TYPHOID MARY, a one-hour documentary film will use the unparalleled story of Mary Mallon -- the first person in North America to be identified ala healthy carrier of typhoid fever-- as a framework for investigating the social, cultural, ethical, legal, and philosophical implications of public health policy toward communicable disease during the early twentieth century. The narrative framework of TYPHOID MARY is Mary Mallon's story. Its intellectual armature is a set of powerful conflicts: the clash between civil liberties and the Public good; and the divergence between ethics and science. Combining biographical drama and provocative social history the film will invite viewers to reflect on live inter-related themes: the emerging fields of bacteriology and epidemiology- the public control of private behavior; the interaction between public policy and such factors as ethnicity, and class; the impact of developments in science on societal values and customs; and the influence of popular media on society's responses to medical and social problems. Goods of the Project; To examine the scientific, social, cultural, and political forces that shaped public health care policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To provide audiences with an understanding of the human side of disease by means of a thorough examination of the era in which Mary Mallon lived, with particular emphasis on the social dynamics of class ethnicity, and gender. To offer a historical illustration of a key debate about the ethics of protecting the public health. To stimulate discussion about parallel contemporary efforts to protect the public health. To provide an overview of the developing history of bacteriology, and the way it was understood (and misunderstood) in America as it matured. To challenge the enduring cultural image of Typhoid Mary as a metaphor for a prototypical disease carrier, thereby contributing to the ongoing, sometimes-heated debate among historians about the factors that influenced Mary Mallon's treatment. NOVA has pledged toward the production of this film. Funds will be sought from government. foundations, and corporate sources. TYPHOID MARY will be broadcast nationwide on the NOVA series and distributed nationally by means of educational, theatrical, home video venues and foreign broadcast.
