p><em>Schizophrenia, paranoid type: differential diagnosis: hysterical neurosis, conversion type: schizophrenia, schizo-affective type</em> (University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry. Jackson, Miss.: The University, 1969?)</p>
|
||
<p><em>Shock Corridor</em> (Samuel Fuller, 1963)</p>
|
||
<p><em>Symptoms in Schizophrenia</em> (James D. Page, 1930)</p>
|
||
<p><em>Titicut Follies</em> (Frederick Wiseman, 1967)</p>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<div class="footnotes">
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||
<h3>Notes</h3>
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<p><a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> William Stewart Agras, email to author, November 21, 2020.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> The National Library of Medicine lists twenty-seven episodes on eleven tapes. For this article, I was able to review a digitization of four tapes with a total of nine episodes. Each episode is about five to ten minutes in length and shows actual patients during an interview.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> Agras, email to author, November 18, 2020.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> In the 1960s schizophrenia was used as a broad term that covered what today are seen as a variety of mental disorders.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> Adolf Nichtenhauser, Marie L. Coleman and David S. Ruhe, <em>Films in Psychiatry, Psychology and Mental Health</em> (New York: Health Education Council, 1953), 44.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, 45.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn7" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, 51.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, 51.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, 33–34.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn10" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, 52.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> <em>The National Library of Medicine: Programs and Services Fiscal Year 1972</em> (Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1972), 39.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn12" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> <em>National Library of Medicine</em>, 40.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> Agras, email to author, November 18, 2020, and November 20, 2020.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn14" href="#_ednref14">[14]</a> Student of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts in 1978, email to author, January 9, 2020.</p>
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||
<p><a id="_edn15" href="#_ednref15">[15]</a> The same period also gave rise to more experimental approaches related to television and therapy, such as the 1967 so-called “Hippie Drug Ward” experimental clinic in San Francisco, where moving images were curated in the hopes of restructuring “the consciousness and sensorium of those who had fallen through the cracks of society” (Carmine Grimaldi, “Televising Psyche: Therapy, Play, and the Seduction of Video,” <em>Representations</em> 139, no. 1 [2017]: 96).</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn16" href="#_ednref16">[16]</a> Gerald F. Skillings, “A Review on the History and Application of Videotape Self-Confrontation in Therapy and Human Relations Training,” (MA Thesis, Western Michigan University, 1977), 2–3.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn17" href="#_ednref17">[17]</a> Nichtenhauser, Cole and Ruhe, <em>Films in Psychiatry, Psychology and Mental Health</em>, 30.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn18" href="#_ednref18">[18]</a> To read more about the outcry Frederick Wiseman’s <em>Titicut Follies</em> elicited about the state of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at the 1967 New York Film Festival see Vincent Canby, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1967/10/04/archives/the-screen-titicut-follies-observes-life-in-a-modern.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“The Screen: ‘Titicut Follies’ Observes Life in a Modern Bedlam: Documentary Is Cool Calm and Harrowing ‘The Penthouse’ Offers a Twisted View”</a> in <em>New York Times</em> (October 4, 1967). To learn more about Robert Kennedy’s shocked reaction to the conditions in Willowbrook State Hospital see this <a href="https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/five/5b/bobby-kennedy-snakepits.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a>.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2>More Medicine on Screen</h2>
|
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/09/18/psychiatric-interview-films-in-the-age-of-reform-notes-on-the-depressive-neurosis-series-filmed-by-the-university-of-mississippi-medical-center-in-1969/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
|
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">17033</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>The Public Health Film Goes to War</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/</link>
|
||
<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/#comments</comments>
|
||
|
||
<dc:creator><![CDATA[lmthan]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Mon, 27 Mar 2023 05:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[All]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Animation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Color]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
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||
<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=13722</guid>
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||
<description><![CDATA[<br>By Michael Sappol, PhD<br>
|
||
|
||
Public health and war have long been close companions. In the first terrible round of "modern wars"—the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War and World War I—military officials and civilian leaders called on health professionals and volunteers to help mobilize and protect military forces and civilian populations. Health experts in turn viewed these conflicts as a sort of laboratory to test and implement their theories, and an opportunity to use fresh knowledge and nascent technologies. They boarded the bandwagon to advance their professional, scientific, political, and ideological goals—and film was a medium with which to do so.
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||
<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war-the-films/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
|
||
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Michael Sappol</p>
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||
<hr />
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||
<p><!--IMAGE SIZES IN THIS SECTION ADJUSTED TO 225X173 TO ADAPT FOR LONGER TITLE TEXT--></p>
|
||
<p><em>As the 1930s gave way to the 1940s, cinema—public health films included—was having a moment. With the onset of World War II, that moment exploded. Film was thought to be an especially influential medium. The US military had much to say and show audiences of soldiers and the public—and now, the funding to do it. Often in league with well-regarded filmmakers, the government sought to inform, inspire, and educate military men and women as well as the masses at home. This essay examines <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war-the-films/">a group of 13 films</a> representing a sampling of that oeuvre. </em></p>
|
||
<p><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war-the-films/">VIEW FILMS</a></p>
|
||
<div id="__essay" class="sec" style="text-align: left;">
|
||
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/winky-the-watchman/winky-the-watchman-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="The title screen featuring the text "Winky the Watchman / In Technicolor / Copyright MCMXLV Hugh Harman Productions, Inc. All rights in this motion picture reserved under international convention" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15591" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/winky-the-watchman/winky-the-watchman-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Winky the Watchman" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Winky-the-Watchman.jpg?fit=740%2C416&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9502511-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A scanned frame of film, with sprocket holes, shows a soldier in a helmet looking at an American flag." srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="16664" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9502511-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1920" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Frame from DDT, Weapon Against Disease" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-2.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9502511-1/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A scanned frame of film showing parts of the previous and next frames, depicting a military parade." srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="16663" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9502511-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1920" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Frame from DDT, Weapon Against Disease" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9502511-1.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9300155a-1/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A frame of scanned film that reads This Film is Restricted." srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="16659" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/9300155a-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1920" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Frame from The Inside Story" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/9300155A-1.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-inside-story/the-inside-story/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="Title screen for The Inside Story." srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15648" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-inside-story/the-inside-story/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="The Inside Story" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Inside-Story.jpg?fit=740%2C416&ssl=1" /></a>
|
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/criminal-at-large/dangerous-criminal-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A female mosquito standing on its front legs" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15210" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/criminal-at-large/dangerous-criminal-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?fit=1600%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Dangerous Criminal" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?fit=300%2C188&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dangerous-Criminal.jpg?fit=740%2C463&ssl=1" /></a>
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<p> </p>
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||
<blockquote><p>We commend to you that marvel of all ages—the greatest device that came from man’s ingenuity—the cinema—the long sought visual form of communication—the perfect form for teaching and the only qualitative gain to communication since the alphabet was evolved.</p>
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||
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">—B. A. Aughinbaugh, 1941</p>
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||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>ublic health and war have long been close companions, and maybe strange bedfellows. Starting with the Crimean War, and then the first terrible round of “modern wars”—the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War and World War I—military officials and civilian leaders called on health professionals and volunteers to help mobilize and protect military forces and civilian populations. Health professionals and volunteers, in turn, viewed war as an opportunity to test and implement their theories, as an opportunity to use newly discovered knowledge and newly invented technologies—and eagerly jumped on war bandwagons to advance their professional, scientific, political and ideological goals. Not surprisingly then, public health and military establishments have come to share a common vocabulary (campaigns, mobilizations, officers, enemies, containments, crusades, surveillance, evacuation, battles, wars, victories, tactics, strategies, logistics), a common obsession with scientific and technological innovation, and a common organizational model: the disciplined, deployable, hierarchical service; command and control.</p>
|
||
<p>The synergistic relationship between health professionals and the military especially flourished during the most massive conflict of all: World War II. In the era of total war, the mobilization of science and technology on behalf of the war effort famously bore fruit in the development of antibiotics, radar, and the atomic bomb. But the war also invigorated and shaped a variety of technological approaches to public health—the development of chemical pesticides to kill mosquitoes and other insect disease vectors, the expansion of electronic communication networks for public health surveillance, and the production of public health films aimed at mass audiences of military personnel and civilians.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_16483" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16483" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="16483" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/8601396a_text/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="8601396A_text" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>The Work of the Public Health Service, ca. 1936<br />
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National Library of Medicine #8601396A</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?fit=740%2C416&ssl=1" class="size-large wp-image-16483" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=740%2C416&ssl=1" alt="Scrolling text reads: The advice "in time of peace prepare for war" applies to the fight against disease as well as to that against a military enemy. Disease has destroyed more people than all the wars in history. Public heath workers not only fight epidemics and disease when they occur, but they must be ever alert..." width="740" height="416" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=690%2C388&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=1317%2C741&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?resize=1400%2C788&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8601396A_text.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16483" class="wp-caption-text"><em>The Work of the Public Health Service</em>, ca. 1936<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8601396A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8601396A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
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<p>The use of film to educate and mobilize the public for health purposes was not new. Interest in the educational possibilities of motion pictures began practically with the invention of the technology. But the medium of film inspired larger visions. In 1910 Thomas Edison prophesied that the motion picture would “wipe out narrow-minded prejudices which are founded on ignorance,…create a feeling of sympathy and a desire to help the down-trodden people of the earth, and…give new ideals to be followed.” <a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Edison clearly had an inventor’s (and investor’s) interest in promoting motion pictures, but his enthusiasm for his invention was widely shared. Film was almost universally regarded as an exemplary technology of modernity, a medium destined to transform society. In the early decades of the 20th century, military and civilian officials, educators, leaders of philanthropic organizations, and commercial companies like Pathé Frères and Eastman Kodak, all began making and exploring the uses of film to instruct the public and shape public opinion. Public health advocates and professionals—who had ambitious agendas of their own—were especially charmed, deeply impressed by cinema’s sway over mass audiences. The first public health film, on the “life drama of the fly,” was made in Great Britain in 1910 as part of a national anti-fly campaign. Other productions followed, in Britain, Germany, the United States, France, and, later, Italy and the Soviet Union, on the health hazards of alcoholism, water and food contamination, and other topics. <a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>After this initial wave of filmmaking, some public health professionals began to temper their enthusiasm, perhaps influenced by a larger post-war disillusionment that was setting in. Evart G. Routzahn and Mary Swain Routzahn, pioneering public health media specialists for the progressive Russell Sage Foundation, were skeptical about the effectiveness of the films that had been made. “The propaganda value of the motion picture,” they wrote in 1918, “is both very considerable and…overrated. It is unreasonable to expect results merely because people like motion pictures.” The Routzahns, and some other public health advocates, didn’t dismiss film entirely, but argued that the public health films of the period were poorly made, scientifically inaccurate, and lacking in credibility. <a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p><a id="anch_34" name="part2"></a></p>
|
||
<h1>Public Health And The State</h1>
|
||
<p>According to most historians, in the 19th century and first three decades of the 20th, the United States was a weak and fragmented nation-state, hobbled by divided sovereignty, laissez-faire ideology, and low tax revenues, unable to cope with the new conditions of industrial modernity and the rise of great cities. <a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> That assessment is largely derived from the writings of the era’s progressive reformers. From the 1880s to the 1940s, public health advocates, political and social activists, and geopolitical strategists saw themselves as social critics, reformers <em>and</em> nation-builders. Their shared ideal was of a centralized American state with a capable and effective infrastructure that married the force, legitimacy, and resources of the nation to the progressive advance of science. Only vigilant and thoroughly modern bureaucracies, under the stewardship of scientifically educated officials and their academic and philanthropic allies, could study, prevent, and eradicate social and medical pathologies. <a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>The health progressives had some successes. Between 1880 and 1920, public health bureaucracies took root in state and city governments, and national non-profit health advocacy organizations flourished. World War I especially spurred the expansion of the federal government’s role in public health, and public health film production, in the name of the war effort. After the war, many of the programs introduced during the war were discontinued, in an effort to reduce expenditures to pre-war levels. During the 1920s, the United States Public Health Service had no budget for film production, though some health films were produced by the Department of Agriculture and the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. <a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> In those years, the most dynamic area of public health activity took place in some of the more progressive states (especially in New York and Wisconsin), philanthropic and advocacy organizations like the National Tuberculosis Association, and quasi-governmental organizations like the American Social Hygiene Association, although by the late 1920s these were hampered by the Great Depression and the overall contraction of the U.S. economy. With the landslide election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, there came a new burst of activity on the federal level. The New Deal agenda called for an enlarged, progressive federal government; the federal government began increasing its support for public health bureaus and activities, and many state governments followed suit. The onset of World War II (along with the return of economic prosperity, increased tax revenues and greater tolerance for budget deficits) spurred an even greater expansion of public health bureaus and programs, military and civilian.</p>
|
||
<p>This was predicated on a rising tide of popular support for government programs, including those related to public health. Public health programs, in turn, were designed to foster, mobilize and consolidate popular support, as well as fight disease. In the 1930s and ’40s, the American public was served an intoxicating brew of rationalism, professionalism and democratic ideology. A patriotic belief in activist democracy became fused with faith in the power of science and technology. For progressive reformers, a key part of the agenda was to create and nurture an “enlightened” or “intelligent” citizenry. <a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> U.S. Public Health Service public relations experts Elizabeth G. Pritchard, Joseph Hirsh, and Margaret T. Prince, in a typical formulation of the late New Deal period, argued that “intelligent citizenship” was “a prerequisite for the full enjoyment of our democratic privileges”:</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Intelligent citizenship connotes knowledge of the facts concerning numerous inter-related social problems (of which human health is one) and the means for their solution…. Upon the professions—the physician, the educator, the journalist, the sociologist, economist, lawyer, scientist, and public administrator—devolves the major responsibility for making such knowledge generally available. No less does the obligation fall upon the non-professional citizen to acquaint himself with the facts; that this is so is evidenced by the unprecedented current demand upon responsible agencies, both public and private, for information with reference to reliable source materials on countless subjects. <a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Armed with the facts, the public would demand action. Governmental efforts to inform the public and mobilize public support, and the increasing pace of scientific discovery and technological invention, would in turn lead to an increased role for science in an expanding and increasingly effective government. An informed and activist citizenry, led by a cadre of trained professionals in possession of the latest scientific advances, would remake society. Neglected or intractable problems would finally be remedied through “the rapid advance of scientific medicine, improvements in public health and medical practice, the increased speed with which new and better measures for the prevention and cure of diseases are applied, and a growing acceptance and employment of the knowledge and skills of other professions both by public health and medicine”:</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>In society as a whole, there is the gathering force springing from the wide-spread efforts of public administration and the social sciences to solve problems of industrialization and urbanization, unemployment, poverty, dependency, delinquency, and inadequate education. From these pressures both within and without, there is slowly emerging a clearer concept of the social functions of public health, medicine, and their ancillary professions in the United States. <a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>For health officials and advocates, mobilization was crucial—and education and technology were the keys to mobilization. The health of the public could only be secured by an informed and aroused populace working energetically and collectively to prevent the contamination of the water and food supply, accidents, and the spread of disease-bearing micro-organisms and insects. And among all the technologies of mobilization, the motion picture was seen as the most modern and most powerful. <a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>The New Deal-inspired revival of enthusiasm for activist progressive government shifted the locus of health education and propaganda from private philanthropies and commercial companies to the public sector. Public health officials renewed their efforts, producing and distributing short motion pictures for use in combination with other public health campaign components: posters, pamphlets, lectures, glass slide shows, exhibitions and displays, magazine advertisements and articles, radio programs and announcements. Many of these productions showed an increasing sophistication in the use of media. But film was not a central component of the campaigns: motion pictures required an infrastructure of film projectors in schools, community centers or “health-mobiles”. They were also costly to produce and required special expertise. Most public health films still suffered from poor production values, bad acting, and amateurish scripts.</p>
|
||
<p>With the onset of World War II, federal, state, and local government greatly expanded in size and scope, along with the American economy, and so did expenditures on public health. The long sought-after dream of a powerful and effective national government, guided by scientifically trained professionals—the public health holy grail—seemed finally at hand. Media specialists, filmmakers, actors, writers and professional experts were inducted into the military or civilian government, or granted government contracts. Projects long deferred or starved for money suddenly got funding, if they could be justified in the name of the war effort: in the last few years of the war, the U.S. military and information services’ combined budget for “visual education” (mainly instructional and documentary films) amounted to about $50,000,000, a considerable sum. <a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> And with this increased funding, public health advocates were able to make more films and better films—more competently scripted, edited, acted, and photographed—and better equipped to make use of sound.</p>
|
||
<p>The invention of synchronized sound motion pictures in 1929 made film more than just a visually kinetic medium: the motion picture became a hybrid of the visual and the aural. During the 1930s filmmakers in Hollywood and elsewhere created and explored new ways to juxtapose sound and images. The addition of sound made film viewing into a more powerful experience. Sound film, it was believed, could better educate and motivate film audiences, orchestrate their emotions, and shape their views. Public health professionals began to enthuse anew about the potential uses of motion pictures. However, the transition from silent pictures to sound did not occur instantaneously or evenly or as fast as it did in Hollywood. In the 1930s, while some medical and public health motion pictures did employ sound, many did not: producers lacked the budgets, skills and equipment to make sound films. Silent medical films continued to be produced throughout the ’30s and ’40s.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="anch_43" name="part3"></a></p>
|
||
<h1>The Public Health Film Goes To War</h1>
|
||
<blockquote><p>The Second World War has seen the development of two new weapons: the airplane and the motion picture.</p>
|
||
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">—General George C. Marshall, ca. 1944, in Arthur L. Mayer, “Fact into Film,” <em>Public Opinion Quarterly</em> 8.2 (Summer 1944): 206.</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>In the 1940s, public health sound cinema came into its own. It acquired a mass audience of military men and women (more than 12,000,000), schoolchildren, theatergoers, and community groups. <a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> It got larger budgets, in some cases well-known actors, producers, directors, and animators. And it got a starring role in public health campaigns which were more elaborately planned and coordinated than ever before. During the World War II-era, many of the techniques developed in Hollywood entertainment films over the previous decade—polished edits, orchestral musical backgrounds, exciting storylines, snappy patter—came to be used to build audience support and participation for public health programs and mobilizations. Budgets were still generally small—many films consisted of little more than edited footage (sometimes with older footage or stock footage mixed in), with a voiceover and maybe a canned score—but some were more ambitious, the public health equivalent of a top-line, “A” movie.</p>
|
||
<p>The most elaborate were those produced by the United States Armed Forces. Even before the U.S. entered the war, in 1940 and ’41, there was an upsurge in military spending and an increase in military-funded training films. The War Department took over the Astoria Studios in New York and the Army Air Force took over the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, California. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of Twentieth-Century Fox, was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and began supervising production of training films.</p>
|
||
<div class="ill">
|
||
<figure id="attachment_13808" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13808" style="width: 243px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image002.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13808" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image002/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image002.jpg?fit=243%2C178&ssl=1" data-orig-size="243,178" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Learning Men" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Still from Army Training Film, Army Animation Department, Astoria Film Studios, Queens, New York, 1944. National Library of Medicine</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image002.jpg?fit=243%2C178&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image002.jpg?fit=243%2C178&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-13808" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image002.jpg?resize=243%2C178&ssl=1" alt="black and white image of men behind desks" width="243" height="178" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13808" class="wp-caption-text">Still from Army Training Film, Army Animation Department, Astoria Film Studios, Queens, New York, 1944. National Library of Medicine</figcaption></figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p>In 1942, with the U.S. fully engaged in the war against the Axis powers, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order creating an Office of War Information. The OWI’s mission was to use behavioral psychology and other social sciences (what was termed “social engineering”) to study how the U.S. government could best use newspapers and magazine articles, radio, motion pictures, comic strips, and anything else, to educate and mobilize the public on behalf of the war effort. The same year the U.S. Army established an Information and Education Division, led by Brigadier General Frederick H. Osborn (before the war, a prominent member of the Social Science Research Council). Osborn founded a filmmaking unit, headed by the celebrated Hollywood director Frank Capra. Capra in turn established an animation unit headed by Theodore Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”) and staffed by a roster of distinguished animators from Warner Brothers and other top studios, John Hubley, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Zack Schwartz, David Hilberman and many others. The onscreen animation talent featured soundtrack music by Warner Brothers composer Carl Stallings and voices by Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck). The Navy, Marines, Army Air Force, and Coast Guard followed suit, employing filmmakers, actors and animators—increasingly working in consultation with educators, psychologists and sociologists. In the course of the war, the U.S. military made thousands of films, live action and animated. Although most of these had nothing to do with public health, focusing on other issues deemed crucial to the war effort, many films did include material on medicine and public health, and some were wholly devoted to health concerns. <a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13" name="_ednref13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>The purpose of this motion picture is to give you the facts, and then you as individuals and as citizens of a democracy must take action.</p>
|
||
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">—Thomas Parran, U.S. Surgeon-General, in <em>To the People of the United States,</em> 1944</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>But the World War II-era public health film was not just a military matter. During the war, the quasi-military U.S. Public Health Service, state and local departments of health, and non-governmental organizations (such as the National Tuberculosis Association and the Red Cross) intensified their film-making activities, often coordinating their efforts on federal, state and local levels. These health films testify to a widespread belief in the power of motion pictures to educate and mobilize. Many of them also document specific projects and campaigns. In 1940, for example, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) co-sponsored a health initiative in Alabama that included funding for production of “scripts for sound film programs”. These were to be produced in tandem with: posters; pamphlets; exhibitions; radio plays, “lectures,” interviews,” and “short radio talks” (with separate scripts “for Negro programs”); a speakers bureau; and a traveling marionette show. <a id="_ednref14" class="anchor" href="#_edn14" name="_ednref14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> Public health motion pictures almost never stood alone: they were usually designed to serve in larger campaigns that deployed a variety of media.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_16485" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16485" style="width: 236px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="16485" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/criminal-at-large/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?fit=943%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="943,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="101451934" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>This is a Malaria Zone, ca. 1940s<br />
|
||
National Library of Medicine #101451934</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?fit=236%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?fit=740%2C941&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-16485" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=236%2C300&ssl=1" alt="Poster text reads: protect yourself, protect your buddies, keep covered after dark." width="236" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=236%2C300&ssl=1 236w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=805%2C1024&ssl=1 805w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=768%2C977&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=690%2C878&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?resize=800%2C1018&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nlm_nlmuid-101451934-img.jpg?w=943&ssl=1 943w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16485" class="wp-caption-text">This is a Malaria Zone, ca. 1940s<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101451934"><em>National Library of Medicine #101451934</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>Like any complex cultural production, they were packed with meaning, rife with metaphors and representations of the social practices and conditions of the day: industrial warfare, machine technology, popular culture, consumer goods, urban and rural life, racial segregation, the automobile and the railroad. The public health films of the 1940s were part of a larger rhetorical effort to consolidate an ideological consensus. They celebrated a utopian, almost intoxicated, vision of American democracy—a missionary urge to democratize other nations and societies—and a deep faith in the ability of science to solve (previously intractable) problems of poverty and disease. They also promoted fear of the non-Western races and nations as a source of contagion, and were chock full of casual racism, class prejudice, and sexism. The contradiction that seems evident now, was invisible then: war-time public health films trafficked in racial, gender, class, and national stereotypes, even as they offered a vision of an egalitarian democratic society mobilized to fight the forces of bigotry and prejudice.</p>
|
||
<p>They were shown in a variety of venues—army bases, naval vessels, battlefield encampments, hospitals, schools, community centers, traveling health-mobiles, even movie theaters—to a variety of audiences.</p>
|
||
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image006/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="army unit on the march, carrying a screen and 16mm projector" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13811" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image006/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?fit=400%2C204&ssl=1" data-orig-size="400,204" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Setting Up" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Italian campaign, 1944. Editors of Look Magazine, Movie Lot to Beachhead (New York, Garden City: Doubleday, 1945), 107.</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?fit=300%2C153&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image006.jpg?fit=400%2C204&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image007/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="men sitting down on benches in front of a movie screen outside" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13812" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image007/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?fit=391%2C249&ssl=1" data-orig-size="391,249" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="To the Movies" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>U.S. military base, New Guinea, ca. 1945. Editors of Look Magazine, Movie Lot to Beachhead (New York, Garden City: Doubleday, 1945), 107.</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?fit=300%2C191&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image007.jpg?fit=391%2C249&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image008/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="Men intently watching the movie on the screen" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13813" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image008/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?fit=388%2C239&ssl=1" data-orig-size="388,239" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Enjoy the Show" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>U.S. Army Air Force airfield, North Africa, ca. 1944. Editors of Look Magazine, Movie Lot to Beachhead (New York, Garden City: Doubleday, 1945), 109.</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?fit=300%2C185&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image008.jpg?fit=388%2C239&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
|
||
<p>The public health filmmakers of the 1940s knew from first-hand experience that the public paid attention to movies that entertained, told a story and had characters and situations audience members could identify with. Armed with this conventional wisdom, filmmakers tried to make movies that recruited the emotions of audience members, and shaped their views. Their goal was not only to inform the public on the particulars of a specific public health campaign or issue, but to mold each viewer into an informed, “enlightened” citizen (or citizen-soldier), and to create a climate of support, that would further the larger goals of public health and collective action. <a id="_ednref15" class="anchor" href="#_edn15" name="_ednref15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>Whether they succeeded is hard to tell. With the exponential increase in film production, there was a learning curve, and eventually the implementation of procedures to critique screenplays and review the effectiveness of how well films communicated specific skills and information to audiences. According to Adolf Nichtenhauser, the first historian of medical film and a participant in the planning and evaluation of war-time public health films, after a rough start in 1940 and ’41, military film producers learned to carefully study and apply “psychological and artistic factors in film design.” <a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16" name="_ednref16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> But it was less easy to determine the effectiveness of the subsidiary (or larger) purposes of film—the motion picture as a technology of opinion-making and consensus-building—which was more of an implicit belief, a widely held assumption.</p>
|
||
<div class="ill-c">
|
||
<figure id="attachment_13814" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13814" style="width: 199px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image010-1.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13814" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/clip_image010-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image010-1.jpg?fit=199%2C146&ssl=1" data-orig-size="199,146" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Sanitize your Gear" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>South Pacific, ca. 1945. Mess detachment, 20th General Hospital. Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC (MAMAS 44-770-5).</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image010-1.jpg?fit=199%2C146&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image010-1.jpg?fit=199%2C146&ssl=1" class="size-full wp-image-13814" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clip_image010-1.jpg?resize=199%2C146&ssl=1" alt="men sanitizing gear in a bunch of hot barrels" width="199" height="146" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13814" class="wp-caption-text">South Pacific, ca. 1945. Mess detachment, 20th General Hospital. Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC (MAMAS 44-770-5).</figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>As the films grew in sophistication, the issue of the relationship between sound and visual came to the fore: public health filmmakers began to think more critically about films which used visuals as backdrops for wordy lectures. “The motion picture,” Nichtenhauser comments, “had to be liberated from…verbalization, which had rendered it ineffective as a teaching tool.” As wartime production got underway, the “visual power” of cinema “was rediscovered and fostered and the permissible word-load determined.” <a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17" name="_ednref17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> Along with this renewed emphasis on the visual came an increasing belief that dramatization was superior to “purely logical expository treatment”, or at least that didactic or moral exhortation could be effective only if leavened with stories and characters which audience members could identify with. <a id="_ednref18" class="anchor" href="#_edn18" name="_ednref18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p>To some degree, this approach rested on an assessment of the intellectual and moral capacity of film audiences that undermined the goal of fostering an enlightened citizenry. It implied that audience members (except for specially selected groups) had the mental capacity of children, and that films should therefore only make “elementary mental requirements,” have a friendly informal tone, keep things very simple and make ample use of comic exaggeration and repetition. <a id="_ednref19" class="anchor" href="#_edn19" name="_ednref19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> The entertainment-oriented public health film contained an implicit critique of mass culture, even as it deployed the techniques of mass culture. If the average American was a semi-literate simpleton, easily manipulated (if not hypnotized) by animated cartoons and cartoonish narratives, then film empowered the manipulators, who deployed film as a technology of manipulation, and not the people. At the same time, the increasing adoption of the forms of mass culture, and the increasing deployment of plebeian voices and characters, contained an implicit critique of high culture which, through its high-falutin’ neo-English accent, stage diction, pomposity and condescending tone, not only failed to communicate with the public, but even made itself slightly ridiculous.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>The problem of motion-picture filmmaking is…not primarily one of equipment, photographic technique and finances but one of thinking in a visual language which has its own particular grammar, syntax and logic.</p>
|
||
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">—Adolf Nichtenhauser, 1950 in “A History of Motion Pictures in Medicine,” IV: 298</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_16494" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16494" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="16494" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/8800163a/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?fit=789%2C531&ssl=1" data-orig-size="789,531" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="A mosquito." data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Criminal at Large, 1943<br />
|
||
U.S. Public Health Service, Office of Malaria Control in War Areas.<br />
|
||
National Library of Medicine #8800163A</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?fit=300%2C202&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?fit=740%2C498&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-16494" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?resize=300%2C202&ssl=1" alt="A cartoon mosquito with a halo and feathered wings sniffs a flower." width="300" height="202" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?resize=300%2C202&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?resize=768%2C517&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?resize=690%2C464&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8800163A.png?w=789&ssl=1 789w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16494" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Criminal at Large</em>, 1943<br />U.S. Public Health Service, Office of Malaria Control in War Areas.<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800163A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8800163A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>While Nichtenhauser and others praised the turn toward the visual, the new public health films of the 1940s used sound as much as cinematography, and were as much influenced by radio and Madison Avenue, as by Hollywood. Typically, the screen images, and theatrical dialogue (if any), were accompanied by the voice of an authoritative male narrator—sometimes disembodied, sometimes onscreen—who directly addressed the audience, using the rhetoric of science and reason to persuade viewers to change their private behavior and encourage participation in collective action. This was argued in some combination of political, moral, and ideological terms: disease makes people ill, citizens armed with the truth/science can prevent disease, the enemy is as much ignorance as it is disease, fighting disease and protecting the public health will help us defeat the Axis powers, etc. The assumption that audience members would identify with the narrator’s voice, and adopt it as their own “voice of reason,” initially came to the public health film from political speechmaking and pedagogical lecturing, but the influence of radio, advertising and marketing theory (which in this period were increasing drawing on sociology and behavioral psychology) gave narration a broader palette of colors. As an aid to identification, the voiceover could be delivered in a variety of registers and tones: friendly, colloquial, educated, scolding, seductive, jokey, or stentorian, depending on the subject and intended audience. <a id="_ednref20" class="anchor" href="#_edn20" name="_ednref20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> To our ears, the direct address to the viewing audience sounds naïve and dated, and is mainly used to convey a sense of irony or nostalgia. But in the 1940s it was still au courant, regarded as very modern and very scientific.</p>
|
||
<p>A final point needs to be made about the increasing specialization and sophistication of war-time public health films. Nichtenhauser argued that “expert film professionals were needed to make effective films,” and that this was “a matter of teaming up the subject-matter specialist [e.g., public health officials, physicians, surgeons] with the film artist and the educator and the psychologist.” <a id="_ednref21" class="anchor" href="#_edn21" name="_ednref21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Before the war, the methodology of educational and propaganda films was much more haphazard. A few were made with trained specialists, who dealt with every aspect; most were made without much cinematic or pedagogical expertise, and without much critical evaluation. During the war, public health filmmakers learned on the job and had the opportunity to work with more experienced film professionals. By 1945, the standards of what constituted a successful public health film—and the expectations of what professional credentials, training and knowledge filmmakers needed to bring to the task–all were markedly higher than they had been in 1940. While most films were not subjected to rigorous testing for audience response and effectiveness (for which there was little time or money), many did undergo a review process during production and, after screenings, were assessed in reports and through word of mouth.</p>
|
||
<p>After the war, a certain amount of disillusionment set in. The military demobilized and federal government filmmaking budgets were slashed, or cut to zero. But Nichtenhauser (writing in 1950) remained positive about what had been accomplished. War-time public health and medical training films, he concluded, “had given far more than an inkling of what motion pictures might come to mean to medicine in the future.” <a id="_ednref22" class="anchor" href="#_edn22" name="_ednref22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;" data-darkreader-inline-border-top="" data-darkreader-inline-border-right="" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom="" data-darkreader-inline-border-left="">
|
||
<tbody>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td style="--darkreader-inline-bgcolor: #1e2021;" bgcolor="#f5f5f5" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">
|
||
<div class="insert">
|
||
<p>The original <em>Public Health Film Goes to War</em> site was created in 2011 by Drs Michael Sappol, Paul Theerman, and David Cantor. Response to the project helped stimulate the launch of <em>Medical Movies on the Web</em>, a site dedicated to expanding awareness of and access to rare and important titles in the NLM audiovisual collection. This evolution continues with <em>Medicine on Screen</em>, which supports researchers with context, access to related NLM resources, and publication of original essays based in the NLM collections. You can find the <a href="https://wayback.archive-it.org/6773/20210131165800/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/phfgtw/index.html">original site</a> in the NLM Web Archive.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
|
||
<p>Cartwright, Lisa. <em>Screening the Body: Tracing Medicine’s Visual Culture</em> (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).</p>
|
||
<p>Editors of Look Magazine, <em>Movie Lot to Beachhead: The Motion Picture Goes to War and Prepares for the Future</em> (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1945).</p>
|
||
<p>Fedunkiw, Marianne. “Malaria Films: Motion Pictures as a Public Health Tool,” <em>American Journal of Public Health</em> 93.7 (7-2003): 1046-57.</p>
|
||
<p>Friedman, Lester D. ed., <em>Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media</em> (Durham, NC & London: Duke University Press, 2004).</p>
|
||
<p>Hearon, Fanning. “The Motion-Picture Program and Policy of the United States Government,” <em>Journal of Educational Sociology</em> 12 (11-1938): 147-62.</p>
|
||
<p>Koppes, Clayton R. & Black, Gregory D. “What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood, 1942-45,” <em>Journal of American History</em> 64.1 (6-1977): 87-105.</p>
|
||
<p>Lederer, Susan E. & Parascandola, John. “Screening Syphilis: Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet meets the Public Health Service,” <em>Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences</em> 53.4 (10-1998): 345-70.</p>
|
||
<p>Lederer, Susan E. & Rogers, Naomi “Media,” in Roger Cooter & John Pickstone, eds., <em>Medicine in the Twentieth Century</em> (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publ., 2000), 487-502.</p>
|
||
<p>Mayer, Arthur L. “Fact into Film,” <em>Public Opinion Quarterly</em> 8.2 (Summer 1944): 206-25.</p>
|
||
<p>Milliken, Christie. “Continence of the Continent: The Ideology of Disease and Hygiene in World War II Training Films,” in Lester D. Friedman, ed., <em>Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media </em>(Durham, NC & London: Duke University Press, 2004).</p>
|
||
<p>Nichtenhauser, Adolf. “A History of Motion Pictures in Medicine” (unpublished manuscript, National Library of Medicine, MS C 380, ca. 1950).</p>
|
||
<p>Parascandola, John. “VD at the movies: PHS films of the 1930s and 1940s,” <em>Public Health Reports</em> 111.2 (Mar-Apr 1996): 173-75.</p>
|
||
<p>Pernick, Martin. “Thomas Edison’s Tuberculosis Films: Mass Media and Health Propaganda,” <em>Hastings Center Report</em> (6-1978): 21-27.</p>
|
||
<p>_____, “U.S. Government Sex Education Films in the 1920s,” <em>Isis</em> 84 (12-1993): 766-68.</p>
|
||
<p>_____, <em>The Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of “Defective” Babies in American Medicine and Motion</em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).</p>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<div class="footnotes">
|
||
<h3>Notes</h3>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> Qtd. in “The Moving Picture and the National Character,” <em>The American Review of Reviews</em> 42 (9-1910): 315 [transcription, Adolf Nichtenhauser papers, MS C 277; box 8, folder 4; National Library of Medicine].</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> Adolf Nichtenhauser, “A History of Motion Pictures in Medicine” (unpublished manuscript, MS C 380; National Library of Medicine, ca. 1950), 106-09.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> The ABC of Exhibit Planning<span class="html-tag"></em></span> (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1918), 85-86.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> See Robert Wiebe, <em>The Search for Order</em>, 1877-1920 (New York, 1990); Theda Skocpol, <em>Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States</em> (Cambridge, MA, 1995).</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> Reformers differed, according to the historical moment and political bent, on which state bureaucracies were the best model for the United States to follow: France, Great Britain, Wilhelmine Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union, Sweden and Denmark.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Nichtenhauser, “History of Motion Pictures in Medicine”, III: 67-70.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn7" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> The idea, in some form, gained currency in the early 20th century. For an influential discussion, see John Dewey, <em>Democracy and Education</em> (New York, 1916).</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> Elizabeth G. Pritchard, Joseph Hirsh & Margaret T. Prince, <em>Select Bibliography on the Social Aspects of Public Health and Medical Care in the United States</em> (Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service, 1940; mimeograph), 1, in Nichtenhauser Papers.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> Ibid., 1-2.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn10" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> For an influential statement of the usefulness of film in creating “intelligent, operative, civic-minded citizens,” see Thomas Baird, “Civic Education and the Motion Picture,” <em>Journal of Educational Sociology</em> 11.3 (11-1937): 142-48.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> Mary Losey, <em>A Report on the Outlook for the Profitable Production of Documentary Films for the Non-Theatrical Market</em> (Sugar Research Foundation; Film Program Services, 1948), 2 [mimeograph, Nichtenhauser Papers]. This dollar figure is for all films produced for “visual education”, not just health films.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn12" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> The 12,000,000 figure is from Losey, 2 [Nichtenhauser Papers].</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> Christie Milliken, “Continence of the Continent: The Ideology of Disease and Hygiene in World War II Training Films,” in Lester D. Friedman, ed., <em>Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media</em> (Durham, NC & London: Duke University Press, 2004).</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn14" href="#_ednref14">[14]</a> United States, Work Projects Administration. Alabama public health education program. Work Projects Administration (WPA). Official project 65-1-61-2317 (3-18-1940 to 4-8-1941). Sponsored by the Alabama State Board of Health. Montgomery, AL, 1941.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn15" href="#_ednref15">[15]</a> This goal was not universally shared. Conservative opponents of the New Deal condemned government expenditures on public health and other informational films, which they saw as close cousins of the propaganda films produced in Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. Before the U.S. entered the war, Republican Senator Robert Taft of Ohio tried to kill funding for film production, but after Pearl Harbor, support for government-funded filmmaking was buoyed by the tidal wave of support for total war mobilization. Taft however did not give up and, in 1943, managed to impose severe budget cuts on OWI, which in his view was a nest of socialists pushing radical egalitarianism and a government/Popular Front line that the fight against fascism was a people’s war. Some prominent members of the film industry, both film distributors and studios, also opposed the idea of government-funded film as socialistic. See Clayton R. Koppes & Gregory D. Black, “What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood, 1942-45,” <em>Journal of American History</em> 64.1 (6-1977): 87-105; Mayer, “Fact into Film,” 210-13.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn16" href="#_ednref16">[16]</a> Nichtenhauser, “History of Motion Pictures in Medicine”, IV: 222.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn17" href="#_ednref17">[17]</a> Ibid.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn18" href="#_ednref18">[18]</a> Ibid., IV: 230.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn19" href="#_ednref19">[19]</a> Ibid., IV: 231.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn20" href="#_ednref20">[20]</a> Here as well there was a learning curve. The stentorian voice, while commonly used, eventually received much criticism among filmmakers, as an outdated reflex, a tic of expository filmmaking. Nichtenhauser complained that one film used the “intimidating, pseudo-authoritative, ever-continuing voice of the March of Time [style] narrator with its artificial sense of urgency and its intonation of doom.” Ibid., IV: 239-40.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn21" href="#_ednref21">[21]</a> Ibid., IV: 281.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn22" href="#_ednref22">[22]</a> Ibid.</p>
|
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</div>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2023/03/27/the-public-health-film-goes-to-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">13722</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>The Films of Virologist Telford Work</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Circulating Now]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:30:58 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Color]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Research & Documentation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Silent]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=14844</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[<br>By Dwight Swanson<br>
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The National Library of Medicine is home to 83 films created by virologist Telford H. Work documenting his life’s work and travels. The films supplement Work’s manuscript collection, which covers his education, career, hobbies, and achievements. Captured between 1942 and 1988, the films were primarily shot on 16mm film, with video copies made later.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>
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]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Dwight Swanson</p>
|
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<hr />
|
||
<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/">Maturation of a Medic<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15726" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/maturation_100897071_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Maturation of a Medic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15726 size-medium alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Maturation_100897071_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
|
||
<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/st-louis-encephalitis-epidemic/">St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15734" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/st-louis-encephalitis_101683147_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15734 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/St-Louis-Encephalitis_101683147_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
|
||
<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/space-bears-ticks-tulips/">Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15732" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/space_101684315_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15732 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Space_101684315_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
|
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/pharaohs-and-fellahs/">Pharaohs and Fellahs<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15730" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/pharaohs_100938376_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Pharaohs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15730 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Pharaohs_100938376_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/kyasanur-forest-disease/">Kyasanur Forest Disease<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15724" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/kyanasur_101491206_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Kyanasur Forest Disease" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15724 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyanasur_101491206_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/monsoon-mosaic/">Monsoon Mosaic<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15728" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/monsoon_101478296_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Monsoon Mosaic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15728 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Monsoon_101478296_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
|
||
<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/fevers-ticks-and-caviar/">Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15722" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/fever-ticks-caviar_101477238_play/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fever-Ticks-Caviar_101477238_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fever-Ticks-Caviar_101477238_play.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fever-Ticks-Caviar_101477238_play.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-15722 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fever-Ticks-Caviar_101477238_play-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
|
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<div class="video">
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<hr />
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<p><strong>DATE: </strong>1942–1965<br />
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<strong>LENGTH: </strong>28–67 minutes<br />
|
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<strong>CREATOR:</strong> Telford H. Work<br />
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<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Research & Documentation, Silent, Color</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<div id="__essay" class="sec" style="text-align: left;">
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<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>s the world has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the work of virologists has never been more crucial. Virology is having a cultural moment, so it is opportune to stop and look back at the career of Telford H. Work, one of America’s premier virologists. Work’s collection of 83 films documenting his life’s work and travels is preserved in the National Library of Medicine collections, along with Work’s <a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/ammp/resources/work564">manuscript collection</a>, which covers his education, career, hobbies, and achievements. Made between 1942 and 1988, the films were primarily shot on 16mm film, with video copies made later by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Although some of Work’s California wildlife films were donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Work’s widow Martine Jozan, MD, Ph.D. (also a virologist) donated most of his films to the NLM in a series of gifts to the institution between 1999 and 2006. His film, <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/reconnaissance-for-yellow-fever-in-the-nuba-mountains-southern-sudan/"><em>Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan</em></a>, was previously the subject of a “Medicine on Screen” essay by Paul Theerman.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p><strong>He trudged everywhere loaded with a tripod and 16mm Bolex cameras, documenting epidemiological events as they unfolded “as a journalist does in a notebook.” —Martine Jozan<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></strong></p></blockquote>
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<h3><strong>Biography</strong></h3>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15485" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15485" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15485" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/yosemite-photography/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?fit=1600%2C1139&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1139" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Yosemite photography" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?fit=300%2C214&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?fit=740%2C527&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15485 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography-300x214.jpg?resize=300%2C214&ssl=1" alt="Two white men sitting outside in camping chairs with a camera on a tripod and sign to the right that reads, "Have Your Party Photographed / Yosemite National Park / Yosemite Park and Curry Co." with six sample photographs on the sign" width="300" height="214" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=300%2C214&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=1024%2C729&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=768%2C547&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=1536%2C1093&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=690%2C491&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=1317%2C938&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=800%2C570&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?resize=1400%2C997&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Yosemite-photography.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15485" class="wp-caption-text">Telford H. Work Papers<br /><a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/archival_objects/103311"><em>National Library of Medicine #101082665</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>In 1921, Telford Hindley Work was born in Selma, California, in the San Joaquin Valley, the son of the publisher of the local newspaper. He grew up in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles and in his younger years developed passionate interests in both birds and still photography. He worked for three summers in Yosemite National Park, photographing tourists among the redwood trees (and shooting photographs of eagles’ nests in his spare time), but he decided to switch to 16mm film because he felt moving pictures were better at capturing nature. Work’s first published article, “The Nest Life of the Turkey Vulture,” appeared in <em>Condor</em> magazine, and his early film <em>In Search of the California Condor</em>, shot in 1945 (and finished by Martine Jozan in 2008), document the hunt for condor nesting sites in the Sespe area of Southern California.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> Work graduated with a degree in biology from Stanford University and stayed at Stanford from 1942 to 1945 for medical school. He documented this process in his film <em>Maturation of a Medic</em> (1942–44). While in medical school, he was asked by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist George Beadle to film one of his <em>Neurospora</em> colony experiments for a presentation that Work would later point to as a turning point in his use of film as scientific documentation.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15473" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15473" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15473" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/stanford-medical-class-1942/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=1499%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1499,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Stanford Medical Class 1942" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?fit=740%2C593&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15473 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942-1024x820.jpg?resize=740%2C593&ssl=1" alt="A photograph of forty to sixty people, containing predominantly men and only three women, dressed in lab coats outside the steps of a building" width="740" height="593" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=1024%2C820&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=300%2C240&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=768%2C615&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=690%2C552&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=1317%2C1054&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=800%2C640&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?resize=1400%2C1121&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stanford-Medical-Class-1942.jpg?w=1499&ssl=1 1499w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15473" class="wp-caption-text">Telford H. Work Papers, <a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/archival_objects/103311"><em>National Library of Medicine #101082665</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>After graduation, Work joined the U.S. Navy, where he received training in surgery and war-related psychiatric disorders. His first assignment was at the Treasure Island Naval Station hospital in San Francisco Bay, which was a blow to his dreams of sailing the seas, but soon he was transferred to the USS <em>Monongahela</em>, an oil tanker that traveled between the Persian Gulf and Japan. It was during these travels that he first developed an interest in tropical medicine, which culminated in a year studying at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, followed by a master’s degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_15464" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15464" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15464" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/id-in-arabic/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=1600%2C1025&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1025" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="ID in Arabic" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=300%2C192&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?fit=740%2C474&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15464 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic-300x192.jpg?resize=300%2C192&ssl=1" alt="An ID card in Arabic featuring a white male in a suit and tie" width="300" height="192" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=300%2C192&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=1024%2C656&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=768%2C492&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=1536%2C984&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=690%2C442&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=1317%2C844&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=800%2C513&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?resize=1400%2C897&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ID-in-Arabic.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15464" class="wp-caption-text">Telford H. Work Papers <br /><a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/archival_objects/103311"><em>National Library of Medicine #101082665</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The forty-five years of Work’s professional life included an array of far-flung residencies, including epidemiological and virological field research on every continent. His early career included two years in Fiji studying the transmission of filariasis, an infectious tropical disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. In 1953, he served at the Naval Medical Research Unit in Cairo where he performed a serologic survey of West Nile Virus that isolated West Nile and Sindbis viruses in crows and pigeons and the Quaranfil virus in ticks and pigeon squabs. He began work at the Virus Research Center in Pune (then called Poona), India, in 1955, eventually becoming the center’s director. Work studied several epidemics during his time in India, including hepatitis, Jamshedpur Fever, and Kyasanur Forest Disease, which was the subject of his 1957 film <em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em><strong>.</strong></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15751" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15751" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15751" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/beware-of-ticks/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Beware of Ticks" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15751 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A poster in Russian with a large sketch of a tick and text that warns people of ticks" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Beware-of-Ticks.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15751" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/fevers-ticks-and-caviar/"><em>Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar</em></a>, 1965<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101477238"><em>National Library of Medicine #101477238</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>In 1962, he returned to the United States to work at the Rockefeller Laboratories, where he worked under Nobel Prize winner Max Theiler until being appointed by Congress to head the Center for Disease Control’s Virology section. At the CDC he oversaw the response to outbreaks of many diseases, including Venezuelan equine encephalitis, the Mahogany Hammock virus (a newly-discovered arbovirus in the Florida Everglades), Dengue in Jamaica and Puerto Rico, La Crosse virus in Ohio, and St. Louis Encephalitis in Florida, Texas, and Illinois (shown in his film <em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic: Houston and Illinois, 1964)</em>. He also studied the role of migrating birds in carrying arboviruses between the Americas. During this period, he traveled to the Soviet Union three times as part of missions organized by the microbiologist and virologist Mikhail Chumakov, as depicted in <em>Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips</em>, and <em>Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar</em> (both 1965).</p>
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<p>Work left the CDC in 1967 and returned to Los Angeles where he became a professor of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UCLA, continuing his research into the St. Louis encephalitis virus and other arboviruses in Southern California along with his second wife, Martine Jozan, whom he married in 1970. He also continued his international research with sabbatical years spent in Australia studying Murray Valley encephalitis and Argentina, where he helped establish a testing system for Dengue and yellow fever. He retired from UCLA in 1991 and passed away four years later after succumbing to complications of congestive heart failure.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-pipetting-india-1955/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A white male in a lab coat blowing into a long pipette in a makeshift lab" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15480" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-pipetting-india-1955/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?fit=1577%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1577,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="TW pipetting India 1955" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?fit=300%2C228&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-pipetting-India-1955.jpg?fit=740%2C563&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-examining-a-patient-india-1957/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="An older white male on his knees examining a shirtless Indian man lying down on the ground with a thermometer in his mouth" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15479" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-examining-a-patient-india-1957/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?fit=1497%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1497,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="TW examining a patient India 1957" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?fit=300%2C240&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-examining-a-patient-India-1957.jpg?fit=740%2C593&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-with-his-film-cameras/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A white man in military clothing looking down at the film camera in his hands while he stands up against a military vehicle" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15482" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-with-his-film-cameras/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?fit=1505%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1505,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="TW with his film cameras" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?fit=300%2C239&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-with-his-film-cameras.jpg?fit=740%2C590&ssl=1" /></a>
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<p>Martine Jozan remembers him as someone with a “kaleidoscopic mind” who enjoyed teaching as well as observing people and detailing their customs. “Telford was affectionately known to be a hard worker,” she recalls, “a perfectionist in the lab, tough and relentless in the field, where he was oblivious [to] insect bites, lack of sleep, nourishment, and time in general.”</p>
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<h3><strong>Work, the Filmmaker</strong></h3>
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<p>Work was not a professional filmmaker, but he used his films to show both his travel and his scientific fieldwork. His style sometimes resembles that of a talented home movie maker, but one who was filming his medical and virological work in addition to scenery and private events, while at other times his filmmaking shows the skill an experienced documentarian. While there are some brief scenic interludes scattered throughout, the films are primarily (in Martine Jozan’s words) “either a scientific documentation of medical outbreaks, or a scientific outlook on the biology of animals, or places.”</p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/village-children/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A group of children in a rural eastern European village gather around and look at the camera" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15752" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/village-children/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Village Children" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Village-Children.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/mice-bodies-revealed/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A row of six wet laboratory mice with their skins peeled back, exposing their brains and other internal organs, as a person with scissors cuts them open" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15753" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/mice-bodies-revealed/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Mice Bodies Revealed" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mice-Bodies-Revealed.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/perched-on-a-mound/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="A duck-like bird perched on a mound in a wetland" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="15754" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/perched-on-a-mound/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Perched on a Mound" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Perched-on-a-Mound.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" /></a>
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<p>Browsing the collection’s catalog, the films’ titles (which were supplied by Work) are frequently simply the names of the locations where they were filmed (such as <em>Lapland</em>, <em>Nepal</em>, <em>Antarctica</em>), making them appear to be travel films, while others (<em>Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever</em>, <em>Rhesus Insulin Shock</em>, and <em>Tick-Borne Encephalitis: Eastern Europe</em>, for example) sound primarily medical, often deceptively so, since Work’s films are nearly all a mixture of nature, clinical documentation, and fieldwork. Despite existing in a gray area between genres, “they were all documentaries,” writes Martine Jozan, “always done with rigor and foresight.”</p>
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<p>The films were not intended to be private documents and were shown at universities, scientific meetings, and public screenings. He also presented films to his students at home, where Martine would have to feed dozens of students, “dynamic and hungry and always fascinated by his stories.” “I would barbecue two turkeys,” she wrote, “and they will have corn on the cob, potatoes, salad, and ice cream, plus beer and wine. After that, they had to digest through the movie.”</p>
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<blockquote><p><strong>“My dad would tell the stories as the 16mm film clacked through the projector,” recalls his daughter Amrit Work Kendrick…</strong></p></blockquote>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15755" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15755" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15755" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/communal-laundry-washing/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Communal Laundry Washing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15755 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Various women washing and wringing clothes by hand at an outdoor communal washing area" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Communal-Laundry-Washing.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15755" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/kyasanur-forest-disease/"><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em></a>, 1956<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101491206"><em>National Library of Medicine #101491206</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>“The other great thing about using film to teach was that he could make a disease cycle come alive. It was not just in a laboratory that the discoveries happened. He thought through the whole cycle: arthropod vector to mammal or bird to arthropod to human. He thought about the cultural practices which had people come into contact with the arthropod. What were they doing in the forest? What were they doing in the lake? How did that climate, e.g. arid tropics, provide an ideal condition for the interactions? And he developed trust with people to take samples of their blood when they often did not see the relationship between that and the science that could put their blood to use for finding the virus. These ecologies of disease were part of the stories he told, and I am sure that for some students it gave them a real “AHA!” moment.”</p>
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<p>In the mid-1950s, Work presented two of his films in the National Audubon Society’s “Audubon Screen Tours” program series. <em>Pharaohs and Fellahs (1946)</em> and <em>Monsoon Mosaic (1954)</em> were both edited from the wildlife scenes he had filmed in Egypt and India and were screened with his live narration. “Through his lectures, Dr. Work shares his world-wide knowledge and absorbing color motion pictures of natural science in many lands,” read the tour’s promotional materials.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_15756" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15756" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15756" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/interpreting-hieroglyphs/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Interpreting Hieroglyphs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15756 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A white boy and girl dressed in red-colored clothes observing a wall of hieroglyphs" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Interpreting-Hieroglyphs.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15756" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/pharaohs-and-fellahs/"><em>Pharaohs and Fellahs</em></a>, 1946<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/100938376"><em>National Library of Medicine #100938376</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>He was a technical perfectionist with his camera and his filmmaking. “I think the best present he received from me,” recalled Martine, “was a fisheye lens which I got directly from the Bolex factory in Switzerland.” She remembers a time when she was frustrated with him for making her repeat a scene twenty-three times so he could get it just right. “He would make you repeat the scene indefinitely. He wanted to have a special cloud, a special red car coming by; a special moment of sun.” Daughter Amrit recalls that “when we travelled through a multitude of airports, I usually carried a tripod and sometimes the movie camera. All of us in the family have had many laughs about being his beasts of burden, carrying the camera equipment through many countries.”</p>
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<p>Trying to categorize Work as strictly a documentary or amateur filmmaker may ultimately not be very helpful, since it is the way that the clinical, the cultural, the personal, and the aesthetic elements are deeply intertwined that makes the films so interesting and complex. “Amateur” here is not a pejorative term, but rather a reflection of the fact that Work was being paid for his scientific research, not his filmmaking. Scientists and doctors (particularly surgeons) have documented their work before, but rarely in such complicated ways, and while it is simple and commonplace now to shoot long video recordings, to do so on 16mm film (and then to painstakingly edit the films) is a more unusual undertaking.</p>
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<h2><strong>The Films</strong></h2>
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<p>Considering the size of the collection, it would be impossible to cover many of Work’s films in detail, so the following are descriptions of some emblematic examples from throughout his career. His films have a style that remained consistent throughout his four and a half decades of filmmaking and reflect his considerable technical skill, his stylistic choices, and his scientific interests.</p>
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<h3><strong><em>Maturation of a Medic</em> (1942–1944)</strong></h3>
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<figure id="attachment_15747" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15747" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15747" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/dr-gray-smokes-a-pipe-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Dr. Gray Smokes a Pipe Copy" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15747 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A white man in a suit with a smoking pipe in his mouth" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Dr.-Gray-Smokes-a-Pipe-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15747" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/"><em>Maturation of a Medic</em></a>, 1942–1944<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/100897071"><em>National Library of Medicine #100897071</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_15757" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15757" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15757" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/free-beer/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Free Beer!" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15757 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Handwritten intertitle with "Free Beer!" written in yellow and red" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Free-Beer.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15757" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/"><em>Maturation of a Medic</em></a>, 1942–1944<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/100897071"><em>National Library of Medicine #100897071</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The earliest of Work’s films in the collection is not representative of his other films, which document his fieldwork and his travels. <em>Maturation of a Medic</em>, which he made between 1942 and 1944 while he was a student at Stanford University Medical school, is both more personal and more constructed. It has the feel of a well-made home movie (which is ultimately what it is), but unlike Work’s other films, it also includes handmade titles before almost every scene. These titles are whimsical (“Free Beer!” and “Hiler the clown comes to class”), but also informative, since they name the professors shown in the scenes, many of whom were prominent in their fields. For example, the Dr. Hall who “beats a weed with the boys” (1940s slang for smoking cigarettes, evidently) is Victor E. Hall, who would later become the editor of the <em>Annual Review of Physiology</em>. The Dr. Gray who “smokes a pipe” is Donald James Gray, editor of the textbook <em>Anatomy: A Regional Study of Human Structure</em>.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15748" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15748" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15748" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/students-practice-wrapping-casts/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Students Practice Wrapping Casts" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15748 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="White male students and instructor practice wrapping a cast around a fellow student subject's leg" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Students-Practice-Wrapping-Casts.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15748" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/"><em>Maturation of a Medic</em></a>, 1942–1944<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/100897071"><em>National Library of Medicine #100897071</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Some sequences are useful in showing us what life was like for medical students in the 1940s, especially the aforementioned histology lab and leg cast training, but the film mostly shows what downtime was like for Work (there was a lot of beer and sports). The film is a lot of fun and shows off some of Work’s experiments with filmmaking techniques, such as the sequence introduced by the intertitle “Doc Colyear leads the ax yell,” which shows four dressed up skeletons led in a cheer by a human cheerleader (the skeletons mouths are manipulated by visible strings). The scene introduced by the intertitle “Dr. Field and a dizzy blond” shows biochemistry and physiology professor Dr. Jack Field spinning a (brunette) female student around in an examination chair until she gets dizzy. Finally, one untitled sequence—perhaps the most imaginative in any of Work’s films—is a double-exposed nightmare scene of two snakes terrorizing a sleeping man, presumably one of his classmates.</p>
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<h3><strong><em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic: Houston and Illinois, 1964</em></strong></h3>
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<p><em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic: Houston and Illinois, 1964 </em>documents research conducted following a deadly viral outbreak and is an example of Work’s field research films. Slightly underexposed throughout, it is not one of his most technically assured films, and it is not readily evident how finished the film is or if Work showed it to any audiences beyond the lecture hall. Nevertheless, it is indicative of his style of filmmaking and his aims in using film as a research and teaching aid. It also chronicles a significant moment in his illustrious career.</p>
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<p>The outbreaks of St. Louis Encephalitis in Houston and McLeansboro in Southern Illinois lasted from late June until early October 1964 and resulted in 243 confirmed cases and twenty-seven deaths in Houston and twenty-two cases and two deaths in Illinois. The Houston outbreak triggered tremendous community effort, involving health departments, fire departments, road and bridge crews, and private citizens.</p>
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<p>A team of CDC scientists, led by Work, were sent to Illinois and Texas to collect mosquitos and wild birds to investigate the role of birds as hosts of the virus.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15750" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15750" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15750" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/swamplands-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Swamplands Copy" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15750 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Still frame of the morning sunrise over foggy swamplands" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Swamplands-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15750" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/st-louis-encephalitis-epidemic/"><em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic</em></a>, 1964<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101683147"><em>National Library of Medicine #101683147</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>The eleven-and-a-half-minute film begins with long and ethereally beautiful shots of trees in the misty Illinois swamps. After a while, the team of virologists appears, removing nets that they used to catch birds and working at an outdoor table. As Martine Jozan explains, “one [of the] major elements of film making with Telford is the attention given to detailing our techniques in arbovirology, in this case, the bleeding of small birds at the jugular.” The film meticulously shows how blood samples were taken from the birds, diluted, and placed on ice until they could be brought to the lab and eventually shipped to the CDC in Atlanta. Additionally, small pieces of liver, spleen, and kidney were removed from some birds, and in Illinois small mammals (mice and rats, primarily) were also collected, along with mosquito samples.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15749" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15749" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15749" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/aerial-shot-of-populated-and-agricultural-areas/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Aerial Shot of Populated and Agricultural Areas" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15749 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="An aerial shot featuring a populated region surrounded by agricultural areas" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Aerial-Shot-of-Populated-and-Agricultural-Areas.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15749" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/st-louis-encephalitis-epidemic/"><em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic</em></a>, 1964<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101683147"><em>National Library of Medicine #101683147</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The third part of the film is a long sequence of aerial shots of McLeansboro and vicinity, taken from the passenger’s seat of a small airplane. Such scenes are common throughout Work’s films, and his aerial surveillance of landscapes and cities was an important tool in locating potential hotspots of mosquito-borne arboviruses. The article Work co-authored in the <em>Journal of Medical Entomology</em> on the McLeansboro outbreak includes a lengthy description of the area’s topography, and one can only imagine that Work’s live narration of the film would have added a considerable amount of information to the film.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_15746" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15746" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15746" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/spraying-the-children-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spraying the Children" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15746 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Children in swimming clothes jump in a pool as a shirtless man with a spray blower turns it on the children" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Spraying-the-Children-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15746" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/st-louis-encephalitis-epidemic/"><em>St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic</em></a>, 1964<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101683147"><em>National Library of Medicine #101683147</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The film’s last sequence is atypical, comical, and more than a little jarring. Set in the Houston area (judging from the foliage), a man sprays a fog of pesticide around a backyard swimming pool where children are sitting poolside. The catalog record reads: “The man turns the spray on the children, who fall or jump into the pool as the spray hits them. The man continues spraying the chemical into the pool. A woman in a gingham dress comes outside, takes the sprayer, and turns it on the man.” This strange little scene jumps out at us now, but in fact it creatively documents one of the City of Houston’s mosquito-control techniques, where the fire department distributed free malathion for citizens to use at home, and local pest control companies “worked voluntarily, providing equipment and manpower, with the city providing the chemicals.”</p>
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<h3><strong><em>Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips</em> and <em>Fevers, Ticks and Caviar </em>(1965)</strong></h3>
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<p>The pair of films that are charmingly titled <em>Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips</em> and <em>Fevers, Ticks and Caviar</em> are informal records of a month-long mission to explore and evaluate research into outbreaks of four hemorrhagic fevers across the Soviet Union in the 1960s.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15744" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15744" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15744" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/vladimir-lenin-sign-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Vladimir Lenin Sign" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15744 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A red and white sign with Vladimir Lenin's face and Russian text" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vladimir-Lenin-Sign-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15744" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/space-bears-ticks-tulips/"><em>Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips</em></a>, 1965<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101684315"><em>National Library of Medicine #101684315</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>Despite the Cold War conflicts in the political realm, there were exchange agreements in place between the U.S. and USSR that allowed for joint research in the health sciences. The Soviet group was organized by Mikhail Chumakov, the renowned Soviet microbiologist and virologist best known for his work on the mass production of the polio vaccine. The American contingent was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Telford Work represented the CDC and was joined by epidemiologists, virologists, and parasitologists from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Naval Medical Research Unit, and the National Institutes of Health.</p>
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||
<p>“From years of association in arbovirology,” the mission’s report read, “members of the delegation had long been friends who were intimately acquainted with the interests and special experience of each. Most were familiar personally or through correspondence with many of the Soviet specialists and their work on [hemorrhagic fevers]. Thus, a high degree of unanimity within the group was achieved and the reception in the U.S.S.R. was especially cordial.” This collegiality is evident throughout the films, which include picnics, tourist visits, and a concluding feast, which is where the titular caviar appears.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15745" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15745" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15745" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/bears-on-scooters-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Bears on Scooters" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15745 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="Three bears in clothes and white circus clown collars riding on scooters in a circus ring" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bears-on-Scooters-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15745" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/space-bears-ticks-tulips/"><em>Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips</em></a>, 1965<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101684315"><em>National Library of Medicine #101684315</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>According to the final report, the delegation’s first activity was “to convince the Soviet authorities and scientific colleagues of the desire and need for immediate close contact with practicing physicians, local health officials, epidemiologists, veterinarians, ecologists, zoologists, and other field investigators and institutions.” As Work explained to Martine Jovan, when the Americans showed up in Moscow, they were put up in a posh hotel and treated to vodka, wine, and gourmet food. The early Moscow scenes include one meeting at the Chumakov Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, but more screen time is devoted to group visits to tourist sites such as Red Square, the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, and performing circus bears.</p>
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||
<p>After several days with nothing productive to do, the Americans told the Soviets that they didn’t come to be entertained and demanded to be taken out to do fieldwork, which they were then were allowed to do. The team traveled thousands of miles across the Soviet Union, including research stops in Siberia, Lake Baikal, the Ural Mountains, Volga Delta, Uzbekistan, and Astrakhan.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15743" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15743" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15743" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/school-children-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="School Children" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15743 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A group of school children gathered around the camera with curious and smiling faces" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/School-Children-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15743" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/fevers-ticks-and-caviar/"><em>Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar</em></a>, 1965<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101477238"><em>National Library of Medicine #101477238</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>The mission was not primarily clinically oriented, so the field research scenes are not as detailed as in other films, but there are scenes of collecting ticks and mosquitoes, a field laboratory tent, and tick-infested animals and birds. There are several scenes of milkmaids dressed all in white so that the ticks could be found easily on their clothing, and the treatment of cattle to eliminate the ticks responsible for the transmission of hemorrhagic fever. Most significantly, there is a long sequence of a local patient (likely a cowboy or shepherd) with extensive hemorrhages on his body. Most of the film, however, is a diverse mix of scenes of rural and village life, farm animals and wildlife (especially the birds that Work always sought out), and the group’s social activities.<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
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||
<p>These Soviet mission films mark a midway point in Work’s collection, covering not only a scientific mission of great significance but also providing an informal anthropological record (certainly there were not many films of Uzbek cowboys shot by Americans in the 1960s). They even feature moments of pure whimsy, such as the aforementioned bears and mission members filmed in a funhouse mirror. No doubt some of the details about the films are lost to history, but the National Library of Medicine’s <a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/resources/885">Telford H. Work Papers 1938–1990</a> collection has twelve folders of manuscript materials and photographs of the USSR missions, and Martine Jovan created an annotated shotlist in conjunction with delegation member Alexis Shelokov in her personal collection.</p>
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<h3><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em> (1957)</h3>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15742" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15742" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15742" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/vaccinating-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Vaccinating" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15742 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A young Indian lady receiving an injection from an Indian man" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Vaccinating-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15742" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/kyasanur-forest-disease/"><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em></a>, 1956<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101491206"><em>National Library of Medicine #101491206</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>The one film in the Telford Work collection that is superlative in every way is <em>Kyasanur Forest Disease. </em>In a large part, this status is due to its being the only film for which a narration by Work exists, but it is also cohesively crafted, with a strong narrative arc that documents possibly the most significant research breakthrough of Work’s storied career.</p>
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||
<p>In 1957, Work was the Director of the Virus Research Center in Poona (now Pune), India, under the umbrella of the Rockefeller Foundation, which had begun establishing field laboratories worldwide that focused on arboviruses. Work was on the job when he and his team made the first documented discovery of a deadly new virus—to be called the Kyasanur Forest Disease—that had begun to spread in southern India.</p>
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||
<blockquote><p>“The disease is characterized by a sudden onset of fever and/or headache five to eight days after forest exposure. This is followed shortly by severe pains in the neck (meningismus), low back, and extremities, accompanied by severe prostration and marked inflammation of the scleral and palpebral conjunctivae. An important diagnostic sign in some patients is a papulo-vesicular eruption on the soft palate. Vomiting and diarrhea frequently occur two or three days after onset. Hemorrhagic signs such as bleeding gums, epistaxis, hemoptysis, hematemesis, melena and frank red blood in the stools appear at this time. The fever lasts from five to 14 days with an occasional febrile exacerbation in the third week. Convalescence is prolonged.”<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
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||
<p>The film begins with Work recounting that he received a call on a Saturday morning in March 1957 from T. R. Rao, a Rockefeller Foundation entomologist who said he had just returned from Mysore where there were reports of monkeys dying in the forests. More alarmingly, people also were getting sick and dying of what local people called “the monkey disease.”<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
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||
<p>Work and his colleague Harold Trapido filled Trapido’s car with cameras and supplies. “We<em> were fairly well equipped</em>,” Work wrote, “for as vague a venture, for preservation of tissues and organs, for possible virus isolation and pathology […], with instruments for monkey autopsy, glycerin and formaldehyde in containers, thermoses for refrigerated transport, vacutainers and needles for serological surveys….and an assortment of guns for collection of vertebrate specimens.…” They headed south to begin the research into what they initially suspected might be yellow fever but ultimately turned out to be Kyasanur Forest Disease, the second viral hemorrhagic disease, after yellow fever, that affected both primates and humans.<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_15739" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15739" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15739" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/kyasnoor-state-forest-crop/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Kyasnoor State Forest" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15739 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A white male researcher with a hat pointing a stick towards a sign that reads "Kyasnoor State Forest" and foreign text underneath it located in the woods" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kyasnoor-State-Forest-Crop.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15739" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/kyasanur-forest-disease/"><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em></a>, 1956<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101491206"><em>National Library of Medicine #101491206</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The team visited the epidemic area of Sagar and Sorab Taluas of Shimoga District, Mysore, from March 26 to April 4. Culicine mosquitoes, <em>Haemaphysalis</em> ticks, and trombiculid mites were collected in the forest and villages of the area. People in the nearby villages were instructed that if they saw a sick or a dead monkey, they should bring it to the field laboratory. This practice is illustrated by a sequence in the film where a medical assistant appears with a dead monkey in a basket after it had been found dragging itself across the forest floor. The medical team then took the corpse to the shade of a neighboring banyan tree to undertake a necropsy, which, along with the subsequent collection and processing of specimens, is shown in the film and explained in precise detail in the narration. Another scene of two men burying a monkey is clarified by Work’s narration when he notes that the monkey was being buried “where the dogs could not get to it and drag it through the village, exposing the people” to the virus. The amount of work accomplished in ten days was impressive: the patterns of transmission were identified and classified, and the groundwork was laid for future study. In the words of Martine Jozan…</p>
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<blockquote><p>“It was a feat of intuition, ingenuity, judicious expertise, field workmanship, dogged pursuit, supported by the efficient strategy and logistics implemented by Indian Public Health authorities, and by the extraordinary cooperation and understanding of the villagers.”</p></blockquote>
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<p>“A third of it was taken before we knew what we had,” Work later said of the film. “We were doing it to show our staff how you go about a field investigation of a suspect arbovirus epidemic.” What began as simple documentation became more complex when it emerged that the discovery of the Kyasanur Forest Disease virus was underway. Unlike the other films that portray the activities of a single trip, Work constructed the film to portray the investigation as it began in the field, continued in the laboratory in Poona, and then moved to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland for scenes of the production the vaccine. The film concludes with a return to India for scenes of local people having their blood drawn for laboratory testing.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_15741" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15741" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15741" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/squirrel-testing-copy/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Squirrel Testing" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?fit=740%2C569&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15741 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy-300x231.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1" alt="A squirrel being handled by one person stretching its body length-wise and the another person drawing its blood into a syringe" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?resize=1024%2C788&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?resize=768%2C591&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?resize=800%2C615&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Squirrel-Testing-Copy.jpg?w=1300&ssl=1 1300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15741" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/kyasanur-forest-disease/"><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em></a>, 1956<br /><a href="https://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101491206"><em>National Library of Medicine #101491206</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p><em>Kyasanur Forest Disease</em> makes clear how vital Telford Work’s narration is. Shots that appeared to be mere scenery are instead revealed to be loaded with meaning about the topography of a location and how it affected the insects, birds, and animals that transmitted the arboviruses. Likewise, sequences of local children and crowds show cultural practices that are connected to the epidemiological study.</p>
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<p>The film, despite its finished feel, including optically-printed titles, was only ever shown in its silent form during Telford Work’s lifetime, and the narrated version only exists on video. Martine Jozan made a non-professional recording of his narration during a screening because she intuited its importance. The narration was significantly longer than the film “because Telford would always digress, stop the film and make additional comments,” so Jozan edited it to match the images, which remained in the original form. She first presented the finished film (under the title <em>The Story of Kyasanur Forest Disease</em>) at the November 2005 annual meeting of the Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in Washington DC, with many of his old colleagues in the audience.<a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_15481" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15481" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15481" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/tw-showing-film-to-moms-and-children-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?fit=1558%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1558,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="TW showing film to moms and children" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?fit=740%2C570&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15481 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children-1024x789.jpg?resize=740%2C570&ssl=1" alt="A white male sitting behind a film projector with a group of black women and children sitting criss-crossed on the ground with mats, looking at a projection" width="740" height="570" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=1024%2C789&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=300%2C231&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=768%2C592&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=1536%2C1183&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=690%2C531&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=1317%2C1014&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=800%2C616&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?resize=1400%2C1078&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?w=1558&ssl=1 1558w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TW-showing-film-to-moms-and-children.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15481" class="wp-caption-text">Telford H. Work Papers, <a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/archival_objects/103311"><em>National Library of Medicine #101082665</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Sadly, the fact that almost all of the original films are devoid of recorded narration limits their practical usefulness, especially since most of Work’s early colleagues who could add their commentaries have passed on. Work took extreme care to create the films, but his main concern was the screenings where he performed live narrations, and the conversational showings with his students and colleagues. The lack of narration makes it difficult for those of us not lucky enough to have attended one of Work’s screenings to judge the films as complete and cohesive since their meaning and enjoyment is so tied to his commentary. If recordings existed of the remaining films, the collection would probably be unsurpassed among American scientific film collections. Unfortunately, they don’t, so we are left to try to make the best use possible of the films. Luckily, Martine Jozan has taken it upon herself to maintain her late husband’s legacy. Most notably, she wrote and recorded scripts for <em>Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan</em> and <em>In Search of the California Condor </em>based on Work’s notes. It is also possible to delve into Work’s voluminous manuscripts and publications to recreate much of the information surrounding the films, but any such reconstruction would lack the immediacy of his voice, his recollections, and the intentions behind specific shots in the films and their broader context.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_15462" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15462" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="15462" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/maturation-of-a-medic/hot-day-in-honduras/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?fit=1489%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1489,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Hot day in Honduras" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?fit=300%2C242&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?fit=740%2C596&ssl=1" class="wp-image-15462 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras-300x242.jpg?resize=300%2C242&ssl=1" alt="Six men, both young and old, do research outside on a porch. Three are shirtless, one is in a tank top, and the other two are wearing short sleeve button up shirts" width="300" height="242" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=300%2C242&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=1024%2C825&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=768%2C619&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=690%2C556&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=1317%2C1061&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=800%2C645&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?resize=1400%2C1128&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hot-day-in-Honduras.jpg?w=1489&ssl=1 1489w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-15462" class="wp-caption-text">Telford H. Work Papers <br /><a href="https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/repositories/4/archival_objects/103311"><em>National Library of Medicine #101082665</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Work was a skilled and nuanced filmmaker who developed a personal style as well as his own vocabulary of film tropes (such as close-ups of animal specimens, birds in the wild, aerial footage, groups of children, all of which appeared frequently throughout his films). When combined with supplementary documentation, there is a vast amount of valuable information to be found within his films, but as a creator of images, Work produced a tremendous number of fascinating scientific and cultural scenes that would easily be missed by researchers approaching his collection only expecting to find footage of his virological or epidemiological fieldwork. Even with only a few titles that can be considered complete, it cannot be overstated just how rich the scope of Work’s globetrotting filmmaking oeuvre is.</p>
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<p>Dwight Swanson lives in Virginia, where he is currently working on developing the Museum of Sleep. Previously, he worked as an archivist for film and video collections in Alaska, Maine, Kentucky, and Washington, DC. He has lectured and written extensively on home movies and amateur film history and co-organized the 2010 Medical Film Symposium as well as other conferences on amateur and nontheatrical films. He was a co-founder of Home Movie Day and the Center for Home Movies, where he spearheaded and co-produced a number of curatorial home movie projects, including the DVD “Living Room Cinema,” the feature-length 35mm compilation film “Amateur Night, “Home Movie Day and Night: The 24-Hour Home Movie Marathon” and the screening series “Other Histories: Amateur Films on the National Film Registry” at the Museum of Modern Art.</p>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h3>Notes</h3>
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<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">[1]</a> Martine Jozan Work provided many quotes used in this article through a series of emails and Zoom calls. She was extremely generous with her time and told many stories about her personal and professional life with Telford Work. Thanks also go to his daughter Amrit Work Kendrick, who provided anecdotes about her father’s films via email.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">[2]</a> Telford H. Work, interview by Frederick A. Murphy, “Workers in Tropical Medicine” series, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine, 10 August 1988. Consulted at <a href="https://youtu.be/6HJkv9ipNao">https://youtu.be/6HJkv9ipNao</a> [part 1 of 4].</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">[3]</a> George Beadle and Edward Tatum shared a 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their work on experiments on the bread mold <em>Neurospora crassa</em>, which showed that genes act by regulating distinct chemical events.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">[4]</a> Charles H. Calisher, “Telford H. Work—A Tribute,” <em>Journal of the American Mosquito Association</em>, 12, no. 3 (1996): 385–395.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">[5]</a> The archive at the Stanford Medical History Center holds copies of the <em>Stanford University Bulletin, School of Medicine Annual Announcements</em>, (1941–1942, 1942–1943, 1943–1944).</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6">[6]</a> See Robert H. Kokernot, Jack Hayes, Norman J. Rose, and Telford Work, “St. Louis Encephalitis in McLeansboro, Illinois, 1964,” <em>Journal of Medical Entomology</em>, 4, no. 3 (1967): 255–260.</p>
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<p>Rexford D. Lord, Telford Work, Philip H. Coleman, and J. Gibson Johnston, Jr., “Virological Studies of Avian Hosts in the Houston Epidemic of St. Louis Encephalitis, 1964,” <em>The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene</em>, 22, no. 5 (1973): 662–671.</p>
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<p>Rose Lee Bell, Bobbe Christensen, Alfonso Holguin, and O’Brian Smith, “St. Louis Encephalitis: A Comparison of Two Epidemics in Harris County, Texas,”<em> American Journal of Public Health</em>, 71, no. 2 (1981): 168–170.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7">[7]</a> Jordi Casals, Harry Hoogstraal, Karl M. Johnson, Alexis Shelokov, Ned H. Wiebenga, and Telford Work, “A Current Appraisal of Hemorrhagic Fevers in the U.S.S.R.,” <em>The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, </em>15, no. 5 (1966): 751–764.</p>
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<p>Jordi Casals, Brian E. Henderson, Harry Hoogstraal, Karl M. Johnson, and Alexis Shelokov, “A Review of Soviet Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers,” <em>Journal of Infectious Diseases</em>, 122, no. 5 (1970): 437–453.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8">[8]</a> Telford H. Work, F. R. Roderiguez, and P. N. Bhatt, “Virological Epidemiology of the 1958 Epidemic of the Kyasanur Forest Disease,” <em>American Journal of Public Health and the Nation’s Health</em>, 49, no. 7 (1959): 869–874.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9">[9]</a> Martine Jozan, “Kyasanur Forest Disease, A Tale from the Horse’s Mouth,” in <em>Arboviruses: Notes from the Field</em> (Springer, forthcoming).</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10">[10]</a> Telford H. Work and Harold Trapido, “Kyasanur Forest Disease: A New Virus in India, Summary of Preliminary Report of Investigations of the Virus Research Centre on an Epidemic Disease Affecting Forest Villagers and Wild Monkeys of Shimoga District, Mysore,” <em>Indian Journal of Medical Sciences</em>, 11, no. 5 (1957): 341–42.</p>
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<p><a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11">[11]</a> “Final Program American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 54th Annual Meeting,” <em>The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene</em>, 73, no. 6 (2005): 117. <a href="https://www.astmh.org/ASTMH/media/Documents/ASTMH_05_FP.pdf">https://www.astmh.org/ASTMH/media/Documents/ASTMH_05_FP.pdf</a></p>
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<hr />
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<p> </p>
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</div>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/11/16/the-films-of-virologist-telford-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">14844</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>Challenge: Science Against Cancer or How to Make a Movie in the Mid-Twentieth Century</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carrissa Lindmark]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[All]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Animation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Silent]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[cancer]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[health education]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[heredity]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[laboratory]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[malignancy]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[medical education]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[National Cancer Institute]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[National Film Board of Canada]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[NIH]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[public health]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[radiation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[surgery]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[tumor]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=14135</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By David Cantor, PhD Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES), Buenos Aires <br>
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In 1949 the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare (DNHW) commissioned a cancer educational film, eventually called <em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer</em>. It was to be one of the first of a new form of film. The urgent task was to induce young scientists to think of cancer research and biomedicine as careers, and <em>Challenge</em> was to be a key part of the response.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/challenge-science-against-cancer/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By David Cantor, PhD (Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES), Buenos Aires)</p>
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<hr />
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href=" https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/challenge-science-against-cancer/">Challenge: Science Against<br />Cancer<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1738" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2015/04/29/commandments-for-health/personal-cleanliness-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Personal-Cleanliness" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1738 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Challenge_8700851A_play.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1" alt="A woman works in a lab." width="200" height="150" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/alerte-science-contre-cancer">Alerte: Science Contre<br />Cancer<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1738" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2015/04/29/commandments-for-health/personal-cleanliness-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Personal-Cleanliness" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1738 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676_play.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1" alt="Title screen with cell animation in the background" width="200" height="150" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/cancer/">Cancer<br /> <img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1738" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2015/04/29/commandments-for-health/personal-cleanliness-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Personal-Cleanliness" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Personal-Cleanliness.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1738 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Cancer_101526420_play.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1" alt="Animation of cells dividing" width="200" height="150" /></a></div>
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<hr />
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<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n 1949 the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare (DNHW) commissioned a cancer educational film, eventually called <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700851A"><em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer</em></a>. It was to be one of the first of a new form of film.</p>
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<p>Earlier cancer educationals had sought to recruit patients and volunteers into programs of early detection and treatment against this group of diseases. In the view of most anti-cancer organizations, the problem was that many people delayed seeking help until after the best opportunities for successful treatment had passed. The urgent task, these organizations suggested, was to encourage people to go to a recognized physician as early in the natural life of the disease as possible, before it had progressed too far for therapy. Film was a key part of their public education efforts concerning this issue.</p>
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<p><em>Challenge</em>, by contrast, targeted a new audience and sought to address a newly urgent task. In the views of both the NCI and the DNHW, the small numbers of new scientist recruits to cancer research were insufficient to sustain the field, funding for which had expanded in both countries as never before following World War II, and was expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future. The fear was that a shortfall in recruits would undermine continued growth and the hopes invested in the field. Thus, these agencies argued it was critically important to induce young scientists to think of cancer research and biomedicine as careers, and <em>Challenge </em>was to be a key part of their efforts to address this issue. The open access book that accompanies this essay—<a href="https://archive.org/details/9781800103672"><em>Cancer, Research, and Educational Film at Midcentury</em></a>—is the story of this film: why it was commissioned, how it was made, and how it was promoted and packaged.</p>
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<h3><strong>The Sponsors</strong></h3>
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<p>The NCI office responsible for the film—the Cancer Reports Section—had been established in 1948 to address growing public and congressional interest in cancer, to fulfil a mandate to develop public education about cancer, and to promote the interests of the NCI, including its research. It was led by its first director, Dallas Johnson, a former educator, consumer activist, and journalist, and she faced unique problems in establishing the section at the heart of NCI propaganda and education. She had the support of the director of the NCI and the agency’s cancer control side. However, she had more difficult relations with the research side, which was then expanding rapidly and overshadowing the control side of the organization, a situation that complicated her efforts to center the Cancer Reports Section as the organizational unit through which all NCI public education and propaganda should pass.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14236" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14236" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14236" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/8700851a-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Tracking Growth with Rings" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14236 size-medium" title="Tracking growth with rings." src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Rings of growth of a culture outlined with a pen." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-3.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14236" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer</em>, 1950. Tracking growth with rings. <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700851A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8700851A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Then she was given a new task—to help recruit young scientists into cancer research. The leadership of the NCI was concerned that too few science students saw cancer research as a career. Most of the best were tempted elsewhere, into industry where the pay was better, or atomic physics, a high-status field after the development of the atomic bomb. Cancer research, by contrast, was dogged by low pay, a reputation as a dead-end field in which scientists lacked opportunities to make significant advances, and a research grants system that was not fit for purpose.</p>
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<p>Johnson’s new task offered her a chance to make the Cancer Reports Section central to the NCI’s public outreach regarding research, and she began to develop a public education recruitment program. She did not immediately think of film as a tool in this campaign, and indeed seemed to be at a loss as to how best to proceed more generally. Then, in 1948 she met with a young novelist, Bernard V. Dryer, who showed her a Canadian script for a recruitment film. Almost immediately she saw the film as a solution to her problems, jumped on board with the Canadians, and began figuring out how to raise money from within the NCI for its production. The film was to be one of the largest financial expenditures for Johnson’s section, and it took up much of her time over the next one and a half years. A key part of her strategy for establishing the Cancer Reports Section, <em>Challenge </em>was to be central to the early history of what would become cancer communications at the NCI.</p>
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<p>The DNHW office responsible for the film was it’s Information Services Division (ISD). The ISD had a longer history than the NCI’s Cancer Reports Section. It traced it roots to 1919, though it had been reorganized recently. It did not focus specifically on cancer, and its head, Lt. Col. C. W. Gilchrist, did not have the problem of establishing himself within the Department that Johnson’s start-up had in the NCI, though he did not always have an easy relationship with his minister, Paul Martin. Like Johnson, Gilchrist was not responsible for initiating the idea of a cancer film. He had been approached by the Canadian Cancer Society asking for funding for a film or films that would educate the public about the disease and promote the expansion of cancer research in Canada. Enthused by the idea, in 1948 Gilchrist commissioned the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Canada’s state-funded film producer and distributor, to make the film.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14242" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14242" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14242" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/101526420-4/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" data-orig-size="704,528" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Using a Geiger Counter" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14242 size-medium" title="A woman being treated." src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="A woman being treated" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-4.jpg?w=704&ssl=1 704w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14242" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</em>, 1950. The use of a geiger counter to track radioactive compounds within the body.<br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Until 1948, Canadian cancer organizations had not produced many educational films. Most were imported into Canada from the United States. In the 1940s, however, Canadian Cancer organizations increasingly felt that these American films were not suitable for Canadian audiences and began planning their own productions. The problem was that they did not have sufficient funds to make a film, which is why they turned to the DNHW. After initially being rebuffed, they found a receptive audience in Gilchrist, and began planning a film to coordinate with a fund-raising drive, which would help to launch a new research body, the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC), Canada’s equivalent of the US National Cancer Institute.</p>
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<p>Part of the agenda of the Canadian cancer organizations in promoting this film was to keep Canadian scientists in the country. Many were tempted to leave by the better pay and resources available in the US, and their emigration was a threat to the expansion of cancer research in Canada, and the success of the NCIC. In addition, there were many of the same problems that dogged American recruitment efforts: poor pay, a problematic grants system, and a sense that cancer research was a dead-end field for an ambitious young scientist. Thus, when the Americans came in as collaborators on the film that became <em>Challenge</em>, it raised some tricky problems for the Canadians. It was the first time the Americans had turned to Canada for a cancer educational film, but the fear was that a successful cancer recruitment film could increase the temptation for Canadian scientists to seek richer research pastures in the US. Thus, the paradox was that a Canadian gain in the field of cancer education could also be a loss for Canadian science.</p>
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<h3><strong>The National Film Board of Canada </strong></h3>
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<figure id="attachment_14540" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14540" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14540" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/challenge/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?fit=1604%2C1046&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1604,1046" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Lindmark, Carrissa (NIH\/NLM) [E]","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1654603884","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Challenge Science Against Cancer" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?fit=300%2C196&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?fit=740%2C483&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14540 size-medium" title="Title screen of Challenge: Science Against Cancer" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge-300x196.jpg?resize=300%2C196&ssl=1" alt="Title Still from Challenge: Science Against Cancer" width="300" height="196" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=300%2C196&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=1024%2C668&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=768%2C501&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=1536%2C1002&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=690%2C450&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=1317%2C859&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=800%2C522&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?resize=1400%2C913&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?w=1604&ssl=1 1604w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/challenge.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14540" class="wp-caption-text">Title screen: <em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer,</em> 1950. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700851A">National Library of Medicine #8700851A </a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The NFB had different reasons for making the movie. The commissioning of the film in 1948 came at a difficult time for the board. Its first commissioner, John Grierson, had resigned in 1945, and there followed an unsettled period for the board. Under pressure from the government in Ottawa, the new commissioner, Ross McLean, cut staff. Critics on all sides of the political spectrum attacked the board—for some it was propaganda for the party in power, for others it was a lair of left-wing subversives, if not Communists. Then in 1945, Grierson and his secretary were linked to the spy circle revealed by the Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko. Consequently, the NFB became the object of several investigations, including one into allegations of Communist infiltration. The controversy, combined with reports of wasteful spending and pressure from the commercial film industry, which opposed a public film agency, eventually resulted in a number of changes. Ross McLean left the NFB in early 1950. Arthur Irwin was appointed replacement film commissioner. And there were sweeping changes in the structure of the NFB and a New National Film Act.</p>
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<blockquote><p>The meeting in which Dryer showed Dallas Johnson a Canadian script for a film about cancer was no chance event. It was part of the NFB’s attempts to rope in American funding.</p></blockquote>
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<p>As McLean struggled with these problems in 1948, the prospect of a contract with the Americans for the cancer film became welcome. Not only did it promise more money at a time of financial cutbacks, but it may also have helped to counter the perception of Communist infiltration and to revive the NFB’s hopes of an internationalist outlook for its documentaries. It also provided an opportunity for the NFB to develop a program designed to use film to encourage American public support for Canada, and (perhaps more importantly) another to develop international co-production efforts in which the NFB partnered with non-Canadian sponsoring organizations to make a movie. Thus, when it received the commission from the DNHW, the NFB saw an opportunity to reach out beyond Canada and attract Americans as co-producers. The meeting in which Dryer showed Dallas Johnson a Canadian script for a film about cancer was no chance event. It was part of the NFB’s attempts to rope in American funding.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14244" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14244" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14244" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/101526420-5/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" data-orig-size="704,528" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Lesion from the Inside" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14244 size-medium" title="Animation of a lesion on the face" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="A still showing the inside of a face where a lesion is" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-5.jpg?w=704&ssl=1 704w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14244" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</em>, 1950. Animation of a lesion on the face. <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676"><em>National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The key to these attempts was the script. The NFB had begun work on a script or treatment soon after it received the DNHW commission in 1948. But this first script raised a tricky problem for the NFB. It was to be the bait to attract the Americans, but it also had to address the problem of Canadian scientists being tempted to work in the US, since the only funder at that point was the DNHW. The two goals were an uneasy fit since Canadian concerns about recruitment would not appeal to the US, nor was the US interested in Canadian desires to produce two versions of the film, one in English (what became <em>Challenge</em>) and one in French (what became <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676"><em>Alerte</em></a>), which would use the same visuals as <em>Challenge</em> overlain with French narration and subtitles.</p>
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<p>Until this point, the main person involved in the film was the NFB scriptwriter, Maurice Constant, directed by the board’s Deputy Commissioner, Ralph Foster. With the Americans on board, Foster appointed a producer (Guy Glover) and director (Morten Parker) from within the NFB, and they began to assemble a team to put the film into production. But first there was the problem of Constant’s script. It was Glover and Parker who now supervised the rewrite, and likely wrote some of the script themselves.</p>
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<blockquote><p>These figures and themes…changed constantly as the filmmakers sought to address the concerns of both sponsors and what they (the filmmakers) thought would work as a film.</p></blockquote>
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<figure id="attachment_14250" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14250" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14250" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/9918316187006676_alerte-image5/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Working in the Lab" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14250 size-medium" title="Scientists working in lab" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Male scientist holding a beaker with boiling liquid" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image5.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14250" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</em>, 1950. The tea-making scene used to illustrate the character of the scientist and their dedication to their work. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The first version of the script had leaned explicitly towards Canadian concerns, concluding with an appeal to its audience to support funding that would keep Canadian scientists from moving elsewhere. Despite fears that such an appeal might work against their efforts to recruit the Americans, the NFB had found a receptive audience in Dallas Johnson, and, indeed, the NCI since her efforts to raise funds from within the institute were successful. Soon after, Constant, Glover and Parker produced several new treatments and scripts that abandoned the appeal to keep Canadian scientists in the country and favored a more internationalist outlook. At the same time, the scriptwriters began to reshape some of the key symbolic figures within the film (the patient, the scientist and physician) and themes (the work of science, and the worlds of the body, cell, and cancer). These figures and themes would be central to the narrative of the film and its efforts to inspire young scientists into thinking of cancer as a research career. But they were highly malleable. They changed constantly as the filmmakers sought to address the concerns of both sponsors and what they (the filmmakers) thought would work as a film.</p>
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<p>The use of such symbols and themes derived from the approach to filmmaking of the founder of the NFB, John Grierson, under whom both Glover and Parker had been appointed. For Grierson, the aim of documentary film was not to capture the mess of phenomena that paraded before a camera but to use the phenomena to reach a more abstract or generalizable reality. For Grierson this meant that in documentary filmmaking naturalistic representation had to be subordinated to symbolic expression. When applied to an educational film like <em>Challenge</em>, this approach involved deploying a variety of symbols to address the sponsors’ goals: the symbolic patient and scientist representative of these categories, the representation of the cell as a universe in miniature (with the viewer like a traveler in outer space passing constellations of the parts of the cell seemingly at great distance), the use of light and darkness to symbolize knowledge and ignorance, the rain to symbolize environmental dangers to the cell, among others. Such symbols aimed to represent the patient as respectful, obedient, and subject to science; the scientist as a hero, explorer, and ordinary man; the cell as a universe or outer space that evoked the wonder of the miniscule biological world and the huge scale of the cancer problem; and, in the case of the rain, the dangers of cancer in the environment.</p>
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<blockquote><p>There were thus tensions between what the scientific sponsors wanted and what the animators hoped to deliver, all complicated because the animators saw this film as much more than an engagement with science.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The Griersonian perspective might have influenced how the producer and director approached their commission, but animation techniques developed at the NFB in the 1940s were what allowed the filmmakers to conjure up the worlds of the body, cancer, and the cell so central to the film. The problem was that the emphasis on symbolic expression meant that for some scientists, <em>Challenge</em> strayed from the factual to the fantastical. For example, some of the representations of the cell-as-universe—intended to inspire young scientists with wonder and a sense of the enormous research opportunities opening up—bore little relation to how scientists depicted the cell and seemed to them to stray in other directions. To one critic, for example, they were “aesthetic vaporizings in the field of abstract art.” There were thus tensions between what the scientific sponsors wanted and what the animators hoped to deliver, all complicated because the animators saw this film as much more than an engagement with science. They also saw it as a commentary on other fields in the arts, such as Russian émigré artist Pavel Tchelichew’s so-called X-ray paintings. Tchelichew’s paintings were a visual inspiration for some animated sequences of the body and cell, and the animators were sometimes as interested in creating a conversation with the artist or his critics as with the scientists who sponsored them.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14263" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14263" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14263" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/9918316187006676_alerte-image3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Unit of a Cell" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14263 size-medium" title="Illustration of a microscopic image of a cell" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="A microscopic unit of a cell" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9918316187006676_Alerte-image3.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14263" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</em>, 1950. Part the animation sequence immediately preceding the part where a scientist walks into the cell which comes to tower over him. A visual illustration of the huge size of the cancer problem.<br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The Griersonian approach was also applied to the live-action sections of the film, where key symbols and themes developed on paper in the script—such as the scientist, the patient, and the work of science—were transformed into celluloid. Yet, the filmmakers struggled at times to create these symbols and themes. In part this was because of the often-limited acting skills of the many amateur actors they employed, and the dull visual palate of the film—lots of glassware and people in white coats. But it was also because of tensions within the symbolic figures themselves, for example between the idea of the scientist as hero and as ordinary man (<em>sic</em>). The scientist as hero sought to inspire young scientists; the scientist as ordinary man sought to show that—despite the reputation of cancer research as low-paid compared to industry—he (or she) could aspire to the lifestyle of his or her middle-class peers.</p>
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<p>Finally, the Griersonian approach is evident in the filmmakers’ efforts to knit the life-action and animation together. The editors, the composer of the musical score, the writers of the narration and even the titling all were able to add their own interpretations to the visuals and to introduce their own symbols. The narration often abandoned literal description in favor of metaphorical allusions. The composer used a variety of aural symbols: allusions to the music of science fiction films accompanied the cell-as-universe sequences, for example, alongside musical imitations of events on screen or counterpoints to them. Even the ambient sound played a symbolic role, as when for example it sought to evoke the mechanical nature of some scientific work. Thus, the symbols so central to the argument of the film were not only products of the live-action and animation; they also were created through the editing, the music, the sound, and the narration.</p>
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<h3><strong>Packaging and Promoting the Movie</strong></h3>
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<p>The problem for the sponsors was that they did not believe that a film alone could do all they wanted of it. Audience responses could be unpredictable, and the information officers in the sponsoring agencies sought to manage them by creating a multimedia campaign that included other versions of the film and a filmstrip (see filmography) for different audiences, a book on cancer research to expand on themes in <em>Challenge</em>, and a teaching guide to help teachers use the film and the book in the classroom (see bibliography). <em>Challenge</em> was thus part of a broader media and educational package that the information officers in the sponsoring agencies hoped would shape audience reactions to the film.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14227" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14227" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14227" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/alerte_9918316187006676/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Alerte: Science Contre Cancer a ete lu par Claude Dauphin" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14227 size-medium" title="Title screen of Alerte: Science Contre Cancer" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676-300x230.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="A still of the title screen for Alerte: Science Contre Cancer a ete lu par Claude Dauphin." width="300" height="230" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Alerte_9918316187006676.jpg?w=625&ssl=1 625w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14227" class="wp-caption-text">Opening credits: <em>Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</em>, 1950. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The marketing of the movie began even before production had started, and it soon became clear to the information officers in the sponsoring agencies that promotion could not easily be separated from production. If they were to successfully market the movie, and the broader package of which it was a part, they wanted some say over what was in the film. Thus, the sponsors found themselves corresponding with the filmmakers on production issues, asking to review storyboards and scripts. At the same time, those on the production side also began to get involved in promotion. The boundary between promoting the film and determining what should be in it and how it should present its message was often blurred.</p>
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<p>Promotional efforts peaked with US and Canadian premieres of <em>Challenge </em>and <em>Alerte </em>in 1950. These were intended as grand media events, and the information officers in the sponsoring agencies sought to enroll television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other media in promoting the movie. The problem for these officers was how to turn an educational and recruitment film into something newsworthy, and to this end they developed a detailed propaganda plan—“press handling,” as one information officer labeled it—that highlighted what was likely to appeal to different media, whom to contact, and what the media needed. The problem, however, was that because none of the other versions of the film had yet been made, and the information officers wanted to make a public splash, the media campaigns around <em>Challenge </em>increasingly broadened the intended audience for the film. In addition to <em>Challenge’s </em>target audiences of school and university science students, the media campaign now also sought to reach the general public, more properly the target of the other films in <em>Challenge</em>’s package—<em><a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/fight-science-against-cancer/">The Fight</a></em>, <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101526420"><em>Cancer</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/outlaw_within/"><em>The Outlaw Within</em></a>.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14239" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14239" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14239" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/101526420-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" data-orig-size="704,528" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="En Avant Canada presente Cancer Realise par L’Office National Du Film en cooperation avee L’Institut des Films Medicaux des Colleges De Medecine Americains" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?fit=704%2C528&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14239 size-medium" title="Title screen of Cancer" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Title screen still: Canada presents Cancer Directed by the National Film Board in cooperation with the Institute of Medical Films of the American Medical Colleges" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/101526420-2.jpg?w=704&ssl=1 704w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14239" class="wp-caption-text">Title Screen: <em>Le Cancer</em>, 1950. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>Perhaps in part because of this last-minute stretching of the intended audience, the reception of the film after the premieres was not what its advocates wanted. While many reports praised the film, others were quite critical. Crucially, criticism came from within sponsoring organizations, and from colleagues—other information officers—who were supposed to promote the film. Some critics suggested that most audiences could not follow the film: it was pitched at too high a level for the average moviegoer (now also the target of the film), assumed too much even of its original intended audiences of high school and college students, and was better at dramatic presentation than in getting across a focused educational message. The problem facing its advocates was how to manage such criticism, especially as some within the sponsoring organizations seemed intent on branding the film a failure.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Then, to the surprise of all, <em>The Fight </em>was nominated for an Oscar. Suddenly, the questions over the success of the entire family of films (including <em>Challenge</em>) disappeared, and a warm glow settled over <em>Challenge</em> in the memories of those who sponsored and made it.</p></blockquote>
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||
<p>Consequently, after a brief flirtation with targeting <em>Challenge</em> at the general public, the film was retargeted at its original audience of high school and university science students, as was the French version of the film, <em>Alerte</em>, released at the same time. The other versions of the film—released in 1951—now filled the gap and aimed to attract general audiences: <em>The Fight</em>, a 20-minute version of the film, was aimed at a general theatrical audience; <em>The Outlaw Within</em> and <em>Cancer</em>, ten-minute versions in English and French respectively, were targeted at the NFB’s Canadian film circuits. Yet the problems with <em>Challenge </em>did not disappear. Thus, while the companion book (Grant, <a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/permalink/01NLM_INST/1o1phhn/alma991818753406676"><em>Challenge</em></a> (<a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Meeting-the-Challenge-of-Cancer-6751.1.pdf">Download PDF</a>)) expanded on the themes in the film, the teachers drafted in to write the teaching guide for the film (NCI, <em>Teaching Guide (</em><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/A-Teaching-Guide-Challenge-of-Cancer.pdf">Download PDF</a><em>)</em>) seemed at a loss as to what to do with it and focused most of their efforts on Grant’s book. For a while, such issues seemed to question the value of the huge effort invested in making a film for science students and gave credence to those critics within the sponsoring organizations who felt it a waste of money. Then, to the surprise of all, <em>The Fight </em>was nominated for an Oscar. Suddenly, the questions over the success of the entire family of films (including <em>Challenge</em>) disappeared, and a warm glow settled over <em>Challenge</em> in the memories of those who sponsored and made it.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_14243" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14243" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="14243" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/8700851a-6/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Produced by the National Film Board of Canada" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-14243 size-medium" title="Produced by National Film Board of Canada" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Title screen: Produced by the National Film Board of Canada" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/8700851A-6.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14243" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer</em>, 1950. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.<br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">National Library of Medicine #9918316187006676</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<h3><strong>Conclusions</strong></h3>
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<p>After its release, the life of the film was short, as was the case for many educational films. It was used in the classroom for perhaps a decade before other films and other agendas led to its abandonment. Those who made it and those who advocated for it in the sponsoring bodies moved on to other projects: Foster, Johnson, and Gilchrist left their organizations before or shortly after the film’s release, while the team that made it broke up and moved to other projects within the board. For the NFB, <em>The Fight</em>’s Oscar nomination was the precursor to other Oscar successes by some of the filmmakers involved in <em>Challenge</em>, and the cell-as-universe animation came to form part of a genealogy that would eventually lead to Stanley Kubrick’s film, <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em>.</p>
|
||
<p>More broadly, the film tells us much about the postwar expansion of cancer research: the shortfall in scientists in the 1940s and the important, if undocumented, roles of information officers and filmmakers in the promotion of cancer research after World War II. It is a story of how two sponsors concerned about the shortage of scientists in cancer research came to collaborate to produce a recruitment film, how filmmakers sought to transform these concerns into something that would work as a film, and how advocates of the film within both sponsoring agencies sought to ensure its success as an educational and recruitment tool through a multimedia propaganda campaign. It is, finally, also a story of how representations of the scientist, the patient, the body and cell, and the work of science—malleable entities, whose meanings changed over time and between different stakeholders—were created and transformed.</p>
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
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<tbody>
|
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<tr>
|
||
<td bgcolor="#f5f5f5">David Cantor is an investigador (researcher) at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES), Buenos Aires Argentina and an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was for several years affiliated with the National Library of Medicine and also worked in the Office of History, National Institutes of Health. His extensive published research focuses on the history of medicine in the twentieth century, most recently the histories of cancer, stress and medical film. His most recent publication, <em><a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/permalink/01NLM_INST/1o1phhn/alma9917786203406676">Cancer, Research, and Educational Film at Midcentury: The Making of the Movie Challenge: Science Against Cancer</a></em> is available <a href="https://archive.org/details/9781800103672"><u>open access</u></a>.</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h2><strong>Select Bibliography</strong></h2>
|
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<p>Grant, Lester. <a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/permalink/01NLM_INST/1o1phhn/alma991802603406676"><em>The Challenge of Cancer: A Research Story That Involves the Secret of Life Itself</em></a>. Bethesda MD: Federal Security Agency, US Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1950. <span dir="auto">(<a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Challenge-of-Cancer-A-Research-Story-2182.1.pdf">Download PDF</a>)</span></p>
|
||
<p>National Cancer Institute (NCI). <em><a href="https://catalog.nlm.nih.gov/permalink/01NLM_INST/1o1phhn/alma991818753406676">Meeting the Challenge of Cancer</a>. (</em>A Supplement to The Challenge of Cancer, by Lester Grant). US Public Health Service Publication no.419. Washington: US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Cancer Institute, 1955. (<a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Meeting-the-Challenge-of-Cancer-6751.1.pdf">Download PDF</a>)</p>
|
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<p>———. <em>A Teaching Guide to the Challenge of Cancer</em>. Bethesda, MD.: Federal Security Agency, US Public Health Service, National Cancer Institute, 1950. (<a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/A-Teaching-Guide-Challenge-of-Cancer.pdf">Download PDF</a>)</p>
|
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<h3><strong>Select Filmography</strong></h3>
|
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<p>Parker, Morten, dir<em>. <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316187006676">Alerte: Science Contre Cancer</a></em>.1950; National Film Board of Canada (in cooperation with the Medical Film Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges) for the Department of National Health and Welfare, Canada, and the National Cancer Institute of the US Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency.</p>
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<p>Parker, Morten, dir<em>. <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101526420">Cancer</a></em>. 1951; National Film Board of Canada (in cooperation with the Medical Film Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges).</p>
|
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<p>Parker, Morten, dir. <a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700851A"><em>Challenge: Science Against Cancer</em></a>. 1950; National Film Board of Canada (in cooperation with the Medical Film Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges) for the Department of National Health and Welfare, Canada, and the National Cancer Institute of the US Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency.</p>
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<p>Parker, Morten, dir.<a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/fight-science-against-cancer/"><em> The Fight: Science Against Cancer</em></a>. 1951; National Film Board of Canada.</p>
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<p>Parker, Morten, dir.<a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/outlaw_within/"><em> The Outlaw Within</em></a>. 1951; National Film Board of Canada (in cooperation with the Medical Film Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges).</p>
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<p><em>What We Know About Cancer</em> (filmstrip). 1950; National Film Board of Canada for the National Cancer Institute of the US Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency.</p>
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<p> </p>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2022/07/12/challenge-science-against-cancer-or-how-to-make-a-movie-in-the-mid-twentieth-century/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">14135</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>Shared Suffering Onscreen: Animal Experiments and Emotional Investment in the Films of O. H. Mowrer</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/09/20/shared-suffering-onscreen-animal-experiments-and-emotional-investment-in-the-films-of-o-h-mowrer/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/09/20/shared-suffering-onscreen-animal-experiments-and-emotional-investment-in-the-films-of-o-h-mowrer/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[lmthan]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 Sep 2021 12:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Research & Documentation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Silent]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[animal experimentation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[ethics]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[laboratory]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[life sciences]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[rats]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=13606</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, PhD, Assistant Professor in Film Studies, Seattle University<br>
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The history of animal testing and the history of the life sciences go hand in hand. Donna Haraway describes the emotional and ethical complexities with this work as the “shared suffering” of the lab. This argument is premised on the recognition of animal agency in the lab, a space where animals, apparatuses, and scientists are all responding and responsible to each other, though in very different ways.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/09/20/shared-suffering-onscreen-animal-experiments-and-emotional-investment-in-the-films-of-o-h-mowrer/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/competition-and-dominance-hierarchies-in-rats/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, PhD (Seattle University)</p>
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<hr />
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/animal-studies-in-the-social-modification-of-organically-motivated-behavior/">Animal Studies in the Social<br />
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Modification of Organically<br />
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Motivated Behavior<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13957" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/competition-and-dominance-hierarchies-in-rats/animal-studies-in-the-social-modification-of-organically-motivated-behavior/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Animal-Studies-in-the-Social-Modification-of-Organically-Motivated-Behavior.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Animal Studies in the Social Modification of Organically Motivated Behavior" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Animal-Studies-in-the-Social-Modification-of-Organically-Motivated-Behavior.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Animal-Studies-in-the-Social-Modification-of-Organically-Motivated-Behavior.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-13957" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Animal-Studies-in-the-Social-Modification-of-Organically-Motivated-Behavior-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Title screen reads Food sharing continues until all of the pellet is consumed..." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/competition-and-dominance-hierarchies-in-rats/">Competition and Dominance<br />
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Hierarchies in Rats</p>
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||
<p><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13959" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/an-experimentally-produced-social-problem-in-rats/competition-and-dominance-hierarchies-in-rats/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Competition-and-Dominance-Hierarchies-in-Rats.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Competition and Dominance Hierarchies in Rats" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Competition-and-Dominance-Hierarchies-in-Rats.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Competition-and-Dominance-Hierarchies-in-Rats.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-13959" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Competition-and-Dominance-Hierarchies-in-Rats.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Three white rats sitting together, one is eating." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/an-experimentally-produced-social-problem-in-rats/">An Experimentally Produced<br />
|
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“Social Problem” in Rats<br />
|
||
<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13956" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/competition-and-dominance-hierarchies-in-rats/an-experimentally-produced-social-problem-in-rats-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/An-Experimentally-Produced-Social-Problem-in-Rats.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="An Experimentally Produced Social Problem in Rats" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/An-Experimentally-Produced-Social-Problem-in-Rats.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/An-Experimentally-Produced-Social-Problem-in-Rats.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-13956" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/An-Experimentally-Produced-Social-Problem-in-Rats.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Title screen including creator O.H. Mowrer, Department of Psychology, Institute of Human Relations Yale University." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
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<hr />
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<div id="__essay" class="sec" style="text-align: left;">
|
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<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he history of animal testing and the history of the life sciences go hand in hand. As Claude Bernard, the founder of physiology, stated, experimental animals, particularly frogs, are “closely associated with [experimenters’] labors and their scientific glory.”<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> And yet, these experiments were always fraught, as scientists had to manage their own emotional entanglement with their animal subjects, who often were killed or maimed in the process of the experiment.<a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> Donna Haraway describes these emotional and ethical complexities as the “shared suffering” of the lab.<a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> This argument is premised on the recognition of animal agency in the lab, a space where animals, apparatuses, and scientists are all responding and responsible to each other, though in very different ways. This essay will consider the process of shared suffering in the rat films made by Orval Hobart Mowrer while at Yale’s Institute of Human Relations during the 1930s. I hope to prompt us into thinking about “shared suffering” not only as a guidepost for understanding the ethics of animal experiments, but also as a methodological tool to understand visual images, specifically films, from the history of science. Mowrer’s films contain traces of the burdened relationship between him and his rodent test subjects.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>It would be hard to find a better example of shared suffering than Mowrer’s behavioral laboratory, where political forces, psychological obsessions, and animal behaviors comingled.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Historian of science Rebecca Lemov describes Mowrer’s midcentury rat experiments as “a kind of autobiography,” in which Mowrer enacted his own psychological suffering on his rodent test subjects.<a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> As a teen, Mowrer began suffering from a deep depression and feelings of unreality, which he later attributed to his own secret “sexual perversion,” the details of which he never fully disclosed.<a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> Whatever he meant, it seems clear that Mowrer thought of himself for much of his life as a secret outsider, a position that pained him profoundly and indirectly influenced his work. In his later writing, Mowrer described the period of his life working with animals as wracked by intense bouts with alienation, anxiety, and depression—the very emotions he was simulating and testing in the lab. Drawing from Mowrer’s own accounts, Lemov concludes that Mowrer’s experiments were an attempt to physically manifest his own internal demons and thereby control them as he controlled the behavior of the rats.</p>
|
||
<p>Most of this work was conducted at Yale’s Institute of Human Relations (IHR), a well-funded interdisciplinary program created to tackle overarching questions about humanity. After graduating from John Hopkins with a doctorate in psychology in 1932, Mowrer eventually secured a full-time position in the Psychology Department at Yale University and as a Research Associate in the IHR.<a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> There, Mowrer worked under the direction of Mark A. May and alongside the sociologist John Dollard as well as with fellow psychologists Clark Hull and Neal E. Miller. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the IHR’s collective research focused on integrating Freudian psychoanalysis with behaviorism by adapting psychoanalytic language describing motivation, desire, and repression to the quantitative observations and dispassionate vocabulary of animal laboratory testing. The result was a comprehensive (if speculative) theory that connected experimental research with the feelings, emotions, and behaviors of human populations at a variety of scales, a theory that became widely known as the “frustration-aggression” hypothesis.</p>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Simply put, the frustration-aggression hypothesis argued that behavior is caused by drives or desires that are either fulfilled or thwarted and that this dynamic could be measured in the lab.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Mowrer helped develop these theories as a coauthor of <em>Frustration and Aggression</em> (1939), where the IHR researchers collectively outlined their work.<a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>An important subsection of this research focused on extending behavioral psychology as an explanation for Marx’s laws of economics. Here, the “frustration-aggression” hypothesis was applied to Marx and Engel’s description of the formation of class in <em>The Communist Manifesto</em>. The authors argued that Marx’s materialist interpretation of history “introduced unwittingly a psychological system” that mirrored the psychologists’ own.<a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> The authors thereby reframed Marx’s description of primitive accumulation through the lens of behavioral psychology. In the version proposed by IHR researchers, the spiraling tendencies of class conflict begin with an almost mythic moment of initial, individual frustration, when the worker discovers their confined role within the instruments of production.</p>
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<p>Perhaps, as Lemov describes, Mowrer’s take on this dynamic was rooted in his own experiences of depression and alienation, since his work emphasized states of suffering produced through material circumstances. In his laboratory work, Mowrer claimed to simulate anxiety in rodents by regularly shocking them with electric currents. In a series of articles, Mowrer outlined the debilitating effects of anxiety on rats as they waited for these shocks to occur and the surprising reduction in tension when the shock was actually administered.<a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> He also used these findings to construct an extensive explanation for human behaviors, especially those of marginalized and oppressed classes of people. In his chapter of <em>Frustration and Aggression</em>, Mowrer argues that crime is caused by a disparity between an idealized American lifestyle (which he notes is mostly propagated by advertising and film) and the actual material circumstances confining groups of people.<a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> As historian Corbin Page describes, Mowrer claimed that “African Americans, Native Americans, poor people, people with less education, shorter people, young people, less attractive people, people with physical disabilities, children of single parents, unmarried people, divorcees, and so on were all more likely to be criminal” because of the restrictions of society.<a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> In Mowrer’s description, these criminalized groups deviate from “normal” life, where frustration is channeled towards legal and acceptable pursuits. In this framework, criminalized underclasses of oppressed people are created through primary moments of frustration and confinement, which then leads them to a variety of antisocial pathologies and behaviors.</p>
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||
<p>Mowrer not only participated in theorizing this dynamic but also set out to simulate and film its occurrence. In <em>An</em> <em>Experimentally Produced “Social Problem” in Rats</em> (1939) and <em>Competition and Dominance Hierarchies in Rats</em> (1940), he used film to record social interactions and their effects on individual psychology. Mowrer’s films are primarily interested in the process of individuation. Hierarchies of behavior are produced in groups of rats over multiple experimental interventions in which each rat develops an identity specific to their relationship with the group as a whole. These films are primarily interested in the development of group dynamics. Although they occasionally title and individualize single rats, the animal subjects are always presented as members of a group rather than as a single (yet universal) example in the way that animal subjects function in many other research films, e.g. Neal E. Miller’s <em>Motivation and Reward in Learning</em> (1948). Over the course of the films, these rats are meant to model the development of behavioral patterns of particular classes in society.</p>
|
||
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Competition and Dominance Hierarchies in Rats [Silent] (Mowrer, Kornreich, Isabelle Yoffe, 1940)" width="740" height="555" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pyDrKtO2mn4?start=40&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
|
||
<p> </p>
|
||
<p>Mowrer’s films present some of the complex, messy, and often contradictory affects that make up shared suffering in the lab. The differences in arrangement and conceit in each film are significant, despite claiming to study the same process and often being screened in the same settings. The testing apparatus depicted in <em>Competition and Dominance Hierarchies in Rats</em> is relatively simple, mostly consisting of a glass jar that is used to confine the rats in a limited yet visually accessible space. A distinct hierarchy emerges in the behavior of the rats over repeated trials presented in the film. As the intertitles explain, the rats begin with an active and exploratory pursuit of food, as a rat with a pellet persistently turns its back on two others, who are trying to take it. But as the experiments continue, this chase after the pellet becomes violent. The film’s intertitles describe this behavior as a second stage in the production of hierarchy where exploration leads to forceful dominance. The final, heartbreaking, phase takes place when the rats have learned and internalized their position within the hierarchy. One rat becomes “dominant,” one “intermediary,” and the last “subordinate.” This change in behavior is most profound in the “subordinate” rat, who has been so affected by the violence associated with the pellet that it will no longer touch it even when alone in the jar, despite being close to starvation. We are told through the intertitles that this change is long-lasting, reemerging in all future experiments. As Mowrer explained in his presentation of the films to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1940, this film demonstrates changes in the subordinate rodent’s “personality,” who becomes “shy and restrained,” exhibiting a “food neurosis” and a decreased intelligence that has been “depressed by social experience.”<a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
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||
<p>Given what we know about Mowrer’s own experiences of deep depression and anxiety at the time he made this film, its emphasis on the pain felt by its rodent protagonists is striking. Indeed, the way the films position the viewer invites sympathy with the rats even as it disavows it, creating precisely the type of strained, conflicted relationship that defines “shared suffering.” The relatively isolated rats, the theoretical framework of “personality typing,” and the clear allusions to human culture in the intertitles lend these rodents an interiority that they would not have otherwise. The camera is placed at eye-level with the rats, and the transparency of the experimental apparatus allows for an intimate proximity during their social interactions and in moments of isolation. Finally, the lighting of the film works to isolate the rats in an inky darkness, playing up the contrast between the white coat of the albino rat and the painted black of the matte background. By presenting the rats on a magnified scale and creating a narrative of deprivation and conflict, the film depicts moments that, at least to my eye, are deeply poignant, such as when we watch the listless, hesitant, and starving rat who has been forced into the role of subordinate. It is not inconceivable that Mowrer himself felt similarly, as he later described conflicting feelings about these experiments and the relationship they established between him, his emotions, and his animal subjects. The ravages of social violence have immobilized the rat we see onscreen, and its seeming terror at the introduction of the other rats—leaping to the far corner, belly up—was meant to be read within Mowrer’s framework as a kind of psychological trauma. Social subordination therefore becomes the film’s prime cause of personality formation, as the rat moves from being indistinguishable within the group to a distinct “identity” by adopting a position in relation to the others. Mowrer provides no explanation for why certain rats adopt particular social positions, describing, in true behaviorist fashion, behaviors as emergent from the experimental setting rather than individual rats. Here, poverty is represented as a combination of material substrata and relational dynamics that lead to neurosis. As Mowrer describes, his films were meant to present simplified, controlled, “habit mechanisms” of living organisms from which human society and language is derived.<a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> These were precisely the types of linkages between human society and animal experiments that behaviorist theories such as Mowrer’s were built upon and ultimately undone by. But, at the time, behaviorist theories of society were ascendant precisely because of their “ability to generate cast-iron laws of behavior in the animal laboratory.”<a id="_ednref14" class="anchor" href="#_edn14"><sup>[14]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="An Experimentally Produced "Social Problem" in Rats [Silent] (O. H. Mowrer, 1939)" width="740" height="555" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s5gxu1cuGmI?start=20&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
|
||
<p> </p>
|
||
<p>Mowrer’s other film, <em>An Experimentally Produced “Social Problem” in Rats</em>, operates in a different register, and, intentional or not, approaches questions of class far more as an issue of design and material arrangement than interpersonal socialization. Key to this shift in framework is the experimental apparatus, which is changed over the course of the film. Depicting the “Skinner method,” in which the rats are held in an enclosure containing a lever that must be pulled in order to receive food, this film codes the rats’ behavior in terms of production and consumption rather than dominance and submission. An <em>Experimentally Produced “Social Problem” in Rats</em> begins with the lever and food chute being placed on the same wall. In these early sequences, the rats learn to operate the lever whenever they are hungry, easily satiating themselves by producing more food on command. But in subsequent scenes, the food chute and lever are placed on opposite walls. Now, labor and its product are essentially split. Two classes of rats emerge over time when multiple rats are introduced into the later version of the apparatus. Over the course of four days, the rats go from all working, but never benefitting from their work, to all fighting over a space at the food chute, without any food being produced, to finally a single “worker” who does the vast majority of the labor while rushing back and forth between the lever and the food chute in order to snatch bits of food away from the “dependent” or “parasitical” rats who wait by the chute. As the intertitle concludes: “A ‘class society’ has emerged.”</p>
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<p>The spectatorship position of this film is starkly different from <em>Competition and Dominance Hierarchies in Rats</em>. Most of the film’s footage is taken above the experimental enclosure, looking down through its open top. The solid walls of the apparatus prohibit camera angles at the rats’ level. Instead, we have a schematic vision, akin to an architectural blueprint. Viewed from above, the intense affective interiority of <em>Competition and Dominance</em> is gone. Closer tracking shots that occasionally focus on details of specific behaviors—crowding around the food chute, operating the lever itself, and frantically running back and forth between the lever and the chute—sporadically break the uniformity of the film’s bird’s eye view. But, despite being closer to their subjects, these shots retain the schematic perspective of the wide shots, displaying curiosity more than a sense of pathos. Ultimately, poverty in <em>An Experimentally Produced “Social Problem” in Rats</em> is explored less in terms of individual psychology and more as the product of supply and demand, production and distribution. The rats demonstrate the material effects of class organizations beyond the constraints of human society, suggesting a history of organisms that extends beyond traditional nature/culture boundaries. Here, we have a variation on Haraway’s “shared suffering” that one might call a “shared struggle,” in which animals, as well as humans, can become part of the proletariat.</p>
|
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<p>In some ways, this type of animal research is the least likely to withstand the scrutiny of an ethical cost-benefit analysis of scientific knowledge gained versus animal suffering caused. It produced hypotheses and fantasies, images of possibilities rather than concrete tools for acting. Mowrer and his peers’ central assumption—that rats can in some way stand in for humans—was often flawed or absurd, the worst type of arbitrary reason for causing suffering. Indeed, Haraway finds this type of behavioral modeling, which produces the animal as a substitute for human pain, among the most troubling.<a id="_ednref15" class="anchor" href="#_edn15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> There is no denying the troubling power differential between Mowrer as filmmaker and experimenter and his rats who were made to painfully perform the scenes he concocted. But these experiments still raise fascinating, worthwhile questions. For instance, what if we reframe Mowrer’s work as a method of abstract, imaginative, and creative thinking that was produced through the shared labor (and suffering) of nonhuman participants? One way of understanding Mowrer’s research is to view it as a collaborative process of imagining a collective future and a collective past, with animals participating in the authorship of theoretical histories. Even if in actuality most of this research into rodent behavior ended up falling short of this potential—with the rats functioning as metaphorical props in fantasies of human engineering—there is a strain of productive utopianism here, where animals and humans labor side-by-side in a process of speculative thinking about living together. Indeed, Mowrer’s first film, <em>Animal Studies in the Social Modification of Organically Motivated Behavior</em> (1937-1938), offers a glimpse of an idyllic alternative to the pain and trauma of his other films. Like the others, this film features groups of hungry rats placed into an experimental apparatus and given food pellets, but, in this instance they are given just enough food to satisfy their hunger and there is no separation of producer and consumer rats.<a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> Eventually, what develops is a food-sharing system, in which rats even can take the food from each other’s mouths without fighting, and each eats its fill. As the film concludes “an ‘altruistic society’ has arisen.” But once these rats have access to a private space that can be used to hoard food, fiercer fighting recommences.</p>
|
||
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Animal Studies in the Social Mod. of Organically Motivated Behavior [Silent] (O.H. Mowrer, 1938)" width="740" height="555" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ou_GZ9MqtHo?start=25&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
|
||
<p> </p>
|
||
<p>None of what I have written is meant to justify inflicting pain on animals in the lab. These experiments emphasized suffering more than sharing. Mowrer himself felt trapped and persecuted by the methods and confines of his field. In a well-publicized 1947 speech to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, Illinois, Mowrer rejected the lack of a moral focus in experimental psychology, advocating for a return to religious and commonplace understandings of guilt and responsibility.<a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> Afterwards, he dramatically shifted the focus of his research, emphasizing group therapy based on confessing past sins rather than experimental testing.</p>
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<blockquote><p>The implicit shared suffering in his work from the 1930s, which is vividly on display in his films, was ultimately untenable for Mowrer, and led him to massively reshape his life. He was deeply unhappy when he was conducting this research and making these films, a fact that haunts them.</p></blockquote>
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<p>And he was not the only one unhappy. The rats in these films also were desperately searching for an escape from their circumstances. In a lecture given to the New York Academy of Sciences, Mowrer admitted that the rats featured in <em>An Experimentally Produced “Social Problem”</em> frequently attempted to escape (to “leave the field of play”) by jumping out of the open top of the apparatus through which they were being filmed.<a id="_ednref18" class="anchor" href="#_edn18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> Scenes of this behavior were edited out, deemed irrelevant at the time. But the desire to escape remains as an invisible presence in the films. These movies are shot through with the frustrated wish for freedom, emanating from both the scientist and the rats in a discordant process of attunement. Imprisoned together by the disciplinary rules of behavioral psychology, the confines of the testing apparatus, and the editing of the film, the animal test subjects and the human researcher seem to grope uncertainly, and often painfully, for a better way of being together, one that was more psychologically, personally, and politically humane.</p>
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;" data-darkreader-inline-border-top="" data-darkreader-inline-border-right="" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom="" data-darkreader-inline-border-left="">
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<td style="--darkreader-inline-bgcolor: #1e2021;" bgcolor="#f5f5f5" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">
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<div class="insert">
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<p>Dr. Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa is an Assistant Professor in Film Studies at Seattle University. His research focuses on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. His book, <em>The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life</em> is due to be published by the University of California Press in 2022.</p>
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</div>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<hr />
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<h2>Bibliography</h2>
|
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<p>“Animal Studies in the Genesis of Personality.” <em>Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. </em>3, no. 1 Series II (November 1, 1940): 8–11.</p>
|
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<p>“Anxiety-Reduction and Learning.” <em>Journal of Experimental Psychology.</em> 27, no. 5 (November 1940): 497–516. <a href="http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0056236">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0056236</a>.</p>
|
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<p>Bernard, Claude. <em>An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine</em>. Dover. Courier Dover Publications, 1957.</p>
|
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<p>Dollard, John, Leonard W. Doob, Neal E. Miller, Orval Hobart Mowrer, and Robert R. Sears. <em>Frustration and Aggression</em>. New Haven: Pub. for the Institute of human relations by Yale university press, 1939.</p>
|
||
<p>Haraway, Donna Jeanne. <em>When Species Meet</em>. Posthumanities 3. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.</p>
|
||
<p>Hoggan, George. “Vivisection: (To the Editor of the ‘Morning Post’).” <em>Morning Post</em>, 1875.</p>
|
||
<p>Lemov, Rebecca M. <em>World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men</em>. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.</p>
|
||
<p>Mills, John A. <em>Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology</em>. NYU Press, 1998.</p>
|
||
<p>Mowrer, O. H. “A Stimulus-Response Analysis of Anxiety and Its Role as a Reinforcing Agent.” <em>Psychological Review.</em> 46, no. 6 (November 1939): 553–65. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614288080">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0054288</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Mowrer, O. H., and R. R. Lamoreaux. “Avoidance Conditioning and Signal Duration — a Study of Secondary Motivation and Reward.” <em>Psychological Monographs.</em> 54, no. 5 (1942): i–34. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_916872633">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0093499</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Mowrer, O. H., N. N. Rayman, and E. L. Bliss. “Preparatory Set (Expectancy)—an Experimental Demonstration of Its ‘central’ Locus.” <em>Journal of Experimental Psychology.</em> 26, no. 4 (April 1940): 357–72. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614259993">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0058172</a>.</p>
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<p>Mowrer, O. H., and Peter Viek. “An Experimental Analogue of Fear from a Sense of Helplessness.” <em>The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.</em> 43, no. 2 (April 1948): 193–200. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614339144">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0057165</a>.</p>
|
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<p>Page, Corbin. “Preserving Guilt in the ‘Age of Psychology’: The Curious Career of O. Hobart Mowrer.” <em>History of Psychology.</em> 20, no. 1 (February 2017): 1–27. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1852685666">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/hop0000045</a>.</p>
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<p>“Preparatory Set (Expectancy) – Some Methods of Measurement.” <em>Psychological Monographs.</em> 52, no. 2 (1940): i–43. <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_916872010">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0093469</a>.</p>
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<hr />
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<div class="footnotes">
|
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<h3>Notes</h3>
|
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<p><a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> Claude Bernard, <em>An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine</em> (Courier Dover Publications, 1957), 115.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> One of Bernard’s own students wrote emotionally about his own deep feelings of remorse and anguish while vivisecting dogs that he had come to feel emotionally connected with in the daily operations of the lab. George Hoggan, “Vivisection: (To the Editor of the ‘Morning Post.’),” <em>Morning Post</em>, 1875.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> Donna Jeanne Haraway, <em>When Species Meet</em>, Posthumanities 3 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 89.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> Rebecca Lemov, <em>World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men</em> (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005): 98.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> O. H. Mowrer, “Abnormal Reactions or Actions? (An Autobiographical Answer),” in J. Vernon (Ed.), <em>Introduction to General Psychology: A Self-Selection Textbook</em> (Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Company, 1966): 18.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Corbin Page, “Preserving Guilt in the ‘Age of Psychology’: The Curious Career of O. Hobart Mowrer,” <em>History of Psychology</em> 20, no. 1 (February 2017): 5, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1852685666">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/hop0000045</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn7" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> Dollard et al., <em>Frustration and Aggression</em>, 23–26.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> Dollard et al., 23.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> O. H. Mowrer, “Preparatory Set (Expectancy)—a Determinant in Motivation and Learning,” <em>Psychological Review</em> 45, no. 1 (January 1938): 62–91, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614263389">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0060829</a>; O. H. Mowrer, N. N. Rayman, and E. L. Bliss, “Preparatory Set (Expectancy)—an Experimental Demonstration of Its ‘central’ Locus.,”<em> Journal of Experimental Psychology</em> 26, no. 4 (April 1940): 357–72, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614259993">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0058172</a>; O. H. Mowrer, “Preparatory Set (Expectancy) – Some Methods of Measurement,”<em> Psychological Monographs</em> 52, no. 2 (1940): i–43, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_916872010">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0093469</a>; O. H. Mowrer, “A Stimulus-Response Analysis of Anxiety and Its Role as a Reinforcing Agent.,”<em> Psychological Review</em> 46, no. 6 (November 1939): 553–65, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614288080">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0054288</a>; O. H. Mowrer and Peter Viek, “An Experimental Analogue of Fear from a Sense of Helplessness,” <em>Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology</em> 43, no. 2 (April 1948): 193–200, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_614339144">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0057165</a>; O. H. Mowrer, “Anxiety-Reduction and Learning,” <em>Journal of Experimental Psychology</em> 27, no. 5 (November 1940): 497–516, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_1290466196">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0056236</a>; O. H. Mowrer and R. R. Lamoreaux, “Avoidance Conditioning and Signal Duration — a Study of Secondary Motivation and Reward,” <em>Psychological Monographs</em> 54, no. 5 (1942): i–34, <a href="https://ucsc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_SCR_INST/ojisf2/cdi_proquest_journals_916872633">http://dx.doi.org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/h0093499</a>.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn10" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> John Dollard et al., <em>Frustration and Aggression</em> (New Haven: Pub. for the Institute of Human Relations by Yale University Press, 1939), 113.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> Page, “Preserving Guilt in the ‘Age of Psychology,’” 7.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn12" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> O. H. Mowrer, “Animal Studies in the Genesis of Personality,” <em>Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences</em> 3, no. 1 Series II (November 1, 1940): 11.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> Mowrer, 9.</p>
|
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<p><a id="_edn14" href="#_ednref13">[14]</a> Mills argues that despite behaviorism’s lost prestige, its basic premise that psychology should be subject to empirical, experimental study continues to hold sway within the discipline. John A. Mills, <em>Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology</em> (New York, NY: NYU Press, 1998), 73.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn15" href="#_ednref13">[15]</a> Haraway, <em>When Species Meet</em>, 79. She writes: “there is a whole world of those who can be killed, because finally they are only something, not somebody, close enough to ‘being’ in order to be a model, substitute, sufficiently self-similar and so nourishing food, but not close enough to compel response.”</p>
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<p><a id="_edn16" href="#_ednref13">[16]</a> Mowrer, “Animal Studies in the Genesis of Personality,” 9.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn17" href="#_ednref13">[17]</a> Page, “Preserving Guilt in the ‘Age of Psychology,’” 2.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn18" href="#_ednref13">[18]</a> Mowrer, 10.</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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</div>
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<p> </p>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/09/20/shared-suffering-onscreen-animal-experiments-and-emotional-investment-in-the-films-of-o-h-mowrer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">13606</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>Air Pollution Is a Human Problem: Mary Catterall’s Campaign for Clean Air in Leeds, England</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[lmthan]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2021 11:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Research & Documentation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Air]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Climate]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Coal]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Fossil Fuels]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Industry]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Leeds]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Pollution]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Waste]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=13211</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By Angela Saward, BA, MTA, Wellcome Collection<br>
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Dr. Mary Catterall (1922-2015), doctor and sculptor, script and medical adviser to the film, <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, became concerned with lung health when she was appointed Senior Registrar in Respiratory Medicine at Leeds General Infirmary, England in 1960. The film won a Silver Medal at the British Medical Association annual film competition in 1964.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/it-takes-your-breath-away/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Angela Saward, BA, MTA (Wellcome Collection)</p>
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<hr />
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/it-takes-your-breath-away/">It Takes Your Breath Away<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13228" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/breath_main-play-button/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Breath_main Play button" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-13228" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button-300x230.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="230" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_main-Play-button.jpg?w=625&ssl=1 625w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></div>
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<div class="video-meta">
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<p><strong>DATE: </strong>1964<br />
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<strong>LENGTH: </strong>13 minutes<br />
|
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<strong>ORGANIZATION:</strong> <span class="p11">British Medical Association and<br />British Life Assurance Trust for Health Education</span><br />
|
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<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Research &<br />Documentation, Animation, Sound, Black & White</p>
|
||
</div>
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<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
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<hr />
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<div id="__essay" class="sec" style="text-align: left;">
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<p><span class="dropcap">D</span>r. Mary Catterall (1922–2015), doctor and sculptor, script and medical advisor to the film, <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, became concerned with lung health when she was appointed Senior Registrar in Respiratory Medicine at Leeds General Infirmary, England in 1960. The film won a Silver Medal at the British Medical Association annual film competition in 1964, which welcomed films from professional and amateur filmmakers, only specifying that medical excellence was <span style="white-space: nowrap;">paramount.<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></span> It is a work of “hidden” cinema: it was devised specifically for professional medical audiences, in this case, healthcare personnel, and was not intended to be distributed to the wider public. This essay looks at the backstory to the film and how Catterall became involved both personally and professionally by exploring her archives, held at Wellcome Collection where she deposited them in 2009, as well as other library and archival <span style="white-space: nowrap;">sources.<a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a></span> The essay contributes to the growing interest and discourse around environmental activism in the 1960s across both sides of the Atlantic. Air pollution has historically taken a significant toll on health and mortality; at the time the film was made, it was implicated in 30,000 deaths in the UK. Today, comparisons can be made with COVID-19 when once again, air pollution has become highly newsworthy: at the time of writing there is growing evidence that deaths through complications from COVID-19 have a direct causal relationship to exposure to harmful air particulates.</p>
|
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<blockquote><p>Today, comparisons can be made with COVID-19 when once again, air pollution has become highly newsworthy: at the time of writing there is growing evidence that deaths through complications from COVID-19 have a direct causal relationship to exposure to harmful air particulates.</p></blockquote>
|
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<h3><strong>The Long Shadow of the Industrial Revolution</strong></h3>
|
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<figure id="attachment_13264" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13264" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13264" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="It Takes your Breath Away" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13264 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Title screen of "it takes your breath away" air pollution a human problem" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-1.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13264" class="wp-caption-text">Still from the main intertitle for <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, 1964 (dir. Ken Ransom), script and medical advice by Dr. Mary Catterall, Wellcome Collection. <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068"><em>National Library of Medicine #101771068</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>In northern cities in the United Kingdom, the legacy of migration, rapid urbanization, and the attendant problems of pollution, which started with the Industrial Revolution, continued to have a detrimental impact centuries later. <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em> references this legacy. It begins with opening credits of photographic still images of scenes showing various high-angle views of rooftops and chimneys from residential and industrial settings. The music is doom-laden and discordant. The title of the film, <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, is at odds with the images: the received use of this phrase is “to astonish or amaze,” so the choice is immediately <span style="white-space: nowrap;">unsettling.<a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></span> Seven of the 13-minute running time is taken up with contextualizing visual material on the polluted urban environment coupled with a powerful narration, scripted by Catterall and voiced by Bryan <span style="white-space: nowrap;">Martin.<a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></span> The film’s position regarding pollution is clear: air pollution is a human problem (the subtitle to the film). The language is loaded; it refers to the influence of the Industrial Revolution on humankind by remarking, “mechanism spread like a rat.”</p>
|
||
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2a_it-takes-your-breath-away/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="chimney spewing smoke into the sky" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13324" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2a_it-takes-your-breath-away/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=1438%2C1078&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1438,1078" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1590165813","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Dwelling House Chimney" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2a_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2b_it-takes-your-breath-away/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="Factories above water spraying smoke into the sky" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13325" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2b_it-takes-your-breath-away/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=1435%2C1078&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1435,1078" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1590165842","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Factories Release Dirt and Grime" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2b_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=740%2C556&ssl=1" /></a>
|
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2c_it-takes-your-breath-away/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="a mother pushing her child in a stroller in front of a foggy background" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13326" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/2c_it-takes-your-breath-away/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=1448%2C1078&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1448,1078" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1590165870","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Air Pollution worse than London’s" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=300%2C223&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2c_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=740%2C551&ssl=1" /></a>
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<figure id="attachment_13253" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13253" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13253" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/breath-7/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="City of London is a Clean Air Zone" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13253 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Large white old styled building with construction in front with a bunch of people walking around and cars, buses busying the street" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-7.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13253" class="wp-caption-text">Still from<em> It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, 1964. St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, with scaffolding still in evidence after cleaning the west wing. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068">National Library of Medicine #101771068</a><br /></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The film contrasts the “black towns” of the industrial North of England where smoke and dirt, chemicals, soot, and corrosive grime particles had damaged the urban environment to the newly planned Clean Air Zones, where gleamingly clean buildings such as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London were granted extensive and costly <span style="white-space: nowrap;">restoration.<a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></span> The clearly visible damage to the built environment is common in films on this subject, largely due to the readily quantifiable economic costs associated with cleaning up the <span style="white-space: nowrap;">problem.<a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></span> However, the film also makes reference to the social injustice of improving the environment in some areas such as the center of London (perhaps for the benefit of the few) to the detriment of mixed industrial/residential zones that already suffered under social and economic pressures, where factories and tenements historically were co-located.</p>
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<h3><strong>“The air was thick with soot”</strong></h3>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-11/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="hand wiping window seal shows the white cloth turned black with dirt" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13257" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-11/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Housewife Wipes the Window Ledge" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>A housewife wipes the window ledge, demonstrating the level of grime present. <br />National Library of Medicine #101771068</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-11.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/child-on-slide/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="a woman picking up her who has dirty pants from a slide." srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13472" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/child-on-slide/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1920,1440" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Mother Picks Up Her Child" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>A mother picks up her child at the bottom of a slide in a playground, finding the light-colored clothing besmirched with grit. <br />National Library of Medicine #101771068</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Child-on-slide.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
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<h5 style="text-align: center;"></h5>
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<h5 style="text-align: center;">Left: a housewife wipes the window ledge, demonstrating the level of grime present. Right: a mother picks up her child at the bottom of a slide in a playground, finding the light-colored clothing besmirched with grit.<br />
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<em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068">National Library of Medicine #101771068</a><br /></em></h5>
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<p>The city of Leeds is a brooding presence in <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>, filmed, in Catterall’s words, in its “mourning <span style="white-space: nowrap;">black.”<a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></span> As a center of the woolen industry, it had prospered with both good transport links and proximity to coal fields, once being home to the largest woolen mill in the world. Subsequently, in the mid-twentieth century, the city experienced rapid economic decline as these industries faltered, although it was still England’s fifth-most populous city. The “scars” of the Industrial Revolution led environmental agencies to comment that peat in the surrounding area is “more acidic than lemon <span style="white-space: nowrap;">juice.”<a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></span> This legacy of relying on fossil fuels in industry as well as in the home was evident in the lungs of the city’s inhabitants as well. As Catterall recounted:</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 40px;">This was my first encounter with the North, and with the industrial pollution of the fifties and sixties. I was shocked. Buildings were black, car lights were necessary in the middle of the day, the air was thick with soot and smelt acrid. Air pollution came not only from factories and hospitals, but also from tens of thousands of domestic chimneys burning coal. Babies were put out in prams, from small back-to-back homes and after a single morning on the pavement, their faces were marked with soot and pram covers were <span style="white-space: nowrap;">filthy.<a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></span></p>
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<h3><strong>The Great Smog and Clean Air</strong></h3>
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<p>Smog (a contraction of “smoke” and “fog”) had been a feature of the urban environment for nearly a century, with smoky chimneys and misty skylines forming the trademark of artistic representations of atmospheric city landscapes (especially of <span style="white-space: nowrap;">London).<a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></span> That was until the “Great Smog” of 1952, which affected the health of many vulnerable people already living with chronic lung conditions. It is widely agreed that this event alone led to at least 4000 people dying immediately, with a further 8000 in the weeks and months <span style="white-space: nowrap;">afterward.<a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></span> These stark statistics led to a turning point when the medical effects of air pollution on health were irrefutable. Improving matters required a paradigm shift in energy usage. As a consequence, the 1956 Clean Air Act in the United Kingdom instituted changes in the use of fossil fuels in industry and the home.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_13346" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13346" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13346" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/5_moh_1961/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?fit=3067%2C1851&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3067,1851" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="5_MoH_1961" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?fit=300%2C181&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?fit=740%2C447&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13346 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-300x181.jpg?resize=300%2C181&ssl=1" alt="house dwellings releasing smoke" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=300%2C181&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=1024%2C618&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=768%2C464&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=1536%2C927&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=2048%2C1236&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=690%2C416&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=1317%2C795&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=800%2C483&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?resize=1400%2C845&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/5_MoH_1961-rotated.jpg?w=2220&ssl=1 2220w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13346" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Medical Health Officer Report for Leeds</em>, 1961. Domestic smoke issuing from dwelling houses, not yet in Smoke Control Area, at Harehills, Leeds. <br /><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fum8b3yk"><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection</em></a><a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p style="outline: none;">Apart from the health implications of polluted air, the other benefits of using cleaner energy, once they became apparent, were also drivers for change. It was clear from the middle of the century that coal reserves in the United Kingdom were being depleted. Mining practices became more labor-intensive and less economically viable. Therefore, there was an incentive to become more fuel-efficient and find less wasteful sources of energy to power the nation in its post-war redevelopment. Cleaner electricity could be generated with modifications to homes and factories by refitting inefficient stoves, boilers and furnaces. This not only delivered economic benefits (in the form of savings), it created a new supply sector for energy-efficient equipment. In turn, the energy sector received an image boost due to the perceived modernity in promoting cleaner energy in the form of gas and <span style="white-space: nowrap;">electricity.<a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></span></p>
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<figure id="attachment_13353" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13353" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13353" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/6_moh_1959/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?fit=3127%2C1826&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3127,1826" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="6_MoH_1959" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Clean Air Exhibition, Corn Exchange, Leeds, from 16th to 18th April, 1959. Medical Officer of Health Report, 1959, Wellcome Collection.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?fit=300%2C175&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?fit=740%2C432&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13353 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-300x175.jpg?resize=300%2C175&ssl=1" alt="crowds of people standing under a smoking area sign" width="300" height="175" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=300%2C175&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=1024%2C598&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=768%2C448&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=1536%2C897&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=2048%2C1196&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=690%2C403&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=1317%2C769&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=800%2C467&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?resize=1400%2C818&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/6_MoH_1959-rotated.jpg?w=2220&ssl=1 2220w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13353" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Medical Officer of Health Report</em>, 18th April 1959. Clean Air Exhibition, Corn Exchange, Leeds. <br /><em><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/b54rujrs">Courtesy Wellcome Collection</a></em><a id="_ednref14" class="anchor" href="#_edn14"><sup>[14]</sup></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p style="outline: none;">Catterall’s autobiography and the bias of the film paint a very negative picture of air pollution in Leeds and what was being done about <span style="white-space: nowrap;">it.<a id="_ednref15" class="anchor" href="#_edn15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></span> Catterall’s writing is suffused with impatience at the pace of progress. Looking at the factual record, Medical Health Officer reports provide detailed analyses of the population of the area (births and deaths), epidemiology as well as health, food safety, and sanitation provision. From 1919, when the Ministry of Health was established in the United Kingdom, local authorities gained more control over the provision of healthcare services to their populations, and Medical Health Officers were mandated to collate and report relevant statistical data. This became standardized across the annual reports submitted to the Ministry. In fact, although air pollution was worrisome in Leeds, something was being done: from 1956, data on air pollution was being tracked, and there was surveillance equipment to monitor the air pollution in the city, regulatory power to create smoke-free zones, to respond to complaints of smoke (or noise) pollution, and levy fines on businesses that were non-compliant.</p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/7a_moh_1958/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="Map Graph of Leeds showing most polluted areas" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13365" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/7a_moh_1958/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?fit=3436%2C3281&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3436,3281" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="City of Leeds Atmospheric Pollution" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p><em>Medical Officer of Health Reports,1958.</em> Map of Atmospheric Pollution showing ‘hot spots’.<a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> <br /><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection.</em> </p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?fit=300%2C286&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7a_MoH_1958.jpg?fit=740%2C707&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/7b_moh_1965/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="line grap4h of the relations of smoke controlled areas and pollution" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13366" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/7b_moh_1965/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?fit=1774%2C3008&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1774,3008" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Effects of Smoke Controlled Areas" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p><em>Medical Officer of Health Reports,1965.</em> Resultant drop in air pollution when homes are brought into Smoke Control Areas.<a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17"><sup>[17]</a><br />
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<br /><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection.</em> </p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?fit=177%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/7b_MoH_1965.jpg?fit=604%2C1024&ssl=1" /></a>
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<h5 style="text-align: center;">Left: <em>Medical Officer of Health Reports, 1958.</em> Map of Atmospheric Pollution showing ‘hot <span style="white-space: nowrap;">spots’.<a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16"><sup>[16] </sup></a></span> Right: <em>Medical Officer of Health Reports,1965.</em> Resultant drop in air pollution when homes are brought into Smoke Control Areas.<a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17"><sup>[17]</sup></a><br />
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<em><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fum8b3yk"><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection</em></a></em></h5>
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<figure id="attachment_13371" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13371" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13371" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/8_moh_1964/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?fit=3003%2C1840&ssl=1" data-orig-size="3003,1840" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="8_MoH_1964" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Automatic apparatus for measuring smoke and sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere showing meter for measurement of air, electric pump, and timing switch, Medical Officer of Health Report, 1964, Wellcome Collection.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?fit=300%2C184&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?fit=740%2C453&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13371 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964.jpg?resize=300%2C184&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="184" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=300%2C184&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=1024%2C627&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=768%2C471&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=1536%2C941&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=2048%2C1255&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=690%2C423&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=1317%2C807&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=800%2C490&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?resize=1400%2C858&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/8_MoH_1964-rotated.jpg?w=2220&ssl=1 2220w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13371" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Medical Officer of Health Report, 1964.<a id="_ednref18" class="anchor" href="#_edn18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> </em>Automatic apparatus for measuring smoke and Sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere showing meter for measurement of air, electric pump, and timing switch. <br /><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/z3qgb7hm"><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection.</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p style="outline: none;">The Leeds Incorporated Chambers of Commerce had been very concerned about all the ramifications of the Clean Air Act and published a supplement on clean air for <em>The Leeds Journal</em> in <span style="white-space: nowrap;">1956.<a id="_ednref19" class="anchor" href="#_edn19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></span> Largely technical in nature it comprised sixteen chapters, and it ran advertisements from purveyors of industrial boilers and domestic heating equipment, with slogans as such as “No Need for ‘Scrubbing’/Towards a Cleaner Atmosphere” (Yorkshire Electricity Board), “Let’s Make This Quite Clear Says Mr. Therm/GAS & Coke End Waste & Smoke” (North Eastern Gas Board), and “Are You Guilty of Atmospheric or Water Pollution?” (Royal Doulton Chemical Stoneware). The supplement was produced with funds from the National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service amongst others and is indicative of the collective effort to improve air <span style="white-space: nowrap;">quality.<a id="_ednref20" class="anchor" href="#_edn20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></span> The anti-pollution lobby was led by the Coal Smoke Abatement Society (CSAS), established in <span style="white-space: nowrap;">1898.<a id="_ednref21" class="anchor" href="#_edn21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></span> Later renamed the National Society for Clean Air (NSCA) when the menace from coal smoke receded, it became more vocal about air pollution from industry and transport. The organization was involved in various environmental concerns until it stopped operating in 2012 (by this time as Environmental Protection UK). The Coal Smoke Abatement Society created propaganda to communicate its message in the form of a quarterly newsletter, <em>Smokeless Air</em>, and various other information resources, but its efforts were very small in changing public opinion.</p>
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<h3><strong>Mary’s Story</strong></h3>
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<p>Mary’s self-published account of her life and career is filled with examples of professional slights and major disagreements with paternalistic, male medical professionals. Her voice, though vehement, is an important testament to the minoritized views of the time of a female clinician working in an overwhelmingly male profession. Mary was born Eileen Mary Williamson in 1922 in England and she began her medical career in 1941 during World War II. Reading between the lines, a career in medicine was not available to her as she did not have the requisite education (she writes that her parents were hoping for a boy, there was already an older female sibling). One profession open to her was physiotherapy: she duly qualified as a physiotherapist in 1943. Unfortunately, she actively disliked the work, but as it was a protected position of national importance, she found herself stuck professionally until after the war whilst she studied for entry exams for medicine via a correspondence course. In 1947, when she entered the London Hospital Medical School, she was only one of seven women in a class of 77, reflecting the gender imbalance in the profession at the time.</p>
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<blockquote><p>Taking a novel approach, Mary developed and patented an improved oxygen delivery mask, the New “MC” Oxygen Mask for “Effective Oxygen Therapy.” (The “MC” denoted her initials.)</p></blockquote>
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<p>Qualifying as a Junior Doctor in 1952, Mary’s first post was as Senior House Officer in the Radiotherapy Department at ‘the London’ (later the Royal London Hospital), a post usually only open to male staff, where she worked with male patients with venereal disease. Her appointment was a reflection of shortages in the profession due to the war. Working in the clinic too was Dr. Duncan Catterall, whom she went on to marry (he later became an eminent venereologist). Mary’s medical career prior to making the film followed a familiar path of gaining experience leading to job progression; she was appointed Junior Registrar and moved on to working with patients with tuberculosis at the London under Dr. Lloyd Rusby, Consultant, and Dr. Colin Ogilvie, Senior Registrar, the latter being the leading expert on respiratory physiology in the UK. Ogilvie had developed new tests in which he analyzed breathing and respiration into discrete functions as well as introducing new drug treatments such as streptomycin. Through Ogilvie, Catterall met Geoffrey Boden with whom she went on to work. He generously granted Mary a platform to talk about their research on tissue damage caused by radiation which was under-researched at the <span style="white-space: nowrap;">time.<a id="_ednref22" class="anchor" href="#_edn22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></span> However, Boden, a heavy smoker, died suddenly in 1957 and her enthusiasm for this research waned without his mentorship, so in 1959, she willingly relocated to Leeds when Duncan took up the post of Consultant in Charge of the Genito-Urinary Medicine Department at Leeds General Infirmary. Throughout Mary’s career, the shifts in clinical discipline and geography were due to following her husband from London to Leeds and then back again. While this seems distinctly unmodern today, she did reflect upon how it was natural at the <span style="white-space: nowrap;">time.<a id="_ednref23" class="anchor" href="#_edn23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></span></p>
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<p>In 1960, after a year in Leeds, Mary secured the post of Senior Registrar in Respiratory Medicine at the hospital. Catterall brought her clinical experience of caring for patients with severe lung conditions to her new position. One of the things she observed in her new role was the deficiency in the delivery of oxygen to those patients with severe breathing problems. Catterall’s clinical knowledge was a catalyst for her drive to improve the health and well-being of the patients in her care—an approach evident throughout her career. Taking a novel approach, Mary developed and patented an improved oxygen delivery mask, the New “MC” Oxygen Mask for “Effective Oxygen Therapy.” (The “MC” denoted her initials.)</p>
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<p>No one initially wanted to invest in her design, although her archives reveal that the organization British Oxygen was interested. This is an example of how her gender appeared to mitigate against being taken seriously. However, displaying tenacity, she had taken the precaution of securing a temporary patent and then, before the patent expired and her design was at risk of plagiarism or theft, the Royal Army Medical Corps placed a large order. The lightweight design made the mask well-suited to being used in combat situations. In fact, the masks were used on the battlefields in the Falklands War in 1982, which, according to Catterall, resulted in no British soldiers dying of their injuries largely due to the importance of oxygenating the blood, vital to life.</p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/9b_pp_cat_sm/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="The newmc oxygen mask bag with a description on it" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13376" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/9b_pp_cat_sm/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="900,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"1.9","credit":"","camera":"SM-A202F","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1584187046","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.6","iso":"160","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="New Oxygen Mask" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=225%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9b_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=740%2C987&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/9a_pp_cat_sm/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="a paper guide to effectively use an oxygen mask" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13377" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/9a_pp_cat_sm/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=980%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="980,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"1.9","credit":"","camera":"SM-A202F","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1584187032","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.6","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Effective Oxygen Therapy Guide" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=245%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/9a_PP_CAT_sm.jpg?fit=740%2C906&ssl=1" /></a>
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<h5 style="text-align: center;">A mask developed and patented by Dr. Mary Catterall (Dr. Mary Catterall PP/CAT, <em><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fum8b3yk"><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection</em></a></em>).</h5>
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<p> </p>
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<h3><strong>“Where there’s muck there’s brass”<a id="_ednref24" class="anchor" href="#_edn24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></strong></h3>
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<p>What does require some critical thought is whether, as Catterall suggests, in some small way, <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em> contributed to or perhaps even began the transformation of Leeds into, in her own words, the “smart and sparkling” place it is <span style="white-space: nowrap;">now.<a id="_ednref25" class="anchor" href="#_edn25"><sup>[25]</sup></a></span> Unfortunately, the film’s distribution history in Leeds is unknown. The British Medical Association acquired a print when it was entered in their annual film competition in 1964. The films in the library were available to members, but the distribution history of these prints has been lost. Mary would have known about the Medical Officer of Health reports produced by Leeds City as her husband, Duncan Catterall, reported on venereal disease in the area in his capacity as Physician in Charge at Leeds General Infirmary. Additionally, the Chief Public Health Inspector for Leeds City, Mr. J. Goodfellow, was elected on numerous occasions to the Chair of the National Society for Clean Air (successor to the National Coal Abatement Society), and this organization is acknowledged in the final credits of the film. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the film contributed to the urgent debate around the medical effects of pollution by a compassionate clinician who found herself on the frontline of what looked like a medical emergency. As Catterall recalled:</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 40px;">I attacked the urban pollution, particularly of Leeds with my usual frontal assault—I talked graphically and frequently to doctors, city councilors, trade unions, to administrators, anyone who would listen, and to those who would have preferred not to. Reading now, some of the articles I wrote and lectures I gave, I am surprised that we had as many friends as in fact we did.</p>
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<p>Catterall’s campaigning activity was picked up by the press: “Equating Muck with Brass Condemned, Plea for Clean Chimneys” (Guardian October 1963); “The Air We Breathe in Leeds Is Dangerous Says Woman Doctor” (Yorkshire Evening Post) However, according to Mary, her mother-in-law told her that, it was “a pity to be so emphatic about it.” Her response was that, “I saw only the illness and pain it was causing!”</p>
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<h3><strong>“Many bronchitics sit at home too breathless to work”</strong></h3>
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<p>Class, as indicated in the commentary to the film, was also a factor in the level of occupational and ambient exposure to environmental <span style="white-space: nowrap;">pollution.<a id="_ednref26" class="anchor" href="#_edn26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></span> Official social classifications of British citizens by occupation and industry had been in place since the mid-1800s; Social Class Five (V) or unskilled occupations mentioned in the film, generally lived in urban polluted locations, whereas Social Class One (I) or professional occupations lived in the countryside or outskirts of cities with access to green spaces. These generalizations of the probable health effects of geography can be backed up with historical scientific data as recordings had been taken about the effect of air pollution on plants in and around <span style="white-space: nowrap;">Leeds.<a id="_ednref27" class="anchor" href="#_edn27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></span></p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-14/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="Mans Daily Requirements: Air 15,000 litres, Oxygen 3,000 litres, Water 2 litres" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13260" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-14/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Man’s Daily Requirements" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p><em>Man’s daily requirements (with air top)</em> <br />National Library of Medicine #101771068</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-14.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-13/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="fossilized lungs in a clear box" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 50w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?zoom=2&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?zoom=3&resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" data-attachment-id="13259" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/breath-13/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Dirt Lodged in Our Lungs Permanently" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>The black lung (far right) from a townsman, the lighter-colored lungs (middle) from the countryman<br />National Library of Medicine #101771068</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-13.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
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<h5 style="text-align: center;">Stills from <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em>; Left, Man’s daily requirements (with air top). Right; the black lung (far right) from a townsman, the lighter-colored lungs (middle) from the countryman<br />
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<em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068">National Library of Medicine #101771068</a><br /></em></h5>
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<figure id="attachment_13268" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13268" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13268" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/breath_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2048,1536" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Wheezing Coughs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13268 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Breath_Main.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13268" class="wp-caption-text">Film still showing James Holmes, an ex-miner, looking older than his 58 years, who can no longer work and has his quality of life significantly reduced due to his breathing problems. He describes his pain, breathlessness, sleeplessness, and overall malaise. <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068"><em>National Library of Medicine #101771068</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The film demonstrates how on a microscopic level tissue damage is also evident. In total, the environmental load from particulates on a city dweller is exceptionally high due to exposure to a cocktail of poisons. The film’s commentary mentions that pollution was implicated in 30,000 deaths annually in the UK due to a myriad of lung conditions—this is out of a net population of just under 54 million people. The scale of mortality is stark compared to that currently of COVID-19 in the <span style="white-space: nowrap;">UK.<a id="_ednref28" class="anchor" href="#_edn28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></span> There is growing anger in the scientific community about the mounting evidence base relating to the outcomes of people recovering from COVID-19 and air <span style="white-space: nowrap;">pollution.<a id="_ednref29" class="anchor" href="#_edn29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></span></p>
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<p>Switching pace, at seven minutes into the film, the narrative takes us into the clinic to discover the patient experience. Catterall’s knowledge as a clinician and as the medical adviser to the film gave the student filmmakers access to powerful patient testimonies. Catterall does not provide much in the way of detail to the production process, which she expresses here in brisk and somewhat clinical terms; “I met some film making students who wanted a theme. I wanted some filmmakers to make a film. We <span style="white-space: nowrap;">collaborated.”<a id="_ednref30" class="anchor" href="#_edn30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></span> The patient case study is a frequent cinematic trope in medical films and has an important stylistic function as it underpins the injustices in the film. Catterall provides a moving insight into the lived reality of chronic medical conditions that negatively impact health and well-being. In the film, this takes the form of insight into the life of James Holmes, an ex-miner who at 58 years old cannot work and has a poor quality of life. Catterall admitted that for some bad cases, “iron lung” respirators were deployed to ease breathing at night—treatment usually associated with use in treatment for respiratory paralysis caused by polio and rapidly becoming redundant with the introduction of successful vaccines for the poliovirus. Catterall described how this treatment revealed a systemic flaw with air quality inside hospitals, “I had a patient with severe respiratory disease who had to go into an ‘iron lung,’ as respirators were then called, during the night. In the morning her neck and the cotton wool surrounding it were covered in soot from the air in the <span style="white-space: nowrap;">ward.”<a id="_ednref31" class="anchor" href="#_edn31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></span> Hospitals were exempt from complying with the Clean Air Act. They were not compelled to modernize their energy use yet produced significant amounts of particulate-based air pollution.</p>
|
||
<h3><strong>“Devastatingly dangerous to the lungs”</strong></h3>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_13379" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13379" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13379" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/12_it-takes-your-breath-away/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=1444%2C1077&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1444,1077" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1604517285","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="12_It takes your breath away" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Still from the film showing hospital equipment covered in grime; a hand helpfully draws an X in the smut [00:09:31], Wellcome Collection. </p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=300%2C224&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?fit=740%2C552&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13379 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away-300x224.jpg?resize=300%2C224&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=300%2C224&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=1024%2C764&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=768%2C573&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=690%2C515&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=1317%2C982&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=800%2C597&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?resize=1400%2C1044&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/12_It-takes-your-breath-away.jpg?w=1444&ssl=1 1444w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13379" class="wp-caption-text">Film still showing hospital equipment covered in grime; a hand helpfully draws an X in the smut. <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068"><em>National Library of Medicine #101771068</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>Back in London in 1965, Mary published her reports on respiratory-function tests in miners from her clinic in <span style="white-space: nowrap;">Leeds.<a id="_ednref32" class="anchor" href="#_edn32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></span> It was a landmark study. Her findings were contrary to received orthodoxies and called into question the assessment of lung disease in miners. She was critical of the criteria to determine eligibility for compensation used by the Medical Research Council’s Pneumoconiosis Research Unit, based in Wales. She considered mining to be “devastatingly dangerous to the lungs.” Hitherto, only shadows on the lungs visible in x-rays granted eligibility for statutory compensation, which was critical in providing financial support for men of working age, many of whom had families to support. Catterall identified other physiological markers relating to lung function applicable across the patients referred to her, thereby finessing the effects down to an unprecedentedly discrete scale (in the film, she demonstrates an instrument for such identification at about seven minutes in). Her role as clinician was therefore to provide relief to her patients (if possible), but also to prove that their exposure was industrial and inadvertent.</p>
|
||
<p>There were other researchers working in this field, such as an MRC Unit working on Air <span style="white-space: nowrap;">Pollution,<a id="_ednref33" class="anchor" href="#_edn33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></span> established in 1952 after the “Great Smog” but the source of the statistics quoted in the film was probably from The National Society for Clean Air. Statistics have bedeviled the environmental policy and lobbying sectors; measurements are clearly important, but their attendant interpretation has been controversial. This Unit demonstrated a direct relationship between levels of smoke, Sulphur dioxide, and chronic bronchitis, producing a series of studies that had been influential in underpinning the Clean Air Act.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_13250" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13250" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13250" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/breath-4/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Deep Breath Test" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Still from It Takes Your Breath Away of Catterall in the respiratory clinic testing lung function in a patient, a hospital employee who was formerly an anaesthetic assistant but who had to find a less physically demanding position in the hospital due to his breathing difficulties (the inference is that this was caused by exposure to environmental pollution in the hospital) <em>National Library of Medicine #101771068</em></p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13250 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4-1024x768.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1" alt="woman using a machine on a man that has his mouth on a stick connected to tube connected to the box like machine." width="740" height="555" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breath-4.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13250" class="wp-caption-text">Still from <em>It Takes Your Breath Away</em> of Catterall in the respiratory clinic testing lung function in a patient, a hospital employee who was formerly an anesthetic assistant but who had to find a less physically demanding position in the hospital due to his breathing difficulties (the inference is that this was caused by exposure to environmental pollution in the hospital) <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101771068"><em>National Library of Medicine #101771068</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<h3><strong>A “Sore Point”?<a id="_ednref34" class="anchor" href="#_edn34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> </strong></h3>
|
||
<p>What did Mary do next? After Catterall followed her husband back to London, she took up the position of Senior Registrar in Radiation Oncology, Middlesex Hospital. Later, she became a consultant in charge of the Fast Neutron Clinic, Hammersmith Hospital, until 1987. Neutron therapy was an experimental cancer treatment; neutrons were delivered in a high energy beam, causing a different biological effect to radiotherapy. The MRC-funded research into regressing, hard-to-treat tumors was not without controversy due to its cost; the press lambasted it as poor value in light of the limited test data. An editorial column on medicine in <em>The Times</em>, ‘Sore Point’ by Dr. Thomas Stuttaford, cited the <em>British Medical Journal</em>’s assessment of the project as “a dangerous white elephant”. This was because the Conservative Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, had green-lit the project without consultation with the wider scientific and medical communities. The project is another example of Catterall working in a contentious area of medicine (here radiotherapy) and demonstrating her humanity by going against the orthodoxies at the time in the interests of her patients. From the clinic, Catterall wrote movingly about the significant impact of treating people living with these cancers and how the treatment gave them back their dignity by prolonging their lives in meaningful ways even though her clinic only received the most hopeless cases. The treatment allowed people to live the life they wanted, rather than the one that they thought they had been dealt, after a terminal cancer diagnosis.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_13387" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13387" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13387" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/14_4695v_sm/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?fit=1600%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"1.9","credit":"","camera":"SM-A202F","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1584369250","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.6","iso":"125","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="14_4695V_sm" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Mobile phone shot from a TV monitor of Dr. Mary Catterall taken from Neutron Therapy Celebrates 25 Years of Service, 2001, Video News 84, Wellcome Collection.</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-13387 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="an old television with an old lady (Dr. Mary Catterall) on it" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/14_4695V_sm.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13387" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hy7xbm6h">Neutron Therapy Celebrates 25 Years of Service, 2001</a><sup><a id="_ednref35" class="anchor" href="#_edn35">[35]</a></sup>, Mobile phone shot from a TV monitor of Dr. Mary Catterall taken from Video News 84, <br /><em><a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fum8b3yk"><em>Courtesy Wellcome Collection</em></a></em></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p style="outline: none;">The narrative of cities as unhealthy places to live in is all too familiar: yet cities are where, for various economic, financial, and social reasons, many of us are compelled to live. As climate change and environmental breakdown caused by human activity pose increasing threats to human health worldwide, planetary health is even more important because our health depends on the state of our planet, which is affected by our actions. How, therefore, can we make our cities good places to live? The film analyzed in this essay, a lesson from history, is illustrative of how social activism in the medical community, when professional and personal interests work in unison, can drive change in making our cities healthier places to live.</p>
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;" data-darkreader-inline-border-top="" data-darkreader-inline-border-right="" data-darkreader-inline-border-bottom="" data-darkreader-inline-border-left="">
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td style="--darkreader-inline-bgcolor: #1e2021;" bgcolor="#f5f5f5" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">
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<div class="insert">
|
||
<p><span style="color: black;" data-darkreader-inline-color="">Angela Saward has been working with audiovisual archives for many years, researching, licensing, and managing the curatorial lifecycle of audio, film, and video. Currently, she is Research Development Specialist (Moving Image and Sound), Wellcome Collection, London, working with Wellcome’s unique and distinctive collections across many formats, supporting colleagues and cross-cultural partners, with a special emphasis on the audiovisual. She serves on the Steering Group for <a href="https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/">London’s Screen Archives</a> and is an active member of <a href="https://www.focalint.org/">FOCAL</a> and <a href="https://amianet.org/">AMIA</a>. She has a business master’s MA MTA and a first degree in English Literature.</span></p>
|
||
<p>Angela has collaborated with NLM staff for many years, presenting joint talks on NLM and Wellcome films that share thematic, stylistic, and other elements. Past topics include screening the body, medical travelogues, environmental foci, and hidden collections.</p>
|
||
</div>
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</td>
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||
</tr>
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||
</tbody>
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||
</table>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
|
||
<p>Bryant, Gerard. “Guilty Chimneys.” <em>BFI Player</em>. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-guilty-chimneys-1954-online">https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-guilty-chimneys-1954-online</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Carrington, Damian. “Tiny Air Pollution Rise Linked to 11% More Covid-19 Deaths – Study.” <em>The Guardian</em>. Guardian News and Media, November 4, 2020. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/tiny-air-pollution-rise-linked-to-11-more-covid-19-deaths-study?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/tiny-air-pollution-rise-linked-to-11-more-covid-19-deaths-study?CMP=share_btn_link</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Catterall, Mary. <em>“Better for Seeing You”: Reflections of a Doctor, Sculptor and Encourager</em>. London: Mary Catterall, 2012.</p>
|
||
<p>“Clean Air Act 1956.” <em>Wikipedia</em>. Wikimedia Foundation, December 12, 2020. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956</a>.</p>
|
||
<p><em>Clean Air: Supplement to the Leeds Journal, September 1956: a Survey of the Clean Air Act, 1956, with Some Indications of How Its Requirements May Be Met</em>. Leeds: Leeds Incorporated Chamber of Commerce, 1956.</p>
|
||
<p>Corton, Christine L. <em>London Fog: The Biography</em>. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018.</p>
|
||
<p>“The History of Leeds – Cotton, Wool, Flax, Linen and the Industrial Revolution.” Aireborough Civic Society. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="http://www.aireboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/history/the-history-of-leeds-cotton-wool-flax-linen-and-the-industrial-revolution">http://www.aireboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/history/the-history-of-leeds-cotton-wool-flax-linen-and-the-industrial-revolution</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>“Independent Engineering and Energy Consultants.” Nifes. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="http://www.nifes.co.uk/">http://www.nifes.co.uk/</a></p>
|
||
<p>Jones, Emma M. M. “Air Pollution Research in Britain C.1955-C.2000: the Transcript of a Witness Seminar Held by the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London, on 19 May 2015 / Edited by EM Jones, C Overy and EM Tansey.” Museum. London, 2016. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tp6arpuu">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tp6arpuu</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Marsh, Arnold. <em>Smoke: the Problem of Coal and the Atmosphere</em>. London: Faber and Faber, 1947.</p>
|
||
<p>Pathé, British. “Air Pollution.” The world’s finest news and entertainment video film archive. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="https://www.britishpathe.com/video/air-pollution/query/AirPollution">https://www.britishpathe.com/video/air-pollution/query/AirPollution</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>“Radio 4 – Last Word.” <em>BBC</em>. BBC. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_27mar2009.shtml">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_27mar2009.shtml</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Rose, David. Issue brief. Edited by Nigel Gilbert. <em>Official Social Classifications in the UK</em>. Guildford, UK, 1995.</p>
|
||
<p>“Take Your Breath Away: Meaning in the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary.” <em>Cambridge Dictionary</em>. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/take-your-breath-away">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/take-your-breath-away</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Taylor, John. “Smoke Menace.” <em>BFI Player</em>. Accessed December 31, 2020. <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-smoke-menace-1937-online">https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-smoke-menace-1937-online</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Thorsheim, Peter. <em>INVENTING POLLUTION: Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain since 1800</em>. 1st ed. Series in Ecology and History. S.l.: Ohio University Press, 2006.</p>
|
||
<p>Wu, X., Nethery, R. C., Sabath, M. B., Braun, D. and Dominici, F., 2020. “Air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: Strengths and limitations of an ecological regression analysis.” <em>Science advances</em>, 6(45), p.eabd4049.</p>
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||
<hr />
|
||
<div class="footnotes">
|
||
<h3>Notes</h3>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> The film was already held at Wellcome due to an accession from the British Medical Association in 2006, when the organization donated their film collection there.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> Catterall was aware that the film was in the collection and this could have been a contributory factor for the donation of her archives (she died in 2015). The writer spoke to Mary Catterall briefly prior to the donation; the conversation was an acknowledgement that Wellcome Collection held her film.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3] </a><a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/take-your-breath-away">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/take-your-breath-away</a></p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> Martin went on to become a BBC Radio 4 newsreader and announcer. Martin had trained as a medical photographer, which perhaps is how his path crossed with Catterall’s; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_27mar2009.shtml">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_27mar2009.shtml</a></p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> Coal smoke contains particles of Sulphur dioxide, which combined with rainwater creates acid rain.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> <em>The Smoke Menace</em> (British Commercial Gas Association, 1937) depicts the growth of the “dirt” trades such as window cleaning in Westminster, London [00:03:55]; a structural engineer inspects a historic building and explains the costs of the damage [00:04:31] <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-guilty-chimneys-1954-online">https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-smoke-menace-1937-online</a>. In Guilty Chimneys (Gas Council, 1954) <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-smoke-menace-1937-online">https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-guilty-chimneys-1954-online</a> [commentary at 00:04:49]; a cleaned building stands out “like a bride at a funeral.” The film also acknowledges the relationship between “spirit and health” as well as showing photographic evidence of stonework damaged by pollution [00:07:15]. Environmental pollution damage to buildings is described as “social vandalism towards an irreplaceable heritage.” [00:11:00]</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn7" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> Mary Catterall, <em>“Better for seeing you”: reflections of a doctor, sculptor and encourager</em>, self-published, 2012? p. 73.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> <a href="http://www.aireboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/history/the-history-of-leeds-cotton-wool-flax-linen-and-the-industrial-revolution">http://www.aireboroughcivicsociety.org.uk/history/the-history-of-leeds-cotton-wool-flax-linen-and-the-industrial-revolution</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> Mary Catterall, ibid., pp. 69-70</p>
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<p><a id="_edn10" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> See Christine L. Corton, <em>London Fog, The Biography</em> (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2015).</p>
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<p><a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> Temperature is a key contemporaneous factor leading to so-called adverse temperature-inversion pollution events. The London smog was caused by a period of low temperature with very little wind that cloaked the city in thick smog for four days. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn12" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> <em>Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Report 1961</em>, Wellcome Collection. p. 269/312 digitized pages [unnumbered photograph, inserted between physical pps. 236-7]. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fum8b3yk">[Report 1961] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> Both Britain’s nuclear and hydro-electric power industries were in their infancy; the first nuclear power plant at Sellafield was operational from 1956 and the first hydro-electric dam in Ffestiniog, north-west Wales, in 1963.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn14" href="#_ednref14">[14]</a> <em>Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Report 1959</em>, Wellcome Collection. p. 274/284 digitized pages [unnumbered photograph, inserted between physical pps. 222-3]. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/b54rujrs">[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn15" href="#_ednref15">[15]</a> Peter Thorsheim, <em>Inventing Pollution: Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain since 1800</em> (Ohio University Press, 2006) pp. 121-2; The regulation of air pollution in Leeds was described as “lackadaisical” in the early years of the twentieth century due to the lack of trained personnel to carry out tests and the influence of the manufacturing lobby.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn16" href="#_ednref16">[16]</a> <em>Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Report 1958</em>, Wellcome Collection. 235/288 digitized pages [unnumbered map, inserted between physical pps. 204-5]. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/nkwvmc6e">[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn17" href="#_ednref17">[17]</a> <em>Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Report 1965</em>, Wellcome Collection. 237/284 digitized pages [unnumbered diagram, inserted between physical pps. 210-1]. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/njaqedm2">[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn18" href="#_ednref18">[18]</a> <em>Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Report 1964</em>, Wellcome Collection. 233/286 digitized images [unnumbered photograph, inserted between physical pps. 208-9]. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/z3qgb7hm">[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn19" href="#_ednref19">[19]</a> Leeds Incorporated Chamber of Commerce, 1956. <em>Clean air: supplement to the Leeds Journal, September, 1956: a survey of the Clean Air Act, 1956, with some indications of how its requirements may be met</em>. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/wsn5jdbg">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/wsn5jdbg</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn20" href="#_ednref20">[20]</a> The organization existed as a non-profit sponsored by the Ministry of Fuel until 1970; thereafter it became a private body and still exists as Nifes Consulting Group: <a href="http://www.nifes.co.uk/">http://www.nifes.co.uk/ </a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn21" href="#_ednref21">[21]</a> Archives from the organization are held at Wellcome Collection, SA/EPU.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn22" href="#_ednref22">[22]</a> Geoffrey Boden’s last published paper from 1955 was on “The Patient and the Röntgen” in <em>The British Journal of Radiology</em>; <a href="https://www.birpublications.org/doi/abs/10.1259/0007-1285-28-336-677">https://www.birpublications.org/doi/abs/10.1259/0007-1285-28-336-677</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn23" href="#_ednref23">[23]</a> Mary Catterall, ibid., p. 69; “I suppose nowadays, I would not have accepted a complete change of career, and I would have worked in London, while Duncan was in Leeds and we would have met at weekends in, say Grantham. But even in “now” time, I think I would have found that a silly arrangement of our lives.”</p>
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<p><a id="_edn24" href="#_ednref24">[24]</a> The phrase “where there’s muck, there’s brass” (also used as a chapter heading by Catterall in her autobiography) harks back to the fortunes made in the Industrial Revolution by coal, textile, and woolen merchants from the city (perhaps referring to their fancy brass buttons), and the awe in with which citizens viewed this wealth.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn25" href="#_ednref25">[25]</a> Mary Catterall, ibid., p. 73</p>
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<p><a id="_edn26" href="#_ednref26">[26]</a> <em>Official Social Classifications in the UK</em>, David Rose, 1995, <a href="https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU9.html">https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU9.html</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn27" href="#_ednref27">[27]</a> Arnold Marsh, <em>Smoke: The Problem of Coal and the Atmosphere</em> (London, Faber & Faber, 1947), p. 81. Trees three miles north of Leeds had 158 mgm./sq. metre of soot deposits and were evergreen and flowered. But in industrial Leeds, there were 1620 mgm soot deposits, and the leaves fell in November. Another sorry tale relates to experimental cabbages; in Westwood Lane eight out of nine survived the winter, but in the more urban districts of Park Square and Hunslet they were all dead by the end of November and October respectively.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn28" href="#_ednref28">[28]</a> UK COVID-19 related deaths are 75,024 from a population of 66.65 Million, January 2021; 0.11% of population versus 0.59% from bronchitis-related deaths in 1952.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn29" href="#_ednref29">[29]</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/tiny-air-pollution-rise-linked-to-11-more-covid-19-deaths-study?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/tiny-air-pollution-rise-linked-to-11-more-covid-19-deaths-study?CMP=share_btn_link</a> The article links to a peer reviewed study by X. Wu, R. C. Nethery, M. B. Sabath, D. Braun, and F. Dominici, “Air Pollution and COVID-19 Mortality in the United States: Strengths and Limitations of an Ecological Regression Analysis,” <em>Science Advances</em>, 6, no. 45 (2020): p.eabd4049. <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm">https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn30" href="#_ednref30">[30]</a> Mary Catterall, ibid., p.72-3</p>
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<p><a id="_edn31" href="#_ednref31">[31]</a> Ibid., p.70</p>
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<p><a id="_edn32" href="#_ednref32">[32]</a> Mary Catterall and I. Hunter, “Results of Respiratory-Function Tests in Miners” in <em>The Lancet</em>, ISSN: 0140-6736, Vol: 285, Issue: 7377, Page: 154-158 <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(65)91108-6/fulltext">https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(65)91108-6/fulltext</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn33" href="#_ednref33">[33]</a> The work of the unit is treated with some levity in this cinemagazine news item from British Pathé, 1968, <a href="https://www.britishpathe.com/video/air-pollution/query/Air+Pollution">https://www.britishpathe.com/video/air-pollution/query/Air+Pollution</a> with individuals from the unit inhaling carbon monoxide and cigarette smoke for experimental purposes. Further information about the operation of the unit is explained in <em>Air pollution research in Britain c.1955-c.2000 : the transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London, on 19 May 2015 / edited by EM Jones, C Overy and EM Tansey.</em> <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tp6arpuu">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tp6arpuu</a></p>
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<p><a id="_edn34" href="#_ednref34">[34]</a> Thomas Stuttaford, (1989) ‘Sore point’, <em>Times</em>, 05 Jan, 9, available: <a href="https://0-link-gale-com.catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/apps/doc/IF0500000422/TTDA?u=wellcome&sid=TTDA&xid=4b223e30">https://0-link-gale-com.catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/apps/doc/IF0500000422/TTDA?u=wellcome&sid=TTDA&xid=4b223e30</a> [accessed 22 Dec 2020].</p>
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||
<p><a id="_edn35" href="#_ednref35">[35]</a> <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hy7xbm6h">Neutron therapy celebrates 25 years of service. | Wellcome Collection</a></p>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2021/02/01/air-pollution-is-a-human-problem-mary-catteralls-campaign-for-clean-air-in-leeds-england/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">13211</post-id> </item>
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<title>Darkening Day: Air Pollution Films and Environmental Awareness, 1960–1972</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/</link>
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[lmthan]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2020 11:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Animation]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Air]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Airlie Productions]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Climate]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Fossil Fuels]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Industry]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Pollution]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Public Health Service]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Waste]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Water]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=12579</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By Jennifer Lynn Peterson, PhD<br><br>
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The 1960s represent a turning point in popular awareness about environmental problems. The modern environmental movement that emerged in the mid-1960s and early ‘70s focused on a new set of concerns such as air pollution, water pollution, and pesticides. More federal environmental bills were signed in the 1960s and early 1970s than at any other period in U.S. history.
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Jennifer Lynn Peterson, PhD (Professor, Woodbury University, Department of Communication)</p>
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<p><!--IMAGE SIZES IN THIS SECTION ADJUSTED TO 220X173 TO ADAPT FOR LONGER TITLE TEXT--></p>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/">Beware the Wind<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12641" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/beware_main-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main-1.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Beware_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main-1.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main-1.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12641" title="Beware the Wind" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main-1-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Cars in a junkyard sit next to factory smokestacks." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/countdown-to-collision/">Countdown to Collision<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12642" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/countdown_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Countdown_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Countdown_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Countdown_main.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Countdown_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12642" title="Countdown to Collision" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Countdown_main-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="Boys march with signs that read The End" width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/dont-leave-it-all-to-the-experts/">Don’t Leave It All to the Experts<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12637" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/experts_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Experts_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Experts_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Experts_main.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Experts_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12637" title="Don't Leave it All to the Experts" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Experts_main-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A man stands to speak at a microphone in a public meeting." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/public-enemy/">Public Enemy<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12638" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/public_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Public_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Public_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Public_main.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Public_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12638" title="Public Enemy" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Public_main-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A coffee table with Public Enemy written on it." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/">The Run Around<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12639" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/runaround_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="RunAround_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12639" title="Run Around" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RunAround_main-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="An animated scene in which a tall slick man grins at a small pale grumpy man." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/sources-of-air-pollution/">Sources of Air Pollution<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12640" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/sources_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sources_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Sources_main" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sources_main.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sources_main.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-12640" title="Sources of Air Pollution" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sources_main-300x230.jpg?resize=220%2C173&ssl=1" alt="A landscape of an urban industrial area." width="220" height="173" /></a></div>
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<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n September 1970, the newsletter for the community of the National Institutes of Health, the <em>NIH Record</em>, published a review of <em>The Darkening Day</em>, an exhibition produced by the National Library of Medicine. The show drew from popular media accounts of the contemporary environmental crisis.</p>
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<p>In examining these historic films, Dr Jennifer Peterson brings forward the work of scientists and others in the Public Health Service, and how their findings and priorities shaped health policies and public communications during the era.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_13064" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13064" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="13064" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?fit=1468%2C1200&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1468,1200" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Rachel Carson at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1950<br />
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Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives, Connecticut College. Photograph by Edwin Gray.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?fit=300%2C245&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?fit=740%2C605&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-13064" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=300%2C245&ssl=1" alt="A woman in a skirt an blouse sits on a railing over water holding binoculars." width="300" height="245" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=300%2C245&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=1024%2C837&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=768%2C628&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=690%2C564&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=1317%2C1077&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=800%2C654&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?resize=1400%2C1144&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rachel-carson_at_woods_hole_3_1950.jpg?w=1468&ssl=1 1468w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-13064" class="wp-caption-text">Rachel Carson at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1950<br /><em>Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives, Connecticut College, photograph by Edwin Gray</em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The 1960s represent a turning point in popular awareness about environmental problems. While the first wave of conservationist ideas and US government policy (dating back to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century) was concerned with wildlife and land use, centering on wilderness preservation and the formation of the national parks, the modern environmental movement that emerged in the mid-1960s and early-1970s focused on a new set of concerns such as air pollution, water pollution, and pesticides. This shift is in part due to the influence of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book <em>Silent Spring</em>, which is often credited with initiating the modern environmental movement. A groundswell of activism and federal environmental legislation followed in its wake: more federal environmental bills were signed in the 1960s and early 1970s than at any other period in U.S. history. Lyndon Johnson authorized the first federal regulation on air pollution with the Clean Air Act of 1963, followed by expansions authorized by Air Quality Acts in 1966 and 1967. This legislation was expanded by Richard Nixon, who created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and who signed a significantly expanded Clean Air Act in 1970. As environmental historian Scott Hamilton Dewey writes, “[i]n addition to the prominence of air pollution among environmentalists and the general public, it also was one of the key issues, perhaps even the single leading issue, driving federal environmental policy during the late 1960s.”<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Air pollution was certainly not a new problem in the 1960s (urban air pollution dates back hundreds of years), but it became a newly urgent topic in this period.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12673" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12673" style="width: 191px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12673" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/free-films-on-air-pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?fit=468%2C736&ssl=1" data-orig-size="468,736" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Free Films on Air Pollution pamphlet cover, 1967" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Free Films on Air Pollution pamphlet cover, 1967</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?fit=191%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?fit=468%2C736&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12673 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967-191x300.png?resize=191%2C300&ssl=1" alt="" width="191" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?resize=191%2C300&ssl=1 191w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Free-Films-on-Air-Pollution-pamphlet-cover-1967.png?w=468&ssl=1 468w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12673" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Free Films on Air Pollution</em> pamphlet cover, 1967 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/0113642">National Library of Medicine #0113642</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>This essay considers six films about air pollution held by the National Library of Medicine that were produced or supported by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) between 1960–1972. Air pollution in the 1960s was specifically handled by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (known as HEW, it was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services in 1979, when it split off from the newly formed Department of Education). Other forms of pollution were handled by other Departments: water pollution fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, while pesticides were handled by the Department of Agriculture, for example. This organizational logic explains why so many films about air pollution were made by the PHS, a division of the HEW. While many government agencies produced multimedia educational materials, including motion pictures, the particular confluence of education and air pollution in the HEW may have encouraged the production of more films on air pollution than on other environmental issues in the 1960s.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_12628" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12628" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12628" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/beware_10/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="An Airlie Production" data-image-description="<p>An Airlie Production text on top of an image with fire</p>
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" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12628 size-large" title="An Airlie Production" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10-1024x768.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1" alt="An Airlie Production text on top of an image with fire" width="740" height="555" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_10.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12628" class="wp-caption-text">Closing credits for <em>Beware the Wind</em>, 1967 <br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465310"><em>National Library of Medicine #101465310</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The first five films I discuss focus on air pollution; the last title I discuss, released in 1972, addresses environmental concerns more generally. Co-produced by the PHS and a range of commercial and nonprofit institutions, these films reflect an era in which the government took a leading role in educating the public about environmental health threats. Multimedia approaches to public education were newly important in this period. In order to educate the public about air pollution, the PHS joined forces with commercial companies such as Westinghouse, nonprofit film production companies such as Airlie Productions, educational institutions such as the George Washington University Medical Center, and nonprofit organizations such as the National Tuberculosis Association (now the American Lung Association). With the exception of the first title I discuss here, which was shown on television, these 16mm films would have been shown in what was then known as the “nontheatrical” distribution circuit of schools, libraries, public halls, churches, and other venues outside the commercial motion picture theaters. As a 1960 government film catalog explained, “Generally speaking, government agencies use several different methods in distributing, nontheatrically, their films throughout the United States.… In so doing, the government is following the same patterns as most educational and industrial film producers who use, in variation and combination, different loan, rental, and sales outlets.”<a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in such nontheatrical films, as scholars have begun to account for the wide influence and vast number of educational films that were produced and distributed from the 1920s to the 1980s.<a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p>
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<blockquote><p>Scientific consensus today has formed around the idea that human actions have affected Earth Systems to such a degree that we have left the Holocene epoch and entered a new epoch known as the Anthropocene.</p></blockquote>
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<p>These six films illustrate some of the ways environmentalist discourse changed across the 1960s and into the early 1970s. All of the films frame air pollution as a problem caused by human industry, and all argue that pollution can be controlled by federal and state regulation, along with personal actions. But the titles from 1960–62 present an official, serious tone, addressing air pollution as a public health issue that citizens must be educated about. In the films made later in the decade, we see the emergence of a countercultural critique of post-World War II consumerism and waste. The last title I discuss, <em>Countdown to Collision </em>(1972)<em>, </em>reflects a broader environmentalist rhetoric characteristic of the environmental movement after 1970. The first Earth Day in 1970 is heralded by environmental historians as a turning point in popular environmentalism, the moment in which individual issues such as air and water pollution coalesced into a single vision of environmentalism as a network of interconnected concerns.<a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> By the 1970s, what had been presented as a matter of public health was reframed as a countercultural critique.</p>
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<h3>EARLY 1960s AIR POLLUTION FILMS: PRESENTING THE PROBLEM</h3>
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<p>The post-World War II period has been called the “Great Acceleration,” a period in which fossil fuel consumption, population growth, urbanization, and consumerism grew at an exponential rate.<a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> Indeed, scientific consensus today has formed around the idea that human actions have affected Earth Systems to such a degree that we have left the Holocene epoch and entered a new epoch known as the Anthropocene.<a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> It is striking that even films made early in the 1960s demonstrate a nascent awareness of the Anthropocene, describing air pollution as a by-product of U.S. economic prosperity. Air pollution is challenging to visualize, but these films share several strategies for rendering it. Every one of these films includes shots of hazy skies, framed in extreme long shots or from aerial perspectives. Hazy skylines, whether urban, industrial, or rural, do not make for dynamic film images, so these shots of haze are counterbalanced by other iconographic images of air pollution such as crowded roads, smokestacks, burning tires, and incinerators.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_12776" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12776" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12776" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/public-enemy/public_main-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Public Enemy Written in Soot" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>A sooty coffee table serves as a title card in Public Enemy.</p>
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||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12776 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Woman drew " width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_main.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12776" class="wp-caption-text">A sooty coffee table serves as a title card in <em>Public Enemy</em>, 1960 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800144A">National Library of Medicine #8800144A</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The earliest film in this group, <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/public-enemy/"><em>Public Enemy</em></a> (1960)<em>, </em>begins with a shot of a frustrated housewife tracing the words “PUBLIC ENEMY” in a sensationally thick layer of black soot coating her coffee table, while ominous music builds up to emphasize the danger we are about to encounter. A collaboration between the PHS and the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, this is a black-and-white 16mm kinescope of a television program, which originally would have been seen live by millions of people. Therefore, this opening shot of a housewife is doubly appropriate: it opens this television program within the domestic space of the living room, where most televisions were then located, and it directly addresses women, who were particularly active in early anti-air pollution campaigns.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12768" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12768" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12768" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/public-enemy/public_7-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Public Education Programs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>“Mrs. Public” contemplating her television in Public Enemy.<br />
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||
National Library of Medicine #</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-12768" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Woman in a collared shirt and pencil skirt sitting on a couch with her fist on her chin." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_7.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12768" class="wp-caption-text">“Mrs. Public” contemplating her television in <em>Public Enemy</em><br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800144A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8800144A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>This housewife reappears later in the program, where she is referred to as “Mrs. Public” as she sneezes and rubs her eyes; another housewife is shown sitting on her couch while she watches TV in a contemplative posture, while the voice-over praises the Westinghouse Broadcasting Corporation for performing a public service by presenting this program. The program has an interesting self-reflexive quality throughout, in part due to its nature as a live television broadcast.</p>
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||
<p>The program next presents a dramatic montage of factory smokestacks, smoke, and black pellets resembling charcoal briquettes. While these seem to be visualizations of hopelessly polluted air, the male voiceover explains that these pellets actually represent smoke that has been removed from the air. “Industry didn’t build this equipment sooner because it didn’t know how.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12782" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12782" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12782" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/public-enemy/public_6-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="The Duquesne Works" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>The Duquesne Works of the U.S. Steel Corporation, as shown in Public Enemy.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12782 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="4 large cylindrical tanks standing parallel to each other, next to some machinery" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Public_6.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12782" class="wp-caption-text">The Duquesne Works of the U.S. Steel Corporation, as shown in <em>Public Enemy</em><br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800144A">National Library of Medicine #8800144A</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>In fact, it took over ten years to develop and to build this plant near Duquesne, in Pittsburgh, which just does one job: it removes ferro-manganese dust. And every day it builds this mountain of smoke even higher.” Although the narrator (Carl Ide) does not explain it, what this montage shows is the Duquesne Works of the U.S. Steel Corporation and its ferromanganese gas cleaning plant. While the voiceover tries to reassure us that industry is doing its own “housecleaning,” these images clearly document the large-scale environmental pollution caused by this steel works (which had been ramped up during World War II but was demolished by 1988).</p>
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<p>The bulk of <em>Public Enemy </em>features talking head “pollution fighters” from Washington DC and around the country explaining specific, local problems with air pollution. “Yes, the federal government is working on the problem, but basically, it is a local job,” the narrator explains. We are introduced to a number of state and local officials working on air pollution in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Niagara Falls, Detroit, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, San Francisco, and New York City. Some of these men show diagrams and illustrations presented on cardboard posters with rudimentary animation. The discussion of illness, symptoms, and death rates in what was then a relatively novel public health concern is data-driven and clear; and in contrast to today’s highly commercialized, polarized news media ecosystem, it is refreshingly free from sensationalism.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_12808" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12808" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12808" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/sources-of-air-pollution/sources3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Exposing our Eyes to Pollution" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Sources of Air Pollution.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12808 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3-1024x768.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1" alt="In a crowd of people a man rubs his eyes." width="740" height="555" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sources3.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12808" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Sources of Air Pollution</em>, 1962 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101640831">National Library of Medicine #101640831</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>Released two years later, the 16mm color film <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/sources-of-air-pollution/"><em>Sources of Air Pollution </em></a>sketches the problem in broad strokes, using alarmist rhetoric that builds a sense of crisis, but offers no solutions. This pointed five-minute informational short, credited solely to the PHS Division of Air Pollution, presents a montage of smoggy cities, smoke-belching factories. Some of these shots appeared already in <em>Public Enemy</em>, which indicates the existence of a PHS stock footage vault<em>. </em>In a voiceover, the male narrator (Thomas F. Williams) explains:</p>
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<blockquote cite="Sources of Air Pollution"><p>We have created an environment which satisfies the basic material needs of man better than any other in history. But with each year that passes we threaten more ominously our natural environment of air, land, and water. Dump the gunk into the river! Cut down the trees! Poison the land and the air! We are faithful users of soaps and cosmetics, yet we step outside into a daily bath of airborne dirt.</p></blockquote>
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<p>He lists the sources of air pollution—industry, motor vehicles, incinerators, and cities—and makes his central argument: as modernity expands, so does its air pollution. The problem seems to be intractable, which is an interesting perspective for a film made the year before the passage of the Clean Air Act. But this kind of doomsaying rhetoric was common in the period, used as a technique to spur outrage and action. The film’s bleak ending is an excellent example of this rhetoric, with its incantation of the smells of modern air pollution: “the irritating stench of sulfurous gases and the sweetly sickening smell of rotting garbage.”</p>
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<h3>LATE 1960s AIR POLLUTION FILMS: CITIZEN ACTIVISM</h3>
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</div>
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<div id="__essay" class="sec">
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<figure id="attachment_12631" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12631" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12631" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/beware_2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Beware the Wind" data-image-description="<p>Beware the Wind title on top of scenery</p>
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" data-image-caption="<p>Beware the Wind.</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12631 size-medium" title="Beware the Wind" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Beware the Wind title screen" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_2.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12631" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Beware the Wind</em>, 1967 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465310">National Library of Medicine #101465310</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>By the late-1960s, we can discern a shift to a broader environmentalist critique. <em><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/">Beware the Wind</a>, </em>a 16mm color film produced by Airlie Productions in 1967, exemplifies what we might call the institutional version of late 1960s environmentalist rhetoric. Airlie Productions was the filmmaking division of the Airlie Foundation, an organization founded by Murdock Head, who is credited as the producer of this film. The film was partly funded by a research grant from the Division of Air Pollution in the PHS. Murdock Head was a colorful figure. A professor of medical and public affairs at George Washington University, his Airlie Foundation hosted conferences for government and public institutions at a large farmland facility in Airlie, Virginia. His film production unit made hundreds of educational films, funded by millions of dollars of government grant money. Some of these films won awards, but in 1978, Head came under FBI investigation for misconduct in the obtaining of these grants. He was convicted in 1981 of conspiring to bribe two U.S. Congressmen to obtain government grants, and served more than ten months in federal prison; after his release, his career seems to have recovered.<a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_12629" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12629" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12629" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/beware_main/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Pollution Harms Everything" data-image-description="<p>a bunch of old broken cars in front a big ship</p>
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||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12629 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="a bunch of old broken cars in front a big ship" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_main.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12629" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Beware the Wind</em>, 1967 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465310">National Library of Medicine #101465310</a></em></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p><em>Beware the Wind</em>’s opening montage establishes a clear contrast between pristine nature and human pollution. We see several shots of the sun, the ocean, and birds, with a stern male voiceover intoning, “In the beginning God created the earth … and man looked around him and decided there was room for improvement.” As soon as “man” is mentioned, we see jet planes and an airport. Next comes a quick dramatic scene in which two airplane pilots (actors) discuss the “smoke problem,” followed by the title card, “BEWARE the WIND.” The film launches into a series of iconic air pollution shots of hazy city skylines, factories, smokestacks, trash fires, and traffic-choked freeways. “Into the air leaks poison. Each year, 130 million tons of it. Often, it kills.” Having defined the problem, the film continues to present an assortment of facts about and images of air pollution. Like many educational films, <em>Beware </em>does not follow a linear narrative logic but moves forward with an episodic, incremental distribution of information. In some educational film genres, such as travelogues, this episodic structure creates a poetic effect, which I have described elsewhere as a “string of pearls” editing pattern.<a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Here, however, the effect is more jarring thanks to the dramatic music, alarmist voice-over, and dystopian content. The educational film’s non-narrative flow of information can have various aesthetic effects. Rather than an accumulation of picturesque scenes, here we have an accumulation of devastating pollution problems.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_12626" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12626" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12626" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/beware-the-wind/beware_7/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="San Francisco has a Pollution Problem Too" data-image-description="<p>Building in the foreground and a bridge in the background</p>
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||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12626 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Building in the foreground and a bridge in the background" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beware_7.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12626" class="wp-caption-text">San Francisco in <em>Beware the Wind</em>, 1967 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465310">National Library of Medicine #101465310</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>One section of the film offers panoramic views of polluted skylines around the country: in Phoenix, Denver, Washington DC, and San Francisco. In Chicago, alongside a montage showing a city office building, the air pollution control office, and a field service director at his desk, we are told that “combatting air pollution is no different than fighting any public menace. It takes organization, money, strong protest by the local citizens, and a program of tough enforcement.” The narrator explains, “Through ignorance and greed, most corporations refuse to admit there is a solution to their waste problem. There is no pollution problem that present-day technology cannot solve.” Electrostatic precipitators are shown to be an important solution, along with local citizen activists. Ending on an emphatic note, the narrator proclaims, backed by swelling orchestral music of horns, flute, and string instruments, “Ingenuity and endeavor have created for us the highest material standard of living ever known. We can’t go back to the beginning. But with only a small part of the ingenuity we’ve brought to building our enormous wealth, we can ensure that the air which gives us life no longer brings us death.”</p>
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||
<blockquote><p>By the late 1960s, we can hear a distinctly countercultural critique growing louder in these public health organization-funded films.</p></blockquote>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12694" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12694" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12694" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/dont-leave-it-all-to-the-experts/experts_11/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Built Our Factories" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Don’t Leave it All to the Experts.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12694 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11-1024x768.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1" alt="Brown smoke coming out of tall pipes from a factory behind smaller buildings." width="740" height="555" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Experts_11.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12694" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Don’t Leave It All to the Experts</em>, 1969 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9100602A">National Library of Medicine #9100602A</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>A number of these films foreground an important aspect of the environmental movement in this period: much environmental change was brought about by citizen outcry and activism. <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/dont-leave-it-all-to-the-experts/"><em>Don’t Leave It All to the Experts</em></a> (1969) opens with a series of testimonials from people (actors) explaining why air pollution is just not their problem. The film argues against this passivity, however, listing a host of environmental problems but arguing that air pollution is the most serious threat to the environment. Citizens are urged to attend regional public hearings addressing air pollution and are cautioned to question industry and government “experts” who will try to obfuscate. Ultimately, the film is designed to support the Federal Clean Air Act of 1967. As the narrator intones at the end of the film, “Public concern is what it will take to ensure clean air in your community. … Be knowledgeable about clean air. And sound off! … It’s really up to you.”</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12796" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12796" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12796" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_1/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Coughing as He Leaves the House" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Mr. Hack in The Run Around.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12796 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="White cartoon boy walking about of a white door with a white pillars symbol on the top of the door" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_1.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12796" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Hack in <em>The Run Around</em>, 1969<br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101622477">National Library of Medicine #101622477</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>By the late 1960s, we can hear a distinctly countercultural critique growing louder in these public health organization-funded films. <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/"><em>The Run Around</em></a> (National Tuberculosis Association, 1969) is an eighteen-minute animated short that squarely blames corporate-run factories for air pollution and shows them refusing to take the blame. The film is a standout for its stylized, colorful animation and groovy guitar music. The main character, a man with a chronic cough named Mr. Hack, visits a factory, a power plant, and so forth to complain about air pollution, but each corrupt institutional head denies responsibility and passes him along to another organization. The film was co-directed by Amram Nowak and Antony Peters; Nowak was a director of documentary and feature films, and Peters was a writer and animator who worked for Rankin/Bass Productions in the 1960s. That company was not involved with the production of this film, however. Peters’ own animation company, Instant Miracles, is credited with the animation production on <em>The Run Around</em>.<a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> When the animated portion of the film ends, the film shifts to a live-action concluding segment in which Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME)—sponsor of the Air Quality Act of 1967—delivers a few minutes’ worth of solemn remarks about Mr. Hack and the menace of air pollution, urging citizens to take action against dirty air. This rather dry statement at the end dissipates the far-out energy of the animated portion of the film, but the inclusion of this official statement is in keeping with the aesthetics of a government film.</p>
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<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_15/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="225" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Cartoon tan man with his arms in the air, looking at 3 large nuclear plant tube in the background" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-attachment-id="12794" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_15/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Conducting the Smoke Stacks" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_15.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_11/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="225" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="A man in a black suit with a red tie speaking into the camera" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-attachment-id="12791" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_11/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Senator Muskie Says Participate, Take Action" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_11.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="225" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="White flower with black spots all over" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-attachment-id="12797" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/run_2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="A Speckled Daisy Dying" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Run_2.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
|
||
<a href='https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/runaround_main-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="225" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="White cartoon boy in suit standing next to taller man colored red smiling wide with teeth" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-attachment-id="12795" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-run-around/runaround_main-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Smoke? No Thank You!" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RunAround_main.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" /></a>
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<h3></h3>
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<h3>THE EARLY 1970s: INTERCONNECTED ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS</h3>
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<p>An important turning point for the environmental movement came in the wake of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. One of the event’s founders, Denis Hayes, describes it this way:</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 40px;">The real situation in the 1960s is that there were people who cared about birds in the Audubon Society and the Environmental Defense Fund. There were people who lived in Santa Barbara who cared about oil spills, or lived in Gary, Ind., and cared about air pollution. There were anti-freeway coalitions in a dozen cities. But all of these groups, and dozens of others, thought of themselves as freeway groups, as air pollution groups, as bird groups. One of the most important things—I think the most important thing—that Earth Day did was to take all of those different threads and weave them together into this fabric of modern environmentalism, to help them understand that they were operating from similar sets of values and then that they could support one another and be much stronger as a whole than they were individually.<a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
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<p>This shift from individual issues to interconnected countercultural critique can be seen in <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/countdown-to-collision/"><em>Countdown to Collision</em></a>, a 16mm color film made in 1972, two years after the first Earth Day. This twenty-seven-minute film moves beyond a simple documentation of pollution as a public health threat; rather, it is a veritable manifesto of ecological thinking in the early 1970s. Produced by Murdock Head’s Airlie Productions and the George Washington University Medical Center’s Department of Medical and Public Affairs, in cooperation with The American Academy of Family Physicians and the District of Columbia Medical Society, <em>Countdown</em> shows just how far the environmentalist critique of modern life had permeated mainstream public discourse.</p>
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||
<figure id="attachment_12665" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12665" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12665" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/countdown-to-collision/countdown2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Uncle Sam Eats an Apple" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>A polluting Uncle Sam in Countdown to Collision.</p>
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||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12665 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2-1024x768.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1" alt="Man dress in blue, white, and red holding something round, with the title " width="740" height="555" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown2.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12665" class="wp-caption-text">A polluting Uncle Sam in <em>Countdown to Collision</em>, 1972 <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465236">National Library of Medicine #101465236</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p><em>Countdown</em>’s opening segment establishes a critique of development by showing, in fast motion, the razing of a field and the building of a house. At the end of this segment, a man’s hands are shown in medium shot as he opens his lunchbox and throws garbage around the construction site; the camera pans out to reveal that the man is Uncle Sam. The criticism of mainstream American values could not be more plain. A series of “man-on-the-street” interviews follow, in which we hear women and men of different ages and demographics, from the very old to children, from conservatives to hippies, white and black, all voicing anxious and bitter critiques of the current way of life. “People think they’ve got to change everything!” “Pretty soon we’re all going to be drowned in this mess!” “I don’t expect to reach my middle age.” “It’s dirty air.” “Mass revolt.” “The whole world’s going to garbage!”</p>
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||
<p>Following this setup, the film presents a nearly ten-minute musical montage that comprises the heart of the film. This narration-free sequence sums up the mainstream environmentalist perspective of this moment, which by now encompassed not just individual issues such as air pollution, water pollution, and pesticides, but a whole set of countercultural values such as care for nature, anti-consumerism, anti-waste, and revolt against the status quo. The sequence begins with a calming series of mountain landscapes, accompanied by funky contemplative music (piano, bass guitar, drums). The images quickly transition to city streets and crowds, polluting airplanes, freeway traffic, and garbage. As the sequence builds, a synthesizer is added to the now jazzy musical mix, and the editing speeds up, growing more frenetic as a rocking electric guitar begins soloing over images of polluted rivers, garbage dumps, car junkyards, factory smoke, spilled oil, leisure seekers, and protesters. The sequence ends with two silent shots of magnificent mountains and a fade to black, followed by the sound of screeching tires and a loud crash, then a series of dissolves from a cityscape out to an image of the planet, in a direct quotation of the 1968 film <em>Powers of Ten </em>by Charles and Ray Eames. This musical montage sequence is exciting and emotionally involving, but it does not offer a particularly focused critique, nor does it present any coherent agenda for change. Rather, it generalizes, using the fusion of images and music to produce a critical eye and a feeling of discontent.</p>
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||
<p>In its use of musical montage, <em>Countdown </em>borrows a set of cinematic techniques from the tradition of the city symphony. Like the influential city symphony <em>À Propos de Nice </em>(Jean Vigo, 1930), this film uses a rhythmic unfolding of images to present a critical view of the society it depicts. City symphonies were a film genre established in the silent era (during which time they were accompanied by live music), and the genre re-emerged for a time in the 1970s and 80s with films such as <em>Organism </em>(Hilary Harris, 1975) and <em>Koyaanisquatsi </em>(Godfrey Reggio, 1982).<a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> Some of the footage in <em>Countdown</em> is fast-motion, a technique that was developed more systematically by Harris and Reggio a few years later. City symphonies do tend to generalize, using images rather than words to make meaning. This visually driven approach works well in <em>Countdown</em> to sum up the environmentalist ideology of the time, allowing for a quick visual summation of many disparate issues that would take much longer to explain in textual form.</p>
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<blockquote><p>In its use of musical montage, <em>Countdown</em> borrows a set of cinematic techniques from the tradition of the city symphony. Like the influential city symphony <em>À Propos de Nice </em>(Jean Vigo, 1930), this film uses a rhythmic unfolding of images to present a critical view of the society it depicts.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The next sequence of the film, running at about six minutes, reverts to a more conventional nonfiction voice-over, with the music held at a more subdued level in the background. The spoken word now verbally declares what was implicit in the previous segment, once again alongside more images of pollution and garbage. <em>Countdown</em> is narrated by TV broadcaster and game show host Hugh Downs, who delivers an extraordinarily bleak voice-over commentary. It is a long speech, but worth quoting at length:</p>
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<p style="padding-left: 40px;">It must be realized that all of our environmental ills are by-products. They are the results of the way we live and eat and travel. The way we build our cities. And what we consume, and how we entertain ourselves. And all of our problems aggravate and feed upon one another in ways that we don’t yet understand. Many scientists now believe that we may be entering the twilight of human existence. And this age of affluence, of technological marvels and medical miracles, is paradoxically also the age of chronic ailments, of anxiety, and even of despair. An age in which our fellow creatures face destruction within the same delicately balanced ecosystem that supports us. And in which our legacy to our own children is a rapidly growing number of ways to die. It is as simple as that.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_12661" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12661" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12661" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/countdown-to-collision/countdown10/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Electronic Bad Taste" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Las Vegas as consumerist dystopia in Countdown to Collision.</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12661 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="On the road with other cars around surrounded by city lights" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown10.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12661" class="wp-caption-text">Las Vegas as consumerist dystopia in <em>Countdown to Collision</em> <em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465236">National Library of Medicine #101465236</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>These words are accompanied by fast-motion footage of Las Vegas at night taken from a moving car, the city’s glowing neon lights visualizing the societal decay of the consumerist way of life run amok. This sort of generalized critique, offered without any solutions, actually captures well some of the contradictions of its moment. On the one hand, Downs’s commentary is not wrong; in fact, it anticipates the apocalyptic rhetoric that now appears in some climate change journalism.<a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> On the other hand, it is unclear what specific goals this rhetoric aims to achieve. By this time, the environmentalist movement had reached the mainstream population, and numerous important pieces of federal, state, and local legislation had been enacted. This film demonstrates the extent to which the counterculture had gone mainstream by 1972, its resistance co-opted by official government-funded films. As much as audiences might enjoy its cool music and social critique, this film is more stylish than persuasive.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_12662" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12662" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12662" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/countdown-to-collision/countdown11/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?fit=1440%2C1080&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="We the People Must Act" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>Hugh Downs in Countdown to Collision</p>
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||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-12662 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Man bottom right of screen with a picture of the United States Capitol dome" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=1317%2C988&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?resize=1400%2C1050&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Countdown11.jpg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-12662" class="wp-caption-text">Hugh Downs in <em>Countdown to Collision</em> <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101465236">National Library of Medicine #101465236</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>Much like <em>The Run Around</em>,<em> Countdown </em>shifts to a direct address speech at the end, which functions as a coda that softens the critique of the main body of the film. In this concluding segment, Hugh Downs is finally pictured, wearing a snazzy 1970s brown suit and wide tie. He explains, “There is some good evidence that most of our people are deciding on a different road to the future. It’s not without significance that the president has signed into law a unique bill establishing a national policy to permit conditions under which man and nature can coexist in productive harmony.” He goes on to list The Council on Environmental Quality, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the EPA, state and local governments, along with unions, industry, universities, and other forces all working for a more ecologically balanced future. “After all, this is what our founding fathers had in mind from the beginning,” he concludes. Such a palliative statement is a far cry from the critical image of a polluting Uncle Sam we saw at the beginning of the film. This coda functions to restore faith in the power of the government to fix a broken system. The film is progressive, but not radical, which is perhaps to be expected of a government-sponsored film: it reassures its audience that existing systems are capable of reform.</p>
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||
<h3>CONCLUSION</h3>
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||
<p>All six of these films—and especially <em>Countdown</em>—anticipate today’s discourse surrounding climate change, environmental calamity, and the Anthropocene. At one point, the narrator of <em>Countdown </em>defines the problem as “the expanding presence of man.” This certainly resonates with what many people feel today, as we face the accelerating threats of climate change, species extinction, environmental racism, and other environmental problems, yet are unsure how best to solve them. Climate activists and climate writers today continue to face the messaging challenge that had already emerged in the 1970s: how do you galvanize public action on the environment when the problems seem so overwhelming? The 1970s were an important moment in the history of environmental awareness; this was a time in which legislative successes could have been consolidated and public education expanded to address the new problem of climate change as it emerged in the 1980s. But in fact, much of the momentum of the 1960s was lost.<a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13" name="_ednref13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> As these six films demonstrate, the federal government played an important role in educating the public about air pollution and other environmental problems in the 1960s and early 1970s. Many of us fervently wish that it would take on this responsibility once again.</p>
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<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
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<div class="insert">
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<p><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.jenniferlynnpeterson.com">Jennifer Lynn Peterson</a> is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Woodbury University in Los Angeles. She is the author of <i>Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film</i> (Duke University Press, 2013). Her scholarly articles have been published in <em>Feminist Media Histories, </em><i>Journal of Cinema and Media Studies</i>, <i>Camera Obscura</i>, <i>The Moving Image</i>, <i>Getty Research Journal</i>, and numerous edited book collections. She has published film, art, and book reviews in <i>Millennium Film Journal</i>, <i>Film Quarterly</i>, the <i>Los Angeles Review of Books</i>, and <i>Artforum</i>.com.</span></p>
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<p>Peterson’s research and teaching interests center on cinema and media history, experimental and educational films, and the environmental humanities. Previously a tenured Associate Professor in the Film Studies Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder, she has also taught at UCLA, UC Riverside, the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Southern California. In the early 2000s she worked as an Oral Historian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and briefly in the Home Entertainment division at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She was a scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute in fall 2012. She is currently working on a book entitled “Cinema’s Ecological Past: Film History, Nature and Endangerment Before 1960.”</p>
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</tr>
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<hr />
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<h2>Bibliography</h2>
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||
<p>Acland, Charles R. and Haidee Wasson, eds. <em>Useful Cinema</em>. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.</p>
|
||
<p>Barnes, Bart. “Murdock Head, 70, Dies.” <em>Washington Post</em>, July 30, 1994. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/07/30/murdock-head-70-dies/ba2d9885-6dfe-4268-9c65-67b954188cb6/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/07/30/murdock-head-70-dies/ba2d9885-6dfe-4268-9c65-67b954188cb6/</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Crutzen, Paul J. and Eugene F. Stoermer, “The Anthropocene.” <em>Global Change Newsletter</em>, no. 41 (May 2000): 17-18. <a href="http://www.igbp.net/download/18.316f18321323470177580001401/1376383088452/NL41.pdf">http://www.igbp.net/download/18.316f18321323470177580001401/1376383088452/NL41.pdf</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Dewey, Scott Hamilton. <em>Don’t Breathe the Air: Air Pollution and U.S. Environmental Politics</em>, 1945-1970. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.</p>
|
||
<p>Landberg, S. Topiary. “<em>Organism</em> in the Space Age,” in “A Field Guide to Exit Zero: Urban Landscape Essay Films, 1921 till Now.” PhD diss., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2020.</p>
|
||
<p>Lardner, George Jr. and Bill Richards, “HEW Official Attacked Film Sales by Airlie Foundation.” <em>Washington Post</em>, February 25, 1978. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/02/25/hew-official-attacked-film-sales-by-airlie-foundation/1ae0da28-38fa-4ee9-a7f1-64003e223aff/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/02/25/hew-official-attacked-film-sales-by-airlie-foundation/1ae0da28-38fa-4ee9-a7f1-64003e223aff/</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>McNeill, J.R. and Peter Engelke. <em>The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945</em>. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.</p>
|
||
<p>Orgeron, Devin, Orgeron, Marsha, and Dan Streible, eds. <em>Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States</em>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.</p>
|
||
<p>Pazzanese, Christina. “How Earth Day Gave Birth to Environmental Movement.” <em>Environmental Health News</em>, April 22, 2020. <a href="https://www.ehn.org/earth-day-50-years-anniversary-2645766176.html">https://www.ehn.org/earth-day-50-years-anniversary-2645766176.html</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Peterson, Jennifer Lynn. <em>Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film</em>. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.</p>
|
||
<p>Reid, Seerly. <em>U. S. Government Films for Public Educational Use—1960</em>. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1960.</p>
|
||
<p>Rich, Nathaniel. “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change.” <em>New York Times Magazine</em>, August 1, 2018. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Stephens, Gregory. “Koyannisqatsi and the Visual Narrative of Environmental Film.” <em>Screening the Past</em> 28 (Fall 2010).</p>
|
||
<p>Turner, James Morton. <em>The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since1964</em>. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012.</p>
|
||
<p>Wallace-Wells, David. <em>The Uninhabitable Earth</em>. (New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2019).</p>
|
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<hr />
|
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<div class="footnotes">
|
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<h3>Notes</h3>
|
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<p><a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> Scott Hamilton Dewey, <em>Don’t Breathe the Air: Air Pollution and U.S. Environmental Politics, 1945–1970 </em>(College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2000)<em>, </em>p. 5.</p>
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||
<p><a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> Seerley Reid, <em>U. S. Government Films for Public Educational Use—1960 </em>(Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1960), p. vii.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> Educational films were made before the 1920s and after the 1980s, of course, but I list these dates because they are particular to the history of 16mm, the “educational” film gauge of choice, which was developed in 1923. 16mm began to disappear in the 1980s with the transition to VHS tape. The emergence of the internet in the 1990s and 2000s shifted the circulation of educational films even farther away from the nontheatrical circuit to something else entirely. See Devin Orgeron, Marsha Orgeron, and Dan Streible, eds., <em>Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States </em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2012); and Charles R. Acland and Haidee Wasson, eds., <em>Useful Cinema </em>(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011).</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> James Morton Turner, <em>The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964 </em>(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012), pp. 94-99.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke, <em>The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945 </em>(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer, “’The Anthropocene,’” <em>Global Change Newsletter</em>, no. 41 (May 2000): 17-18. <a href="http://www.igbp.net/download/18.316f18321323470177580001401/1376383088452/NL41.pdf">http://www.igbp.net/download/18.316f18321323470177580001401/1376383088452/NL41.pdf</a>.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn7" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> Bart Barnes, “Murdock Head, 70, Dies,” <em>Washington Post, </em>July 30, 1994, accessed on April 26, 2020 at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/07/30/murdock-head-70-dies/ba2d9885-6dfe-4268-9c65-67b954188cb6/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/07/30/murdock-head-70-dies/ba2d9885-6dfe-4268-9c65-67b954188cb6/</a>; George Lardner Jr. and Bill Richards, “HEW Official Attacked Film Sales by Airlie Foundation,” <em>Washington Post, </em>February 25, 1978, accessed on April 26, 2020 at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/02/25/hew-official-attacked-film-sales-by-airlie-foundation/1ae0da28-38fa-4ee9-a7f1-64003e223aff/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/02/25/hew-official-attacked-film-sales-by-airlie-foundation/1ae0da28-38fa-4ee9-a7f1-64003e223aff/</a>.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> Jennifer Lynn Peterson, <em>Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film </em>(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013), p. 149, p. 199.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> Liberty Studios is credited with animation photography on <em>The Run Around</em>, but I haven’t been able to find any information about this company.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn10" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> Denis Hayes quoted in Christina Pazzanese, “How Earth Day Gave Birth to Environmental Movement,” <em>Environmental Health News, </em>April 22, 2020, accessed on April 22, 2020 at <a href="https://www.ehn.org/earth-day-50-years-anniversary-2645766176.html">https://www.ehn.org/earth-day-50-years-anniversary-2645766176.html</a>.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> See Gregory Stephens, “Koyannisqatsi and the Visual Narrative of Environmental Film,” <em>Screening the Past </em>28 (Fall 2010), pp. 1-29; and S. Topiary Landberg, “<em>Organism </em>in the Space Age,” in “A Field Guide to Exit Zero: Urban Landscape Essay Films, 1921 till Now,” PhD diss. University of California, Santa Cruz, 2020, pp. 141-200.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn12" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> See for example David Wallace-Wells, <em>The Uninhabitable Earth </em>(New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2019). Wells’s book was first excerpted as an article that gained an enormous amount of traction in the news media and on social media platforms; see David Wallace-Wells, “The Uninhabitable Earth,” <em>New York Magazine, </em>July 9, 2017, accessible at <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html">https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html</a>. Although Wells’s reporting has been important for raising public awareness about climate change today, certain pieces of his data have been faulted by climate scientists for inaccuracy, and his apocalyptic tone has been a topic of debate. While it is crucial to learn about the existential threats posed by climate change, it is also true that sensationalizing journalism garners more public attention than scientific papers. This debate is ongoing.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> For one account of this lost momentum, see Nathaniel Rich, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change,” <em>New York Times Magazine, </em>August 1, 2018, accessible at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html</a>.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<p> </p>
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]]></content:encoded>
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<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/09/08/darkening-day-air-pollution-films-and-environmental-awareness-1960-1972/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">12579</post-id> </item>
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<item>
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<title>Screening the Nurse: Film, Fear, and Narrative from the 1940s to the 1970s</title>
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<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/03/31/screening-the-nurse-fear-and-narrative-in-nursing-films-from-the-1940s-to-the-1970s/</link>
|
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<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/03/31/screening-the-nurse-fear-and-narrative-in-nursing-films-from-the-1940s-to-the-1970s/#comments</comments>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Circulating Now]]></dc:creator>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2020 11:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Color]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[nursing]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[US Army]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[World War II]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=12198</guid>
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<description><![CDATA[By David Cantor, PhD<br>
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In the early twentieth century, American nursing leaders came to see the motion picture as a quintessentially modern instrument of education, training, and recruitment. In their view, movies were a powerful tool to transform public opinion, to instruct new recruits in the mysteries of nursing practice, and to keep the qualified nurse abreast of new developments in the field.
|
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<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/03/31/screening-the-nurse-fear-and-narrative-in-nursing-films-from-the-1940s-to-the-1970s"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By David Cantor, PhD (Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES), Buenos Aires)</p>
|
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<hr />
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/">The Army Nurse<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1808" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/let-my-people-live/let-my-people-live-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Let-my-People-Live.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Let-my-People-Live" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Let-my-People-Live.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Let-my-People-Live.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1808" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Army-Nurse_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="A close up of a woman's face in a surgical mask." width="200" height="154" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/evening-care/">Evening Care<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1746" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/they-do-come-back-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="They-Do-Come-Back" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1746" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Evening-Care_feature_play.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Title screen: Part 2 Evening Care." width="200" height="154" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/girls-in-white/">Girls in White<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1476" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/another-to-conquer-6/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/another-to-conquer-06.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Another-to-Conquer" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/another-to-conquer-06.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/another-to-conquer-06.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1476" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-in-White_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Women in white nursing uniforms sit in a classroom." width="200" height="154" /></a></div>
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/unsuspected/">Unsuspected<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1502" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/cloud-in-the-sky-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cloud-in-the-sky.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Cloud-in-the-Sky" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cloud-in-the-sky.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cloud-in-the-sky.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1502" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Unsuspected_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="A woman in a nursing uniform sits smiling with an old man and a boy." width="200" height="154" /></a></div>
|
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<div class="floatleft single-video-thumb"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/nurse-patient-interaction/">Nurse-Patient Interaction<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1746" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/they-do-come-back-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="They-Do-Come-Back" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/They-Do-Come-Back.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1746" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nurse-Patient-Interaction_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="A young man in a hospital bed with breathing tubes" width="200" height="154" /></a></div>
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<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n the early decades of the twentieth century, American nursing leaders came to see the motion picture as a quintessentially modern instrument of education, training, and recruitment. In their view, movies were a powerful tool to transform public opinion about nursing, to instruct new recruits in the mysteries of nursing practice, and to keep the qualified nurse abreast of new developments in the field. The result was that many hundreds of films were produced by nurses, hospitals, health departments, and nursing schools that aimed to recruit men and women into the profession, to teach nurses about the ideas and techniques of their field, and to educate the public about the role of the nurse in health care.</p>
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<p>This essay discusses a selection of rare historical nursing movies, originally chosen by Anne Marie Rafferty, Rosemary Cresswell and David Cantor for a series of film shows screened in the late 2000s.<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1"><sup>[*]</sup></a> It includes educational, newsreel, and training movies aimed at a variety of audiences, and produced from the 1940s to the 1970s by an assortment of private, philanthropic, professional, and governmental organizations. Together, they illustrate the varied uses of the nursing educational film in the mid-to-late twentieth century; the complex cinematic representations of nurses and nursing during this period; and the roles of sexuality, gender, and surveillance in these movies. I conclude with some observations on the different narratives deployed in these films, and on the use of fear within nursing films.</p>
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<h3><em>The Army Nurse</em></h3>
|
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<p><strong><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12236" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/army-nurse_ad_feature/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Army-Nurse_ad_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Army-Nurse_ad_feature" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>A Nurse Watched Over You..</p>
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Army-Nurse_ad_feature.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Army-Nurse_ad_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignleft wp-image-12236 size-medium" title="Go to The Army Nurse" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Army-Nurse_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="A close up of a woman's face in a surgical mask." width="300" height="230" /></a>DATE: </strong>1945<br />
|
||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>15 min<br />
|
||
<strong>DIRECTOR:</strong> Unidentified<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: </strong>Army Pictorial Service Signal Corps, U.S. War Office<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White</p>
|
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<h3></h3>
|
||
<p>Released in the closing months of World War II, this film explores the work of the Army nurse in part from the perspective of a wounded soldier (and includes a cameo by the actor Gary Cooper). Intended to be shown to a variety of audiences—including servicemen, nurses, and potential recruits to nursing—it has a reassuring message about the skill and effectiveness of the Army nursing service. It also comforts its audiences with a story about the therapeutic uses of femininity.</p>
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||
<p>The film opens with a soldier wounded in action. Coming out of delirium, the first person he sees is a female Army nurse, who smiles at him and gives him a conspiratorial, welcoming wink. This therapeutic wink is the start of his road to recovery and provides a cue for the narrator to talk about the uses of femininity in the healing process. He explains to his audience that women mean safety, comfort, and home to the wounded man: the nurse’s touch and her voice instill hope. Within each nurse is the tenderness of all women, he claims, that which is found in mother, sister, and friend—roles that dampen any suggestion of sexual invitation in the nurse’s wink or touch. Here is a feminized version of medical surveillance: the welcoming, comforting, caring surveillance of women who watch and monitor wounded men throughout their treatment.</p>
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<p>Two other narratives in the film are related to this theme of the therapeutic uses of femininity. The first is a story of how Army nurses adjust to the masculine world of Army life. The film shows how female nurses undergo four weeks of grueling basic training, and how, once in the field, they share the same life as the GI: Army clothes, Army beds, and Army rations. But the movie also shows how they adapt Army paraphernalia and life to their own purposes, as when, for example, they turn Army helmets into instruments for cooking, washing, and self-beautification. The film portrays these women as dedicated nurses, willing to sacrifice themselves to the war effort. It also sets out a place for a caring, tender, watchful femininity amid the pain of war, and within military and medical organizations dominated by men. As the narrator puts it, the Army nurse “lives roughly, and works gently.”</p>
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<p>The second story focuses on how nurses help to define the roles of their male surgical colleagues and patients. Thus, the movie defines the male surgeon, in part, in relation to the female Army nurse: Where the surgeon’s technical skill saves a man’s life, the Army nurse’s loving care helps him to live. She “completes” the surgeon, much as wives were said to “complete” their husbands. She also helps her patients decide on the sort of men they want to be. Inspired by the prospect of an Army nurse’s care, the narrator asks the wounded soldier (and the film’s audience): “Which man will you be? The one who gets hurt and dies, or the one who gets hurt and lives?”</p>
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<h3><em>Evening Care</em></h3>
|
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<p><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/evening-care/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12473" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/03/31/screening-the-nurse-fear-and-narrative-in-nursing-films-from-the-1940s-to-the-1970s/9420121_evening-care_feature-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9420121_Evening-Care_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="9420121_Evening-Care_feature" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9420121_Evening-Care_feature.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9420121_Evening-Care_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-12473 alignleft" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Evening-Care_feature_play.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="Title screen: Part 2 Evening Care." width="300" height="230" /></a><strong>DATE: </strong>1943<br />
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||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>7 min<br />
|
||
<strong>DIRECTOR:</strong> Unidentified<br />
|
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<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER:</strong> U.S. Army, adapted from a film by the Chicago Film Laboratory for U.S. Navy<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White</p>
|
||
<h3></h3>
|
||
<p>This short companion piece to <em>Morning Care </em>(1943) focuses on how Navy corpsmen care for sick and injured sailors as they get ready for the night. The intended audience is more limited than that of <em>The Army Nurse</em>. This ‘restricted’ picture is a Navy training film, originally aimed at Navy corpsmen, but adapted by the Army.</p>
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||
<p>The movie opens at sea, where a US Navy ship is preparing for the evening. In the sickroom the patients are restless after a long day of inactivity. The first part of the movie explores how corpsmen relieve the tension in the sickroom and ensure that the men, relax, rest, and sleep better: they wash their patients, provide them with backrubs, change their dressings, and give them their medications. The second part of the movie explores the transfer from day-watch to night-watch, how the night-watch corpsmen prepare for lights-out at 21:00 hours, and how, after lights-out, the night-watch check their patients hourly, paying particular attention to the very ill.</p>
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<p>In this film, the relationship between the corpsman and his patients is very different to that between the nurse and her patient in <em>The Army Nurse</em>. The corpsman does not provide the inviting, therapeutic wink we see in the other picture, nor does he provide the combination of safety, comfort, and home that the female Army nurse gives the wounded man. Yet there are elements of intimacy and comfort in his ministrations. For example, at one point in the movie a corpsman gives a backrub to a semi-naked man, after which he casually gives his patient some “homework”: a copy of <em>Esquire </em>magazine (founded 1933), popular among wartime servicemen for its pinups. The patient whistles his appreciation at an indistinct image we only briefly glimpse, and the corpsman adds his approval: “not bad,” he comments. In this all-male world, women are no longer the mothers, sisters, or friends we saw in <em>The Army Nurse</em>: they are sexual objects.</p>
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<p>The collusion of corpsman and patient in their appreciation of the <em>Esquire </em>image highlights anxieties over both sexuality and the body in the 1940s. On the one hand, it allowed the filmmakers to downplay the possibility of a homoerotic reading of the movie. According to the narrator, the backrub stimulates circulation, relaxes tired muscles, relieves fatigue and allows the corpsman to check for bed sores—nothing more. On the other hand, this collusion must also be set against contemporary concerns that the female body might harm public morals. The film was released the same year that the U.S. Postmaster General brought charges of obscenity against <em>Esquire </em>for printing allegedly harmful material that was not fulfilling a public service or need—in this case, an airbrushed image of a blonde, voluptuous, scantily-clad woman. Thus, the sexualized female body both threatened to corrupt its male audiences and served to protect against what the authorities regarded as the dangers of homosexuality.</p>
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||
<h3><em>Girls in White</em></h3>
|
||
<p><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/girls-in-white/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12238" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/girls-in-white_main_feature/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-in-White_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Girls in White_main_feature" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-in-White_main_feature.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-in-White_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignleft wp-image-12238 size-medium" title="Go to Girls in White" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-in-White_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="Women in white nursing uniforms sit in a classroom." width="300" height="230" /></a><strong>DATE: </strong>1948<br />
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||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>16 min<br />
|
||
<strong>DIRECTOR: </strong>Harry W. Smith<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: </strong>RKO Pathe<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White</p>
|
||
<h3></h3>
|
||
<p>If <em>The Army Nurse </em>and <em>Evening Care </em>were products of the Federal Government’s wartime interest in movies as tools of health education, <em>Girls in White </em>was a product of an older tradition of commercial newsreel cinema. Produced as part of RKO’s <em>This Is America </em>series (1942-1951), which was modeled on the <em>March of Time</em>, the movie would have been shown to a mixed audience of cinemagoers.</p>
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||
<p>Like other movies in the RKO series, <em>Girls in White </em>uses dramatic reenactment to tell its story. The film opens with an account of the post-World War II shortage of nursing staff; a preamble to a story of nurse training, exemplified by ‘Betty Burns’, one of the 43,000 ‘girls’ who enter nursing school that year. The film follows Betty from her first day at nursing school through her training in chemistry, anatomy, microbiology, nutrition, diet therapy, and pharmacy. We then see her progress from the lab and the lecture hall to the hospital ward, operating theater, and outpatient clinic. Eventually Betty finds her true vocation—pediatric nursing. Others in her cohort become office nurses, public health nurses, and Army nurses.</p>
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||
<p>This movie builds on some of the representations of femininity in <em>The Army Nurse</em>. While there is no therapeutic wink of the sort presented in the earlier movie, this film—like <em>The Army Nurse—</em>emphasizes the skills, knowledge, and professional demeanor that nurse training inculcates in recruits. During her training we see Betty become a cog in a well-run medical machine, a helpmeet to the doctor, anticipating ‘his’ needs, and those of ‘his’ patients. This vision of Betty as a skilled, selfless carer is contrasted with another image of her as self-admiring, self-centered, and fun-loving woman. For example, at one point in the movie Betty goes on a date: Only then, the male narrator tells us, can Betty indulge in the luxury of making someone wait, only then can she play a commanding role—albeit only for a short time. At the end of the evening, Betty chastely kisses her partner on the steps of the nurse’s home, before she returns to duty, and abandons herself to the demands of patients and physicians.</p>
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<p>This then is a movie about repressing some aspects of femininity as imagined in the late 1940s. Attitudes that might be acceptable in courtship—such as the ‘luxury’ of keeping men waiting—are discarded within the walls of the hospital. Betty’s femininity is remade during her training to service (male) doctors and patients—she becomes a nurse first and a woman second, as the narrator in <em>The Army Nurse </em>puts it. The only time as a nurse that she admires herself is after the capping ceremony when Betty is awarded the distinctive hospital nurses’ cap. “Men may not understand the cap; women will,” the narrator tells us, as Betty watches herself approvingly in the mirror. The self-admiring woman we see preparing for her date has become a nurse preparing for a career.</p>
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<h3><em>Unsuspected</em></h3>
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<p><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/unsuspected/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12234" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/unsuspected_main_feature/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Unsuspected_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Unsuspected_main_feature" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Unsuspected_main_feature.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Unsuspected_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignleft wp-image-12234 size-medium" title="Go to Unsuspected" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Unsuspected_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="A woman in a nursing uniform sits smiling with an old man and a boy." width="300" height="230" /></a><strong>DATE: </strong>1951<br />
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||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>17 min<br />
|
||
<strong>DIRECTOR:</strong> Charles F. Schwep<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: </strong>Trident Films Inc. for the National Tuberculosis Association<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White</p>
|
||
<h3></h3>
|
||
<p>A near-accident opens this story of the role of the public-health nurse in identifying an unsuspected case of tuberculosis, and of how her actions mobilize public-health services to protect the community against TB.</p>
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<p>After almost hitting Johnny Walsh with her automobile, public-health nurse Linda Thorpe is introduced to the child by a local storekeeper. Linda recognizes Johnny as a newcomer to the area, and after hearing that his mother is pregnant, takes the opportunity to meet the family. During the visit, Linda persuades Johnny’s mother, Mary, to see a physician for a prenatal check-up. When Mary goes for the checkup, a chest x-ray reveals she has an unsuspected case of tuberculosis.</p>
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||
<p>Like other TB education movies of the period, <em>Unsuspected </em>highlights the importance of routine x-ray screening to the identification the disease. According to the National Tuberculosis Association, early tuberculosis often exhibited no symptoms. The result was that people were often unaware of the disease until it was well advanced, which reduced the chance of successful treatment and increased the possibility that they might infect others. In the Association’s view, the only person who could identify the disease was a recognized physician. It, therefore, encouraged the public to go for a regular checkup, including a chest x-ray, and urged that those identified with TB be isolated in a hospital, where they might receive complete rest, good food, and the care of skilled physicians and nurses. Mary’s case confirms the value of such a procedure. In this film, Mary gives birth to a healthy baby boy and returns home after her successful rest cure. The movie ends with Linda Thorpe leaving the Walsh’s family reunion on her continuing mission to protect the public health.</p>
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<p>Like <em>The Army Nurse</em>, <em>Unsuspected </em>is a story of surveillance by women. However, unlike the earlier movie, this is not a story of surveillance of the sick and wounded but of the seemingly healthy. In this film disease lurks in the population, unsuspected by physicians and the public. Linda personifies the community’s efforts to police this hidden danger, and to negotiate the tricky boundary between protecting the public and caring for the individual. She also illuminates the importance of children to the solution of this problem. Linda infiltrates the family through their children, and it is Mary’s desire to protect her children from her disease that allows the film to make her hospitalization a matter of individual choice rather than coercion. In the child-centered culture of the postwar baby boom years, this film presents children as a route to public-health surveillance and a reason for individuals to submit to medical authority.</p>
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<h3><em>Nurse-Patient Interaction</em></h3>
|
||
<p><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/nurse-patient-interaction/"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="12232" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/the-army-nurse/nurse-patient-interaction_main_feature/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nurse-Patient-Interaction_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Nurse Patient Interaction_main_feature" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nurse-Patient-Interaction_main_feature.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nurse-Patient-Interaction_main_feature.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignleft wp-image-12232 size-medium" title="Go to Nurse-Patient Interaction" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nurse-Patient-Interaction_main_feature_play.jpg?resize=300%2C230&ssl=1" alt="A young man in a hospital bed with breathin tubes." width="300" height="230" /></a><strong>DATE: </strong>1976<br />
|
||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>14 min<br />
|
||
<strong>DIRECTOR:</strong> Barnett Addis<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: </strong>Barnett Addis, Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound, Color</p>
|
||
<h3></h3>
|
||
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, the psychologist Norman Kagan created an educational model known as Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR), a training method used to develop interpersonal skills and self-awareness. Commonly used to train nurses and counselors, Kagan’s method employed videotape recording and playback to allow trainees to reflect on how they interacted and so to encourage their awareness of the relation between intentions and behavior. In practice, this involved the trainee being videotaped attending to a patient or client, after which the trainee was asked, upon viewing the video, to stop the tape and comment on the interaction. The aim was to use the incidents captured on video to enable trainees to explore their own affective responses to a wide range of interpersonal challenges.</p>
|
||
<p>The movie presented here adopts a different—albeit related—method of encouraging nurse trainees to reflect on their responses to how patients and co- workers present themselves, verbally, physically, and emotionally. Based on Kagan’s affect-stimulus technique, the camera takes the perspective of a trainee nurse who is presented with a series of different people who speak directly to the camera. Thus, the viewer is put into the situation of the trainee nurse and is invited to respond to and reflect upon the different, sometimes difficult, interpersonal situations he or she encounters. The film would have been shown as part of a broader training program in which the training group—having been told to imagine themselves as the nurse to whom the person on screen is talking—was asked to consider and discuss their affective and verbal responses to these situations.</p>
|
||
<p>The people the viewer encounters are a mix of patients and co-workers. Sometimes they praise the viewer; sometimes they question his or her competence or emotional maturity. Some proposition the viewer, some are confrontational, some vulnerable, some passive aggressive. They all provide puzzles of motive and meaning. Patients may be inarticulate or articulate. Their words may say the opposite of what they seem to mean. Some are resentful, others vulnerable looking for empathy, others patronizing, and others looking for a date. There is tragedy in some of their stories, appeals for support, attempts to come to terms with illness, to understand how it has changed their lives. Kagan told instructors to use vignettes such as these sparingly so as to adequately explore trainee reactions to them. He also encouraged instructors to cut and splice films to suit their purposes: student responses to a film might be videotaped and used in IPR sessions. Film/videotape was thus used to dramatize difficult interpersonal situations, to elicit viewers’ responses to these situations, and to record these responses for further discussion.</p>
|
||
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
|
||
<p><em>Nurse-Patient Interaction</em> is very different to the earlier films in this collection. The first four are all stories of transition or transformation, unfolding processes with a resolution internal to the film. In <em>The Army Nurse</em>, the nurses morph from women to army nurses, and help wounded service men transition towards recovery, some to return to the U.S., others back to the front. In <em>Evening Care</em>, the corpsmen help sickroom patients transition from the day-time activities to the quiet of night, calming their patients, monitoring the very sick. In <em>Girls in White</em>, Betty transforms from woman to nurse, as do her co-trainees, as they prepare for their chosen careers. And in <em>Unsuspected</em>, Johnny’s near accident helps Linda Thorpe persuade Johnny Walsh’s mother to go into a sanatorium, where she is transformed from a public health threat to a non-threat and from ill-health to health. Mary Walsh’s story is a restoration narrative, a story of her recovery from tuberculosis to health, as well as a conversion narrative, since Mary (unaware of her illness) has to be persuaded that she is a danger to her family and that she must follow medical recommendations.</p>
|
||
<p>By contrast, the narrative trajectory in <em>Nurse-Patient Interaction</em> is open-ended. Each short, even abrupt sequence breaks off without resolution, and none give clues as to the outcome, no solutions to the issues raised by the sequence, no conclusion. In some of the sequences, there are hints of the surveillance delineated in the other films. Through the camera, the viewer/nurse trainee observes patients and listens to them, but unlike the earlier films the consequences of this surveillance are not portrayed, nor are the patients the obedient grateful figures of the other films. Nor it seems are the nurses simple helpmates to their white-coated male colleagues. They are subject to angry tirades from two, or praise that may be something more. The professional roles of the nurse, so clearly outlined in the earlier films, are tested by patients and colleagues alike. Without a conclusion within the film, the viewer is asked to complete the story, perhaps under surveillance by another camera or instructor, after which iteration their reactions would be reviewed.</p>
|
||
<p>Finally, <em>Nurse-Patient Interaction</em> makes a very different use of fear to the others. While there is fear in the other films—the fears of wounded patients, the fears that Mary Walsh’s illness might affect her family, and perhaps the fears of failure among the nurse trainees—they are all contained within a reassuring narrative in which these fears are eased (for the patients) by the professionalism of the nurses and doctors who offer reassurance and the hope of recovery, and (for the nurse trainees) the inspirational conclusions of each movie. <em>Nurse-Patient interaction</em>, however, made one sort of fear—interpersonal fear—central to its educational method. The assumption behind this film is that fears—such as giving and receiving affection or expressing and receiving hostility—limit the ability of nurses to work effectively with colleagues and patients alike. The film sequences (and the videotape recall component) aimed to help trainees experience and accept these fears, and by extension gain skills necessary to respond to these and other difficult inter-personal situations they might encounter in their professional life. If the earlier films in this collection scripted all interpersonal behavior, and portrayed the outcome of this behavior within the movie, <em>Nurse-Patient Interaction</em> only scripted one part of the interaction, avoiding an outcome within the film to focus on the unscripted responses of the nurse trainees, some off-camera, others recorded for later discussion.</p>
|
||
<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
|
||
<tbody>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td bgcolor="#f5f5f5">David Cantor is an investigador (researcher) at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES), Buenos Aires Argentina and an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. His scholarly work focuses on the history of medicine in the twentieth century, most recently the histories of cancer, stress and medical film. He was for several years affiliated with the National Library of Medicine and also worked in the Office of History, National Institutes of Health. His publications include <em>Reinventing Hippocrates</em> (2002); <em>Cancer in the Twentieth Century</em> (2008); <em>Meat, Medicine and Human Health in the Twentieth Century</em> (2010), co-edited with Christian Bonah and Matthias Dörries; <em>Stress, Shock, and Adaptation in the Twentieth Century</em> (2014), co-edited with Edmund Ramsden; and <em>Health Education Films in the Twentieth Century</em> (2018), co-edited with Christian Bonah and Anja Laukötter. He is series coeditor of <em><a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk%2Fseries%2Fsocial-histories-of-medicine%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C3ea58031234b4e4581f508d7947546dd%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637141103728132752&sdata=ixZDxCENme3HJYm1lOkM25kR2cuVyp7sjQF0QmL%2FGPU%3D&reserved=0">Social Histories of Medicine</a></em> published by Manchester University Press.</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<div class="footnotes">
|
||
<h3>Notes</h3>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn1" class="anchor" href="#_ednref1">[*]</a> This essay is based on notes that author David Cantor wrote to accompany a series of talks and film presentations titled <em>Screening the Nurse</em>. The films for this series—and discussed here—were chosen and reviewed by David Cantor and Anne Marie Rafferty with the assistance of Rosemary B. Cresswell. David Cantor and Anne Marie Rafferty co-presented screenings of the films at King’s College, London, September 1, 2008; The American Association for the History of Nursing Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 25th–28th September 2008; and (with Rosemary B. Cresswell) the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health Biannual Conference, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, 3rd-6th September 2009.</p>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2>More Medicine on Screen</h2>
|
||
]]></content:encoded>
|
||
|
||
<wfw:commentRss>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2020/03/31/screening-the-nurse-fear-and-narrative-in-nursing-films-from-the-1940s-to-the-1970s/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
|
||
<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">12198</post-id> </item>
|
||
<item>
|
||
<title>VD at the Movies: Public Health Service World War II Venereal Disease Films</title>
|
||
<link>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/</link>
|
||
<comments>https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/#respond</comments>
|
||
|
||
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Circulating Now]]></dc:creator>
|
||
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[Black & White]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[Educational & Instructional]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[Sound]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[condoms]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[prophylaxis]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[syphilis]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[US Army]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[venereal disease]]></category>
|
||
<category><![CDATA[World War II]]></category>
|
||
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/?p=11900</guid>
|
||
|
||
<description><![CDATA[<br>By John Parascandola, PhD<br>
|
||
|
||
The United States Public Health Service (PHS) released several education films in the 1930s and 1940s as part of a broader campaign against venereal-disease (VD). The agency had been operating a VD program since World War I, when concern over the number of Army recruits infected led Congress to enact a law that created a Venereal Disease Division in the PHS.
|
||
<p class="excerpt-links"><a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/"><span class="readview">READ ESSAY</span></a> | <span class="readview"> <a href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/know-for-sure/">VIEW FILM</a></span></p>]]></description>
|
||
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By John Parascandola, PhD (University of Maryland)</p>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><a class="video-title" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/know-for-sure/">Know For Sure<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1807" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/neural-and-humoral-factors-in-the-regulation-of-bodily-functions/research-on-conjoined-twins-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Research-on-Conjoined-Twins" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1807" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_feature.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Infection network chart." width="200" height="154" /></a></p>
|
||
<div class="video-meta"><strong>DATE: </strong>1941<br />
|
||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>22 min<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER:</strong> Research Council of the<br />
|
||
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,<br />
|
||
US Public Health Service<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound,<br />
|
||
Black & White</div>
|
||
<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
|
||
<p><a class="video-title" href="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/explore-the-vault/to-the-people-of-the-united-states-vd/">To The People<img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="1807" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/neural-and-humoral-factors-in-the-regulation-of-bodily-functions/research-on-conjoined-twins-3/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" data-orig-size="625,480" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Research-on-Conjoined-Twins" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=300%2C230&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Research-on-Conjoined-Twins.jpg?fit=625%2C480&ssl=1" class="alignnone wp-image-1807" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/To-the-People_feature.jpg?resize=200%2C154&ssl=1" alt="Title Screen" width="200" height="154" /></a></p>
|
||
<div class="video-meta"><strong>DATE: </strong>1944<br />
|
||
<strong>LENGTH: </strong>22 min<br />
|
||
<strong>PRODUCER/PUBLISHER:</strong> Walter Wanger,<br />
|
||
US Public Health Service<br />
|
||
<strong>CATEGORY: </strong>Educational & Instructional, Sound,<br />
|
||
Black & White</div>
|
||
<div class="clearfloatleft"></div>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he United States Public Health Service released several venereal-disease education films in the 1930s and 1940s as part of a broader campaign against venereal disease. Two of the best of these, produced in cooperation with the Hollywood filmmaking industry, were <em>Know for Sure</em> (1941) and <em>To the People of the United States</em> (1944).</p>
|
||
<p>The Public Health Service (PHS) had been operating a venereal-disease program since World War I, when concern over the number of Army recruits infected with syphilis or gonorrhea led Congress to enact a law that created a Venereal Disease Division in the PHS. With the end of the war, Congress lost interest in the venereal-disease problem, and funding for this purpose declined dramatically.</p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_11868" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11868" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11868" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/attachment/101443908/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?fit=1600%2C1151&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,1151" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Thomas Parran, Jr. (1892–1968)" data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101443908</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="<p>Thomas Parran, Jr. (1892–1968)<br />
|
||
National Library of Medicine #101443908</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?fit=300%2C216&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?fit=740%2C533&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11868 size-medium" title="Thomas Parran, Jr. (1892–1968)" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=300%2C216&ssl=1" alt="A man in a suit writes at a desk." width="300" height="216" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=300%2C216&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=768%2C552&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=1024%2C737&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=500%2C360&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=690%2C496&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=1317%2C947&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=800%2C576&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?resize=1400%2C1007&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/101443908.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11868" class="wp-caption-text">Surgeon General Thomas Parran, 1943<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101443908"><em>National Library of Medicine #101443908</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>When Thomas Parran was appointed Surgeon General of the PHS in 1936, however, he wasted no time in launching a new national campaign against venereal disease. Parran had served as chief of the PHS Venereal Disease Division earlier in his career and had never lost interest in the subject. In the early 1930s, he was detailed by the PHS to New York to serve as State Health Commissioner, and he made venereal disease a priority of his administration. In one well-known incident, Parran made headlines in 1934 when he canceled a radio address at the last minute because he was told that he could not mention syphilis or gonorrhea by name on the air.<a id="_ednref1" class="anchor" href="#_edn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Parran’s articles in magazines and his 1937 best-selling book, <em>Shadow on the Land</em>, were instrumental in breaking down the taboo in the popular press against the frank discussion of venereal disease. He sought to focus the battle against venereal disease on scientific and medical grounds, rather than placing an emphasis on moral or ethical views concerning sex.<a id="_ednref2" class="anchor" href="#_edn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> Parran did not completely ignore moral issues related to sex, but in the words of historian Allan Brandt, “Though he sought to avoid offending the social hygienists [who emphasized behavioral reform], Parran downplayed the moral argument.”<a id="_ednref3" class="anchor" href="#_edn3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_11873" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11873" style="width: 233px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11873" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/know-for-sure/quackdoctor_101450677/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?fit=720%2C928&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,928" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="No Home Remedy or Quack Doctor Ever Cured Syphilis or Gonorrhea" data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101450677</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="<p>No Home Remedy or Quack Doctor Ever Cured Syphilis or Gonorrhea, mid-1900s<br />
|
||
National Library of Medicine #101450677</p>
|
||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?fit=233%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?fit=720%2C928&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11873 size-medium" title="Public Health Service Poster" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?resize=233%2C300&ssl=1" alt="The shape of a man pouring a dose of medicine into a spoon overlaid with news clippings and advertisements for " width="233" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?resize=233%2C300&ssl=1 233w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?resize=500%2C644&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?resize=690%2C889&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/quackdoctor_101450677.jpg?w=720&ssl=1 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11873" class="wp-caption-text">No Home Remedy or Quack Doctor Ever Cured Syphilis or Gonorrhea, mid-1900s<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101450677"><em>National Library of Medicine #101450677</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>Parran also played a key role in the passage of the National Venereal Disease Control Act in 1938, which provided Federal funding through the PHS to the states for venereal-disease control programs, as well as supporting research into the treatment and prevention of venereal disease. As a part of its efforts to combat venereal disease, the PHS launched an educational campaign that involved issuing posters, brochures, and other publications on the subject, an effort that was stepped up when the United States entered the war in December of 1941. <a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1"></a></p>
|
||
<p>Included among the weapons in the campaign’s arsenal developed by the PHS in this period were motion-picture films. In 1942, PHS physician James A. Dolce wrote to a colleague:</p>
|
||
<blockquote cite="James A. Dolce"><p>“We feel very strongly that motion picture films are a most important medium for health education. Well-written and produced films not only command large audiences, but, as you know, actually instill more information into observers than does any other teaching aid.”<a id="_ednref4" class="anchor" href="#_edn4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
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||
<figure id="attachment_11875" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11875" style="width: 234px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11875" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/know-for-sure/syphilis_101450678/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?fit=720%2C923&ssl=1" data-orig-size="720,923" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Syphilis: A Million New Victims Each Year" data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101450678</p>
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" data-image-caption="<p>Syphilis: A Million New Victims Each Year, ca. 1945<br />
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National Library of Medicine #101450678</p>
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||
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?fit=234%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?fit=720%2C923&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11875 size-medium" title="Public Health Service Poster" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?resize=234%2C300&ssl=1" alt="An illustration of a green hand pulling up a calendar page to reveal a b&w photo reproduction showing a large crowd of people." width="234" height="300" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?resize=234%2C300&ssl=1 234w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?resize=500%2C641&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?resize=690%2C885&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/syphilis_101450678.jpg?w=720&ssl=1 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11875" class="wp-caption-text">Syphilis: A Million New Victims Each Year, ca. 1945<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101450678"><em>National Library of Medicine #101450678</em></a></figcaption></figure>
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||
<p>PHS began producing films about venereal disease (VD) even before the United States entered the war. Just a year after he assumed the office of Surgeon General, Parran arranged for the PHS to collaborate with the American Medical Association (AMA) in the production of <a href="https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101216493-vid"><em>Syphilis – A Motion Picture Clinic</em></a> (1937). This 80-minute sound film, however, was not aimed at the general public but at clinicians. It consisted of several segments featuring leading syphilologists lecturing on various aspects of the disease, essentially a group of “talking heads,” with occasional visual presentations or demonstrations. PHS also released two silent VD films that year, <em>Syphilis of the Central Nervous System – A Preventable Disease</em> (aimed at health professionals) and <em>Syphilis: Its Nature, Prevention and Treatment</em> (aimed at lay audiences). The annual report of the PHS for fiscal year 1938 indicated that this latter film was in great demand.<a id="_ednref5" class="anchor" href="#_edn5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
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||
<p>These early films were not very sophisticated from a cinematic point of view. In the case of the film designed for lay audiences, <em>Syphilis: Its Nature, Prevention, and Treatment</em>, a later reference to it by a PHS staff member termed it “amateur” in nature. He also noted that although it was useful in its time, it had become outdated and outmoded by 1940. It was silent and has been described as more of a slide lecture than a film. The fact that this film was “in great demand” in 1938 may be more a reflection of the paucity of good VD education films for lay audiences than of the quality of the product.<a id="_ednref6" class="anchor" href="#_edn6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Also in 1938, PHS produced a motion picture that made much better use of the film medium, <a href="https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101216493-vid"><em>Three Counties Against Syphilis</em></a>. The film tells the story of a PHS syphilis control program developed in 1937 in three counties in southeastern Georgia. The program was aimed at African Americans in a rural environment. PHS sponsored a mobile trailer clinic that traveled through these three rural counties and provided blood tests and treatment for syphilis. The film documented the program but presumably could also be used as a VD-education film, spreading the message that syphilis can be diagnosed and cured. It is painfully ironic that at the same time that PHS was promoting this program for African Americans, it also was conducting the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment.</p>
|
||
<p>Recognizing that it was not in a position to develop professional-quality films on its own, the PHS contracted with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to produce <em>Three Counties Against Syphilis</em>. A PHS staff member explained in 1937 that USDA had “a very complete motion picture unit upon which it spends several hundred thousand dollars a year” and that its staff included people with experience working for commercial film studios. He believed that PHS could retain more control over the film and get the work done more cheaply by using USDA than by contracting with an industrial film company.<a id="_ednref7" class="anchor" href="#_edn7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>As the conflict in Europe intensified, and the prospect of American involvement became more likely, efforts to prepare for war increased, as did concerns about venereal disease as it might affect the military and essential defense industries. The PHS intensified its campaign against venereal disease, which included the production of further films.<a id="_ednref8" class="anchor" href="#_edn8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> Among these were <em>Know for Sure</em> (1941) and <em>To the People of the United States</em> (1944). These films were intended to warn the public about the dangers of venereal disease and of the need to seek diagnosis and treatment.</p>
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||
<p>The <a href="https://www.oscars.org/">Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences</a>, which had begun producing motion pictures for the War Department on a nonprofit basis, was approached by the federal government in April, 1941 about the prospect of the Academy making a film on venereal disease for the PHS. The PHS had been interested in encouraging the large, commercial motion-picture studios to produce public-health education films since at least the late 1930s, as it was recognized that films made by Hollywood would be of exceptionally high quality from a production standpoint. The Research Council of the Academy agreed to produce the film, and Darryl F. Zanuck, the Council’s Chairman, decided to supervise the production.<a id="_ednref9" class="anchor" href="#_edn9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>On August 18, 1941, the Research Council issued a press release announcing that it was making a documentary film on sex hygiene, <em>Know for Sure</em>, for the PHS. The film was to be directed by Lewis Milestone and made at Twentieth Century Fox Studios. The script was written by John Sutherland from information provided by the PHS. The motion picture was designed to be shown to defense workers in airplane factories, ammunition plants, and other civil defense organizations. Not stated in the press release, but evident from other documents, is the fact that the film was meant to be shown only to male workers. This is the version that has been digitized for <em>Medicine on Screen</em>. (A version of the film omitting the scenes involving male genitalia and the use of prophylactics was later produced for use with female or mixed audiences.) Because the director, actors, and others contributed their services, PHS was able to obtain a professional-quality film at the relatively modest cost of $15,000. No cast credits were given in the film, but the Hollywood actors who appeared in it included J. Carrol Naish, Tim Holt, Samuel Hinds, Ward Bond, and African American actress Hattie McDaniel (as a housekeeper in a brothel).<a id="_ednref10" class="anchor" href="#_edn10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_11847" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11847" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11847" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/know-for-sure_101620467_8/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?fit=1577%2C1182&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1577,1182" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Trouble." data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101620467</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?fit=740%2C555&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11847 size-medium" title="Trouble" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Two men have a physical confrontation over a retail counter." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=690%2C517&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=1317%2C987&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?resize=1400%2C1049&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?w=1577&ssl=1 1577w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/know-for-sure_101620467_8.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11847" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Know For Sure</em>, 1941<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101620467"><em>National Library of Medicine #101620467</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>The film weaves together several stories through the interaction of two physicians. It opens with a vignette about Tony, a stereotypical Italian immigrant, complete with accent and an emotional temperament. Tony is excited about the birth of his first child, but is devastated when the baby boy is born dead, the victim of congenital syphilis. When the excitable Tony learns that he gave syphilis to his wife, who passed it on to the unborn child, he threatens to kill himself with a knife. The doctor calms him down and convinces him that he and his wife can be cured of the disease and have healthy children in the future.</p>
|
||
<p>Other stories in the film deal with men who contracted syphilis through prostitutes or “pick-ups” and with a syphilitic man who is robbed of his money and his health by a quack doctor. Although the film warns of the dangers of sex with prostitutes and “pick-ups,” emphasizing that a woman might “look clean” and still have the disease, it is not overly moralistic in its tone. While urging men to avoid casual sex, the film devotes substantial attention to methods for minimizing the risks of contracting VD in such situations. Men are encouraged to wear a “rubber,” and the film provides explicit instruction on how to use a condom. Detailed instructions are also given, with a visual demonstration, on how to cleanse the genitals after sex. The film also emphasizes the importance of seeking medical attention if one notices a sore or some other symptom that might indicate syphilis. One can only “know for sure” by getting a blood test. The fact that syphilis is curable with the proper medical treatment is also an important part of the film’s message.</p>
|
||
<p>As might be expected, the PHS’s decision to emphasize prophylaxis in <em>Know for Sure</em> came in for criticism from those who preferred an approach to VD education that involved a conservative sexual morality focused on abstinence from sex outside of marriage. For example, Dr. Walter Clarke, the director of the American Social Hygiene Association, which waged its own campaign against VD and collaborated with PHS on several efforts, complained to Raymond Vonderlehr, head of the PHS Venereal Disease Division, about the depiction of prophylactic methods in the film. Vonderlehr replied:</p>
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||
<blockquote cite="Raymond Vonderlehr"><p>…our belief was and still is that a certain number of men are going to find and use opportunities for extramarital sex relations no matter what happens. As I see it, an important part of our job is to prevent infection. Teaching men how to protect themselves from venereal disease does not imply that we condone sexual promiscuity no more than teaching soldiers how to protect themselves against poison gas proves that the Army wishes to encourage the use of such gas by the enemy.<a id="_ednref11" class="anchor" href="#_edn11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>This is a remarkable and clever analogy, which brings home the point that VD education is a tool that is designed to protect the soldier, thus serving the same purpose as military training in defensive tactics.</p>
|
||
<p>Although the film did point to prostitution as a major source of infection, Clarke apparently thought that more attention should have been given to this subject on moral grounds. Vonderlehr favored the repression of prostitution, but he distinguished between the moral and public-health aspects of the problem in his response to Clarke’s criticism of <em>Know for Sure</em>.</p>
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||
<blockquote cite="Raymond Vonderlehr"><p>Strictly speaking, our only interest in prostitution lies in its role as the most important carrier of infection. Morals and self control are important in our purview simply because of their preventive value. If all men invariably protected themselves, then, from a public health standpoint, prostitution unlimited would not concern us as health officers, even though we might strongly object to it on other grounds.<a id="_ednref12" class="anchor" href="#_edn12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>The executive officer of the Montana State Board of Health also raised a concern about whether the film might “encourage sex immorality and birth control.” PHS physician E. R. Coffey replied that the PHS believed that the need for enlightenment on methods of preventing VD outweighed other considerations and that he was confident that those who saw the picture would understand that the objective was not to encourage immorality but to emphasize methods that would prevent the spread of VD.<a id="_ednref13" class="anchor" href="#_edn13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>In fact, the PHS considered prophylaxis to be an essential message of <em>Know for Sure</em>. Coffey even referred to it in a letter as “the prophylaxis film.” Howard Ennes, a health education specialist for PHS, emphasized in 1942 that there was no question in his mind that considerable emphasis must be given to prophylaxis in PHS VD films.<a id="_ednref14" class="anchor" href="#_edn14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> In responding to criticism of the film from the VD Subcommittee of the Philadelphia Defense Council, Vonderlehr wrote that the film’s “primary educational message was the use and importance of prophylaxis.” He objected to the removal of the prophylaxis section of the film, as suggested by the Philadelphia group. Vonderlehr went on to defend the film by indicating that the PHS had already received a large number of favorable responses to the film.<a id="_ednref15" class="anchor" href="#_edn15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> When asked by an Army Major if <em>Know for Sure</em> would not have been more complete if it had devoted some of its message to continence as a means of preventing VD, George Parkhurst of the PHS Venereal Disease Division replied, “At the time this picture was made, however, it was felt that since numerous other films had laid particular emphasis on continence but had given no dramatic and effective emphasis to prophylaxis, the dangers of quack treatment, and the urgent need for early diagnosis and treatment, our film should devote its full length to these neglected aspects of the subject.”<a id="_ednref16" class="anchor" href="#_edn16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>PHS was well aware that the decision to focus on prophylaxis would make the film controversial. In order to minimize this criticism, PHS decided to distribute the film through local health agencies (it was assumed that these agencies in each state would buy prints of the film). Even the 65 prints to be distributed directly by PHS would be “loaned only on the endorsement of local health agencies.” E.R. Coffey explained in a letter to Vonderlehr, “The purpose of this arrangement is to forestall unnecessary criticism—which is sure to fall on any motion picture treating prophylaxis. Also, when the film is used in restricted groups under proper supervision, its effect can be supplemented by information from the local authorities and the subject matter better related to local situations.”</p>
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||
<p>Coffey suggested that a prophylaxis pamphlet be given to audiences seeing the film so that they would have something to take away that would give more detailed information than the film could. He believed that in this way “the lesson of the film can be driven home and the argument for prophylaxis, etc., clinched.” As we have seen, this arrangement did not forestall all criticism of the film, although it may well have limited such criticism.<a id="_ednref17" class="anchor" href="#_edn17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> The evidence indicates that <em>Know for Sure</em> was well received by other organizations, e.g. the Army, the Navy, the American Public Health Association, and the Venereal Disease Commission of the Michigan State Medical Society.<a id="_ednref18" class="anchor" href="#_edn18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<figure id="attachment_11877" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11877" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11877" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/portfolio/know-for-sure/vd-national-defense_101568680/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?fit=1600%2C957&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1600,957" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Venereal Disease and National Defense" data-image-description="<p>Venereal Disease and National Defense, 1941National Library of Medicine #101568680<br />
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||
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101568680</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?fit=300%2C179&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?fit=740%2C442&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11877 size-large" title="Venereal Disease and National Defense" src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=740%2C442&ssl=1" alt="Pages from a United States Public Health Service pamphlet." width="740" height="442" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=1024%2C612&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=300%2C179&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=768%2C459&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=500%2C299&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=690%2C413&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=1317%2C788&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=800%2C479&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?resize=1400%2C837&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VD-National-Defense_101568680.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11877" class="wp-caption-text">Venereal<em> Disease and National Defense</em>, 1941. One of several pamphlets about VD issued in the early 1940s. <br /><em><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101568680">National Library of Medicine #101568680</a></em></figcaption></figure>
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<p>PHS soon had another opportunity to cooperate with Hollywood in the production and distribution of a VD education film. The project appears to have been initiated in the fall of 1942 as the result of a conversation between Lawrence Arnstein, Executive Secretary of the California Social Hygiene Association, and noted producer-director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0911137/">Walter Wanger</a> about the possibility of Wanger’s making a VD film for the American Social Hygiene Association or the PHS. Wanger’s production company, Walter Wanger Productions, was affiliated with Universal Studios. Arnstein then discussed the matter with Parran and Vonderlehr at the Hot Springs National Conference on Venereal Disease Control in October. The PHS leaders “thought this a splendid opportunity to obtain a film suitable for release through theatrical, entertainment, motion picture channels.”<a id="_ednref19" class="anchor" href="#_edn19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> Wanger wrote to the Surgeon General near the end of the year to offer to donate his services “in making a really outstanding film about venereal disease,” as Vonderlehr put it in a letter to a colleague. Vonderlehr went on to say:</p>
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||
<blockquote cite="Raymond Vonderlehr"><p>Mr. Wanger’s idea is to make a film that would be shown in commercial theatres throughout the country, and he believes he can obtain the free services of many of Hollywood’s outstanding writers, actors, and technicians. […?] The possibility of reaching an enormous audience through a really outstanding film written, directed and produced by the very best talent in the motion picture field is, in our opinion, an unparalleled educational opportunity.<a id="_ednref20" class="anchor" href="#_edn20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
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||
<p>Wanger indicated that he was interested in the project only if he could have a free hand in making the film, although the PHS noted that it would reserve the right to review the medical content. According to Vonderlehr, Wanger viewed the film largely as a Hollywood contribution to the war effort and emphasized that it would have to be acceptable for showing in commercial theaters. Vonderlehr was not sure whether the film would cover the subject of prostitution and “promiscuous girls.”<a id="_ednref21" class="anchor" href="#_edn21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></p>
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||
<p>PHS had long been interested in the production of a VD education film that could be shown in commercial theaters. This venue would provide access to a much larger and broader audience than was available through limited screenings arranged by health departments, employers, and similar groups. Such a film, of course, would have to be suitable for mixed gender audiences and could not contain sexually explicit material. As early as 1938, Vonderlehr reminded a physician at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company that motion-picture houses existed for entertainment rather than for education, and that they would be more likely to show educational films that had dramatic value.<a id="_ednref22" class="anchor" href="#_edn22"><sup>[22]</sup></a></p>
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<p>Since the PHS did not believe that it could appropriately negotiate a contract to make a film with a particular studio, Wanger, Arnstein, and Leroy Burney, who had been assigned as the PHS technical consultant on the film, approached the California State Health Department to seek their involvement. The Department agreed to negotiate the contract with Wanger, and the PHS indicated that it would cover the expenses involved so long as they did not exceed $50,000. It also was agreed, however, that the PHS would have the right, if the film met with its approval, to sponsor the film for national theatrical distribution through the Office of War Information and for use through the various state health departments. Wanger envisioned that the film would be shown in theaters as a short along with the usual double feature.<a id="_ednref23" class="anchor" href="#_edn23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
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<figure id="attachment_11850" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11850" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11850" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/to-the-people_8700222a_2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?fit=1577%2C1184&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1577,1184" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Men on the airfield." data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700222A</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?fit=740%2C556&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11850 size-medium" title="Men on the airfield." src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1" alt="Men in uniform gathered around a jeep." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=768%2C577&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=1024%2C769&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=1317%2C989&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=800%2C601&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?resize=1400%2C1051&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?w=1577&ssl=1 1577w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_2.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11850" class="wp-caption-text"><em>To the People</em>, 1944<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700222A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8700222A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p>The script developed by Wanger’s organization was read and approved by the California State Health Department, the PHS, the Office of War Information, and the Army. Production began in the fall of 1943, and <em>To the People of the United States</em> was completed in January of the following year. Hollywood star Jean Hersholt donated his services to play the protagonist, an Army doctor. Other actors who participated in the film included Robert Mitchum and Noah Beery, Jr. The film begins with introductory statements by Army Surgeon General Norman Kirk and by PHS Surgeon General Parran. It then moves to a scene involving American bombers taking off from an airfield on a wartime mission. A disappointed bomber pilot, grounded because he has syphilis, watches the planes leave.</p>
|
||
<p>He is concerned that he will never fly again, but an Army doctor (Jean Hersholt) explains that syphilis is treatable and that the pilot can be cured. Much of the rest of the film is devoted to a comparison of syphilis rates and attitudes towards the disease in the United States versus Scandinavian countries. The openness in talking about venereal disease in Scandinavia is contrasted with the American practice of not discussing the problem in public. Americans are encouraged to confront the disease openly. Except for a final statement from Parran, the film ends with scenes of farmers, factory workers, soldiers, athletes, Boy Scouts, “bright, fresh looking girls, and healthy vigorous boys,” with the music building to a “rousing fade,” while Hersholt’s voice intones:</p>
|
||
<blockquote cite="Army Doctor played by Jean Hersholt">
|
||
<figure id="attachment_11854" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11854" style="width: 316px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?ssl=1"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-attachment-id="11854" data-permalink="https://medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/2019/11/20/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films/to-the-people_8700222a_6/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?fit=1577%2C1184&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1577,1184" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="In the doctor’s office." data-image-description="<p>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700222A</p>
|
||
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?fit=740%2C556&ssl=1" class="wp-image-11854 " title="In the Doctor's Office." src="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=316%2C237&ssl=1" alt="A man in a doctor's office." width="316" height="237" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=768%2C577&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=1024%2C769&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=690%2C518&ssl=1 690w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=1317%2C989&ssl=1 1317w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=800%2C601&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?resize=1400%2C1051&ssl=1 1400w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?w=1577&ssl=1 1577w, https://i0.wp.com/medicineonscreen.nlm.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/to-the-people_8700222A_6.jpg?w=1480&ssl=1 1480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11854" class="wp-caption-text">Jean Hersholt in<em> To the People</em>, 1944<br /><a href="http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700222A"><em>National Library of Medicine #8700222A</em></a></figcaption></figure>
|
||
<p style="text-align: left;">The children who follow us must inherit health—and freedom—and happiness. The Scourge of Disease must be wiped from the land, and then there will be a new day ahead. A day without insidious, lurking evil sicknesses—a day without a useless hypocritical attitude which refuses to name a germ—yet permits the horrible devastation caused by it. Syphilis! Say it … Learn about it! Have a blood test to make sure you haven’t got it! And, working together, we’ll stamp it out.<a id="_ednref24" class="anchor" href="#_edn24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>By December, 1943 the film had been completed, and the PHS was basically satisfied with the product, although indicating that some alterations might be needed. Parran wrote to the California Department of Health about purchasing prints of the film for distribution. He saw the film as “extremely valuable for use in an intensified national program of public education and information on venereal disease which will begin early in the new year,” sponsored by the PHS with the cooperation of the Office of War Information (OWI) and other agencies. Parran also spoke of initiating negotiations with OWI “for possible national commercial theater distribution.”<a id="_ednref25" class="anchor" href="#_edn25"><sup>[25]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>In January, Stanton Griffis, Chief of the Bureau of Motion Pictures of OWI, viewed the film at the request of the PHS and recommended that it be accepted as part of the OWI program and released as soon as possible. Griffis expressed the view that “the picture has been brilliantly made.” He did not see anything in the film “that could offend man, woman or child, except a prude still wandering in the haze of a social viewpoint of bygone days.” Griffis asked Parran to send him an enthusiastic letter of recommendation for the film “to break down exhibitors resistance.” Parran complied, emphasizing in his letter that the film dealt with one of the Nation’s most serious health problems, and adding:</p>
|
||
<blockquote cite="Thomas Parran"><p>For this reason I feel that every man, woman, and child in the United States should be given the opportunity of seeing this film. The nation’s motion picture exhibitors will perform a courageous and patriotic service by cooperating with the United States Government in exhibiting TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.<a id="_ednref26" class="anchor" href="#_edn26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>But in spite of the enthusiasm of the PHS and the OWI, and Griffis’s conviction that there was nothing in the film to offend anyone, <em>To the People of the United States</em> immediately ran into trouble. In early March, the Legion of Decency, established by the Catholic Church to evaluate whether films were “morally objectionable,” reviewed the film before it was to be released and protested against it to the OWI and the PHS. While admitting that venereal disease was a threat to the war effort, the Legion did not think that movie theaters were the appropriate venue for dealing with the problem. Burney and J. R. Heller of the PHS, along with William Snow of the American Social Hygiene Association, met with Monsignor John McClafferty and other members of the Legion to discuss the matter. The Legion representatives indicated that they opposed theatrical release of the film because it violated the Motion Picture Code’s strictures against sex hygiene and venereal disease as appropriate subjects for motion pictures. It also would “pave the way for a flood of pictures by producers who do not hesitate to avail themselves of every opportunity for lurid and pornographic material for financial gain.” Finally, it failed “to stress the fact that promiscuity is the principal cause for the spread of venereal disease.” Although admitting that the film was “essentially dignified and restrained in its treatment of the subject presented” (e.g., there were no scenes depicting syphilis lesions, sexual organs, or prophylaxis methods), the Legion asked the PHS not to sponsor it for theatrical release on the grounds noted above.<a id="_ednref27" class="anchor" href="#_edn27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Parran called an emergency meeting of the PHS Advisory Committee on Public Education for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases, which was made up of clergymen, health professionals, and teachers, for advice on how to handle the situation. The Committee recommended that in view of the opposition from the Legion and other groups, “it would not be wise for the Public Health Service to sponsor national theatrical release of this film.” It was thought that any other course of action “might endanger the whole program of venereal disease education and might even have harmful effects on other vital and important public health activities throughout the nation.” The Advisory Committee did suggest, however, that with minor changes the film would be suitable for controlled distribution through state and local health departments, voluntary health agencies, and similar organizations. In particular, the Committee recommended that “some attention be given to the influence of moral standards on the spread of disease.” The group was concerned that if no reference was made in the film to moral issues, it might appear to some that the PHS was “condoning sex promiscuity.”<a id="_ednref28" class="anchor" href="#_edn28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<p>Parran decided that it was best to accept the Committee’s recommendations. Wanger was naturally disappointed that PHS would not sponsor national theatrical distribution for the film, and asked Parran to reconsider his decision. The Surgeon General again consulted the Committee, which stood by its original recommendations. In his reply denying Wanger’s request, Parran noted that it was difficult for him to explain in detail all of the “supremely important factors” involved in the decision of the Committee and his own reasons for abiding by the Committee’s recommendations. He did, however, offer the following justification:</p>
|
||
<blockquote cite="Thomas Parran"><p>The Committee states that the problem concerns a great deal more than whether or not a particular film shall be released. They feel that for the government to sponsor theatrical release now is to incur the danger of arousing controversy which will involve the Public Health Service, the Federal Security Agency, the Office of War Information, the Army, and various religious, teaching and medical groups. At this particular time, when many important elements of our population are in a state of indecision and anxiety, it is believed any action on our part which would tend to add to the general atmosphere of conflict and controversy would be unwise.<a id="_ednref29" class="anchor" href="#_edn29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Parran also indicated to Wanger, as an additional justification, that the Committee was beginning “a survey of the entire field of venereal disease education in order to determine the extent to which promiscuity and moral standards should be dealt with in the educational efforts of official health agencies.” In this connection, Parran did defer to the concerns of the Legion of Decency in the revision of <em>To the People of the United States</em> before it was released for the controlled distribution mentioned above. The major alteration that was made in the film before distribution was to revise Parran’s brief concluding speech. In deference to the concerns of the Legion and other critics of the film, Parran’s new closing words emphasized promiscuity as a major cause of VD and gave credit to various groups combating this problem:<a id="_ednref30" class="anchor" href="#_edn30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<blockquote cite="Thomas Parran"><p>Here, we have told only part of the story of venereal disease control. Untold is the finework our churches, schools and social agencies are doing to prevent the promiscuity which spreads infection. It is important to remember that the only sure way for the individual to avoid infection is to avoid exposure. Learn the facts—with knowledge and intelligent action the people of America can eradicate the venereal diseases.<a id="_ednref31" class="anchor" href="#_edn31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Concerned about the damage that a controversy over the film might inflict on the PHS venereal-disease campaign and other programs, Parran elected to yield to religious and social pressures on this issue. He recognized that the film, which he thought was excellent, would be seen by fewer people if it were not shown in commercial theaters, but he accepted the compromise position of limited distribution to appease the Legion of Decency and other critics. Parran already had shown his willingness to tackle controversial issues by his frank discussions of venereal disease and his vigorous campaign to control it, but he was enough of a politician to recognize when it would be wise to give ground. In this case, the conservative approach of the Catholic Church towards sex education prevailed over purely scientific and public-health concerns with respect to the distribution of the film.</p>
|
||
<p>These two films, produced in cooperation with Hollywood talent, were more sophisticated that earlier PHS ventures into filmmaking. They are technically and artistically superior to their predecessor VD films. For example, the use of foreground/background compositions in <em>Know for Sure</em> (i.e., the use of the store window) is stylistically sophisticated, as are the sets and use of camera movement. The extended sequence of direct address in <em>To the People of the United States</em> is also cinematically effective. Unlike the earlier PHS VD films, which were documentaries, these motion pictures featured dramatic stories scripted by Hollywood writers and starring professional actors, thus making them appealing to the general public.</p>
|
||
<p>As noted, Parran faced resistance from those who wanted to treat VD as primarily a moral issue not only with respect to these films, but in connection with the entire PHS anti-VD campaign. Parran, who was himself a Catholic, believed that moral factors were important in sexual matters and the control of venereal disease. The PHS under Parran cooperated with social and religious groups in the campaign against venereal disease. The Surgeon General believed, however, that PHS had to view the subject primarily from a public-health viewpoint. In a 1944 letter defending the PHS against criticism of its VD education campaign, Parran explained that the PHS campaign was based upon scientific facts. He noted that the educational materials used emphasized the medical and public-health aspects of VD control “because the teaching of sexual morality is the function of the home, the church and the school,” and that health agencies were responsible for dealing with venereal diseases as dangerous contagions. He added that it should be possible, using available scientific methods, to eradicate these diseases in our lifetime, a timetable that “may be well in advance of any major changes in the sex habits of the population as a whole.” Finally, he argued that those who criticized the effort to educate the public about venereal diseases “have a tremendous job of their own in gaining acceptance for the way of life that would prevent them.” As demonstrated by the case of <em>To the People of the United States</em>, however, Parran was not always successful in keeping moral concerns from trumping public-health considerations.<a id="_ednref32" class="anchor" href="#_edn32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></p>
|
||
<table style="border: 2px solid #b8b8b8;">
|
||
<tbody>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td bgcolor="#f5f5f5">John Parascandola received his PhD in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After spending a postdoctoral year at Harvard University, he returned to Madison to join the faculty of the School of Pharmacy and the Department of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin. In 1983, he moved to Bethesda to serve as Chief of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine. He held that position until 1992, when he became the Public Health Service Historian. Since retiring from the federal government in 2004, Dr. Parascandola has been an adjunct faculty member in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has published several books and numerous articles, including <em>Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America</em> (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2008).</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
|
||
<p>Blank, Theodore. “An Historical Survey of the Development of the Use of Audio-Visual Materials in Venereal Disease Educational Programs, 1900-1949.” D.Ed. dissertation, Boston University, 1970.</p>
|
||
<p>Brandt, Allan M. <em>No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880</em>, expanded edition. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.</p>
|
||
<p>Lederer, Susan and Parascandola, John. “Screening Syphilis: <em>Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet</em> Meets the Public Health Service,” <em>Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences</em> 53 (1998): 345-370.</p>
|
||
<p>Nichtenhauser, Adolf. “A History of Motion Pictures in Medicine,” unpublished manuscript, ca. 1950, MS C 380, History of Medicine, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.</p>
|
||
<p>Parascandola, John. “Syphilis at the Cinema: Medicine and Morals in the VD Film of the U. S. Public Health Service in World War II,” in <em>Medicine’s Moving Pictures: Medicine, Health, and Bodies in American Film and Television</em>, ed. Leslie J. Reagan, Nancy Tomes, and Paula A. Treichler (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007), pp. 71-92. This paper gives a more detailed account of the PHS World War II VD films.</p>
|
||
<p>Walsh, Frank. <em>Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry.</em> New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.</p>
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<div class="footnotes">
|
||
<h3>Notes</h3>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn1" class="anchor" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> The story of the cancellation of Parran’s radio address is recounted in numerous sources. See, for example, Allan M. Brandt, <em>No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880</em>, expanded edition (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 122.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn2" class="anchor" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> Ibid., pp. 122-23, 138-142.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn3" class="anchor" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> Ibid., p. 140.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn4" class="anchor" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> James Dolce to Philip Broughton, June 27, 1942, 1942 folder, General Classified Records, 1936-1944, Group IX, General Files, 1350 (Motion Pictures), Public Health Service Records, Record Group 90, National Archives, Washington, D.C. The PHS records are housed in the Archives II facility in College Park, MD. All materials from RG 90, National Archives (NA), cited in this paper are from this general group unless otherwise noted.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn5" class="anchor" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> Adolf Nichtenhauser, “A History of Motion Pictures in Medicine,” unpublished manuscript, ca. 1950, MS C 380, History of Medicine, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, pp. IV-179-185; Theodore Blank, “An Historical Survey of the Development of the Use of Audio-Visual Materials in Venereal Disease Educational Programs, 1900-1949,” D.Ed. dissertation, Boston University, 1970, p. 614; <em>Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1938</em> (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938), pp.132-133.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn6" class="anchor" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Howard Ennes, Jr. to Raymond Vonderlehr, July 17, 1940, “Fight Syphilis” folder, Record Group 442, Acc. # 4NS-442-93-58, Box 2, National Archives Southeast Region, East Point, GA. All materials from RG 442 cited in this paper are from this collection unless otherwise noted.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn7" class="anchor" href="#_ednref7">[7]</a> Philip Broughton to Paul de Kruif, July 19, 1937, “V.D. Film” folder, RG 90, 1350, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn8" class="anchor" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> For more information on the PHS venereal disease program, see Brandt, <em>No Magic Bullet</em> and Parascandola, John, <em>Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America</em> (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2008).</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn9" class="anchor" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> Gordon Mitchell to Arch Mercy, May 12, 1941, “Know for Sure” folder, General Classified Records, 1936-1944, Group X, National Defense, 1940-1946, 1350 (Motion Pictures), Public Health Service Records, Record Group 90, National Archives, Washington, D.C.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn10" class="anchor" href="#_ednref10">[10]</a> Press release, August 18, 1941, attached to letter from Gordon Mitchell to Raymond Vonderlehr, September 22, 1941, ibid.; D.A. Dance to E.R. Coffey, August 20, 1942, Group IX, 1942 folder, 1350, RG 90, NA; two-page typescript description of the film, “Know for Sure” folder, RG 442, Box 2, NA SE Region.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn11" class="anchor" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> Raymond Vonderlehr to Walter Clarke, February 28, 1942, “V.D. Film” folder, RG 90, Group IX, 1350, NA. Vonderlehr expressed the view to Parran that since prostitution interferes with the effectiveness of venereal disease control, it should be repressed. Raymond Vonderlehr to Thomas Parran, March 17, 1941, 1943 folder, Group IX, 0425 (Venereal Disease), RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn12" class="anchor" href="#_ednref12">[12]</a> Raymond Vonderlehr to Walter Clarke, February 28, 1942, “V.D.Film” folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn13" class="anchor" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> W.F. Cogswell to E.R. Coffey, April 4, 1942 and Coffey to Cogswell, April 10, 1942, “Know for Sure” folder, Group X, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn14" class="anchor" href="#_ednref14">[14]</a> E.R. Coffey to Knox Miller, November 14, 1942, 1942 folder, and Howard Ennes, Jr. to L.C. Stoumen, May 27, 1942, “Know for Sure” folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn15" class="anchor" href="#_ednref15">[15]</a> Raymond Vonderlehr to John Stokes, March 24, 1942, “Know for Sure” folder, Group X, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn16" class="anchor" href="#_ednref16">[16]</a> George Parkhurst to John Ankeny, February 24, 1944, ibid.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn17" class="anchor" href="#_ednref17">[17]</a> E.R. Coffey to Raymond Vonderlehr, December 23, 1941, 1942 folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
|
||
<p><a id="_edn18" class="anchor" href="#_ednref18">[18]</a> Howard Ennes, Jr. to Raymond Vonderlehr, February 26, 1942, 1942 folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA; Blank, “Historical Survey,” p. 793.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn19" class="anchor" href="#_ednref19">[19]</a> Otis Anderson to Mary Switzer, April 3, 1944, “V.D. Film” folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA. At about this same time, the PHS also collaborated with Hollywood on another film project related to VD. In 1943, Warner Brothers and the PHS produced an abridged 30-minute version of the feature film <em>Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet</em> that focused on the portion of the story dealing with Paul Ehrlich’s discovery of Salvarsan and its use against syphilis. The adapted version of the film, entitled <em>Magic Bullets</em>, was added to the PHS inventory of educational films. See Susan Lederer and John Parascandola, “Screening Syphilis: <em>Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet</em> Meets the Public Health Service,” <em>Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences</em> 53 (1998): 345-370.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn20" class="anchor" href="#_ednref20">[20]</a> Raymond Vonderlehr to Charles Taft, December 31, 1942, 1942 folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn21" class="anchor" href="#_ednref21">[21]</a> Ibid.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn22" class="anchor" href="#_ednref22">[22]</a> Raymond Vonderlehr to Donald Armstrong, August 1, 1938, 1937-38 folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA; Frank Walsh, <em>Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry</em> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 179.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn23" class="anchor" href="#_ednref23">[23]</a> Anderson to Switzer, April 3, 1944; Raymond Vonderlehr to C. C. Applewhite, March 24, 1943, “Film Scripts re Venereal Disease” folder, RG 442, Box 1, NA SE Region.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn24" class="anchor" href="#_ednref24">[24]</a> “To the People of the United States” script, “To the People of the United States” folder, RG 442, Box 1, NA SE Region.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn25" class="anchor" href="#_ednref25">[25]</a> Thomas Parran to Wilton Halverson, December 6, 1943, 1943 folder, Group IX, 1350, RG 90, NA.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn26" class="anchor" href="#_ednref26">[26]</a> Stanton Griffis to Francis Harmon, January 5, 1944; telegram from Stanton Griffis to Leroy Burney, January 6, 1944; Parran to Griffis, January 7, 1944, “To the People of the United States” folder, RG 442, Box 1, NA SE Region.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn27" class="anchor" href="#_ednref27">[27]</a> Anderson to Switzer, April 3, 1944; Walsh, <em>Sin and Censorship</em>, p. 180.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn28" class="anchor" href="#_ednref28">[28]</a> Thomas Parran to Walter Wanger, March 16, 1944, “To the People of the United States” folder, RG 442, Box 1, NA SE Region.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn29" class="anchor" href="#_ednref29">[29]</a> Thomas Parran to Walter Wanger, March 31, 1944, ibid.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn30" class="anchor" href="#_ednref30">[30]</a> Ibid. See also Frank Walsh’s discussion of the controversy over the film in <em>Sin and Censorship</em>, pp. 179-182.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn31" class="anchor" href="#_ednref31">[31]</a> “To the People of the United States” script; Thomas Parran to Wilton Halvarson, April 11, 1944, “To the People of the United States” folder, RG 442, Box 1, NA SE Region.</p>
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<p><a id="_edn32" class="anchor" href="#_ednref32">[32]</a> Thomas Parran to George Healy, Jr., September 16, 1944, 1944 folder, Group IX, 0425, RG 90, NA.</p>
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<hr />
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<h2>More Medicine on Screen</h2>
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