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I had a chance to
view the the new 22 minute Snow Movie produced by Isaac Ergas and
recently described in The Epidemiology Monitor (Sept 2011).
I enjoyed it and
found myself wondering how historically accurate some of the
scenes are such as Snow attempting to dismantle the pump with an
iron bar ahead of the meeting with the Board of Governors. Talk
about taking matters into your own hands!!
Also, did Snow's
knowledge about anesthesia and gases really help him to persuade
the doubters? Finally, was there an outlier case on Margaret
Street as portrayed in the movie that was an important clue to
linking the water supply to cholera. Outliers like this one and
another at the brewery provided very compelling evidence.
I asked Isaac
Ergas the producer to comment on these questions. I am sure
readers who watch the movie will have their own. Here is what
Ergas told me.
First question:
No, there is no
evidence that Snow attempted to dismantle the pump on his own. As
a short film, I need to quickly demonstrate that shutting it down
on his own was not a possibility. When I asked an expert (Vinten-Johansen)
why Snow simply did not remove the handle himself, he replied that
most likely residents would have simply got another handle. My
story did not have time for that. I added the lock just to make
it harder and to further drive home the point that Snow would need
the permission of the Board to get it shut down.
Second question:
Yes, as an
anesthesiologist, he had excellent knowledge on the
characteristics of gases. This was probably his greatest asset in
determining the nature of cholera since it was so evident to him
that it did not act like the gases he was so familiar with. In
Vinten-Johansen’s book, he references a hearing in which Snow was
an expert witness on behalf of the “offensive tradesmen” (bone
boilers, etc...) and he specifically talks about the law of
diffusion of gases (I took his Snow’s words into my script on
this).
Third question:
The outlier was
not on Margaret street, but rather in the outlying area of
Hampstead (not sure which actual street). We had difficultly in
visually portraying Hampstead on the scale of map that we had, so
we decided to bring the mark closer to the pump and not mention
where exactly it was in the dialogue. Unfortunately, we could not
add the street name.
Screenings of the
Film To Date
According to Ergas,
the film has had the following screenings. His report and comments
are included below.
Tribeca Film Institute and the Alfred P Sloan Summit
Snow’s second screening took place at the Directors Guild in New
York City, as part of a weekend long science and film summit
hosted by both the Tribeca Film Institute and the Alfred P Sloan
Foundation. It screened along with several other short films and
was received extremely well by an audience made up of filmmakers
from around the world.
Universities and Public Health Institutions
Snow has also screened at several universities and public health
institutions both here and abroad. This includes the University
of Iowa, University of Miami, University of Southern California
and a Rsg de Borgen in the Netherlands. Though I was not in
attendance at any of these, the feedback I received thus far is
that they found the film extremely useful in an academic setting
and some intend to make use of it on an annual basis.
Film Festivals
Snow has been submitted to several film festivals around the world
(both large and small). Though we have only heard back from a
small percentage of them, Snow was just selected for the San Luis
Obispo Film Festival
http://slofilmfest.org/
We
did not get into Sundance or Slamdance or Berlin.
Upcoming Screenings
Snow is already set to screen in several places in the coming
year:
- 2/13: USC Digital Media Studies Group at USC.
- 3/22: University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public
Health
- 4/13: USC First Look Film Festival at USC.
- April ??: Part of Global Health Awareness Week at USC.
DVDs will be available from the website (www.snowthemovie.com) by
2/15/2012.
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