A Perilous Quest to Save the World’s Children
The Twentieth-Century was a dangerous time to be young. Before vaccines, there were a multitude of diseases that too often kept children from reaching even their teenage years. From the throws of that environment, Dr. Maurice Hilleman would emerge to lead a revolution in vaccine innovation and save many millions of young lives each year
But after being forced to retire at the height of his productivity in 1985, Hilleman watched as one company after another began to abandon vaccine research. When parents began choosing not to vaccinate their children in the 1990s the cruel irony became clear; Hilleman’s unprecedented successes had allowed us to forget just how devastating childhood diseases could be.
Medical History Pictures produced and premiered this feature-length documentary film at the 2016 SCINEMA Science Film Festival in Australia, where it won Best Documentary. In 2017, the film garnered the Science Communication Award at the 10th International Science Film Festival of Athens, Greece, won Best Biography and Audience Choice Best Documentary at the New Hope Film Festival, and was selected as one of six films to participate in the 2016-17 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation On Screen/In Person series.
HILLEMAN also screened at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and is currently available on Vimeo.
The Cast
Paul Offit, MD
Director, Vaccine
Education Center
David Oshinsky, PhD
Pulitzer Prize-winning Author
Baruch Blumberg, MD
Nobel Laureate
Robert Gallo, MD
Co-discoverer, HIV
Anthony Fauci, MD
Former Director, Nat’l Institute
of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
Awards
