MUSEUM EXHIBIT CLOSED AS OF FEBRUARY 27, 2009
Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America
“Because of what happened at Carville, the world will never again be the same.”
 | The graveyard at Carville. Credit: The Wilhelm Group, Inc.,
Copyright 2005. | A prime time PBS documentary premiering in High Definition March 28, 2008
Produced by The Wilhelm Group
Contents:
The Story:
This film documents the triumph over mankind’s most feared disease, told through the personal accounts of those who lived it.
The story begins over a century ago on an abandoned Louisiana sugar plantation. There, a group of outcast patients, caring nuns, and dedicated doctors created a refuge for leprosy patients from all over the world. Out of this unique, isolated community—part hospital, part prison—came hope for the entire world.
Despite the tragic circumstances of horrific, personal stigma and forced confinement at Carville, life there wasn’t all gloom and doom. Each year, patients celebrated Mardi Gras. They fielded a championship softball team. And they regularly crawled through the infamous “hole in the fence” to picnic on the levee with their children—who, at birth, were taken away from their patients—or secretly taxi to Baton Rouge to attend LSU homecoming games.
After decades of risky, frequently painful experiments on the patients, Carville researchers finally found a “cure.” Today, this multi-drug treatment is successfully used everywhere.
What happened at Carville changed the world forever. Some call it a “miracle.”
Triumph at Carville also will change most everything you thought you knew about this ancient affliction.
- Leprosy is one of the hardest diseases to catch—95% of us are immune. Yet millions around the world still suffer from it—because for centuries, the infection rate has remained the same.
- Leprosy is the only disease for which US citizens lost the right to vote.
- Armadillos are the only animals besides humans known to get leprosy.
- Scientists still do not know how leprosy is transmitted.
The Production:
The film’s creative vision comes from Nationally Syndicated Washington Post medical writer Sally Squires. In 1989, Squires made the first of many reporting visits to Carville, through which she gained numerous friendships with patients traditionally wary of outsiders.
Cinematographer Allen Moore shot more than 50 hours of principal photography to create living portraits of Carville’s people and grounds. Another 45 hours of archival footage, plus hundreds of still photographs and historic radio broadcasts all have been brilliantly woven together with minimal narration by Editor and Academy Award Nominee Barbara Ballow. The resulting film takes viewers on a unique personal visit inside this landmark institution.
Original music was composed and performed by Grammy Award Winner Bela Fleck, accompanied on bass by MacArthur Award Fellow and Grammy Winner Edgar Meyer and several other world-class musicians.
ADVISORY BOARD
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop chaired the Carville Project’s prestigious Advisory Board, which includes U.S. Public Health Service Historian (ret.) John Parascandola, Ph.D., Senate Oral Historian Donald Ritchie, Ph.D., Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., Director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, and Jonathan Moreno, Ph.D., Silfen University Professor and Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania, plus several other historians and scientists.
Credits:
Written and Produced By
John Wilhelm and Sally Squires
Director
John Wilhelm
Associate Producer
Amy Erickson
Director of Photography
Allen Moore
Sound Recordist
Robert Silverthorne
Editor
Barbara Ballow
Music
Bela Fleck
Photo Animation
Berle Cherney
Narrator
Michael Tolaydo
Executive Producer
John Wilhelm
Made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Additional Funding by
Celgene Corporation
Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
A sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts
NMHM Temporary Exhibition:
NMHM Public Programming:
Contacts:
John Wilhelm
wilhelm.john@verizon.net
National Museum of Health and Medicine
nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil
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