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Polio - The Last Word
directors/producers: Nick Thorpe and Adam Csillag Thirty-five years ago, an intensive program of vaccination virtually eliminated polio from the developed world, but in the poorer countries the disease still claims 400,000 victims every year. It's an unacceptable state of affairs, which the World Health Organization has promised to stop—by wiping polio off the face of the earth by the year 2000. This film documents the history of this epic human undertaking, from the terrifying polio epidemics that raged in the early years of the twentieth century, to the development of the vaccines by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, and the extraordinary effort by ordinary people to spread the vaccine throughout the world. Now there's the real possibility that if remote regions can be reached with the vaccine, and the level of immunization is maintained worldwide, polio—like smallpox, can be eliminated forever. bio: Adam Csillag graduated as a film and television director at the Hungarian National Film Academy in 1984. From 1984-1990 Mr. Csillag worked at the Bela Balazs Film Studio workshop for young directors. His films are shown and awarded at different international film festivals. POLIO: THE LAST WORD won a Special Prize for best co-production at the Prix Leonardo International Film Festival in Parma, Italy. In 1997 Adam Csillag was recipient of the Bela Balazs Award from Hungarian Minister of Culture, for outstanding lifetime achievement as a film director. Mr. Csillag is now working on a film about the commercial sexual explotation of children in Central and Eastern Europe. contact information: |
