Posted on 12/27/2003 10:04:34 PM PST by Wallaby
Michael Galster of Pine Bluff filed a complaint in U.S. District Court this week against Kelly Duda of Little Rock. Galster wants a judge to stop Duda from showing the documentary Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal next month at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Galster, who operates an orthopedic clinic in Pine Bluff, does not have a registered copyright on the documentary. He claims, however, that federal law protects him as the author from "any intentional distortion, mutilation or modification" of his work. "This film is the plaintiff’s sole cinematic production," the lawsuit says, "and it must be presented as the plaintiff intended." In the late 1970s and early 1980s, more than 1,000 people in Canada were infected with HIV through the country’s blood supply, and more than 10,000 were infected with Hepatitis C. Some of those infected claim that tainted blood came from inmates at the Cummins Unit near Grady. Officials had attempted to recall some of the blood product made with inmates’ plasma in 1983, after discovering that ineligible donors had taken part in the Cummins program. In 1997, a Canadian commission studying what is called the "tainted blood tragedy" described in its final report how blood made its way from Arkansas to Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s through a Montreal-based company called Continental Pharma and a Toronto company called Connaught Laboratories. |
According to a report earlier this month by the Canadian broadcasting group, CTV, Inc., Factor 8 claims that the blood center continued shipping inmate blood to Canada after 1983.
Duda’s Little Rock telephone number is unlisted. He did not return an e-mail requesting comment. Galster’s court filing says he began working on the documentary in 1998 after finishing his book, Blood Trail. Galster says in an affidavit that he hired Duda to help him. But, after years of working on the project together, Galster claims Duda has "stolen my project... and corrupted its content," the lawsuit claims. Factor 8 is included in a list of documentaries set to compete in the Slamdance Film Festival. A recent news release from festival organizers describes the film as an 85-minute documentary directed by Duda that "investigates the sale of tainted blood from infected prisoners to Canada, Europe and Japan, thus spreading AIDS and Hepatitis C." Galster is not mentioned. The Slamdance Film Festival is a competition for emerging filmmakers that coincides with the Sundance Film Festival. The Arkansas Department of Correction’s Cummins Unit operated the state’s only prison plasma program from the mid-1960s until 1989. Hundreds of inmates sold plasma each week and were paid as much as $7 per donation.
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Agree! Let's hope so, and in the meantime give it a push on our own.
Duda is trying to take credit for something he was only hired to do. If it wasn't for Mike, there would be no film!
Please, re-ping me to any of the other threads if possible!
He has exclusive rights, but has not found a filmmaker yet to take it. Which surprises me because the book is ideal for a movie and packs a huge dramatic impact. I suppose the wariness in Hollywood has to do with its toe-sucking allegiance to Slick Willie.
I still think it will be produced someday.
a person would be hard put to get anybody in hollywood to produce "Blood Trail" as a movie.
sinister historical implications aside, imo, the book was every bit as riviting as anything john grisham has produced.
maybe fox? as a made for t.v. movie?
In a series of articles in the March 2003 International Journal of STD and AIDS, Dr. David Gisselquist, John Potterat and colleagues argue that the spread of HIV infections in Africa is closely linked to medical care. In their unique study of existing data from across the subcontinent they estimated that only about a third of HIV infections are sexually transmitted. Their evidence suggests that "health care exposures caused more HIV than sexual transmission", with contaminated medical injections being the biggest risk. *HIV and STDs: According to the authors' data, African HIV did not follow the pattern of sexually transmitted disease (STD). In Zimbabwe in the 1990s HIV increased by 12% a year, while overall STDs declined by 25% and condom use actually increased among high-risk groups. *Infection rate: HIV spread very fast in many countries in Africa. For the increase to have been all via heterosexual sex, the study claims, it would have to be as easy to get HIV from sex as from a blood transfusion. In fact, HIV is much more difficult than most STDs to transmit via penile-vaginal sex. *Risky sex? Several general behavior surveys suggest that sexual activity in Africa is not much different from that in North America and Europe. In fact, places with the highest level of risky sexual behavior, such as Yaounde in Cameroon, have low and stable rates of HIV infection. "Information ... from the general population shows most HIV in sexually less active adults." |
*Children and injections: Many studies report young children infected with HIV with mothers who are not infected. One study in Kinshasa kept track of the injections given to infants under 2. In one study, nearly 40% of HIV+ infants had mothers who tested negative. These children averaged 44 injections in their lifetimes compared with only 23 for uninfected children.
*Riskier to be rich: Most STDs are associated with being poor and uneducated. HIV in Africa is associated with urban living, having a good education, and having a higher income. In one hospital in 1984, the rate of HIV in the senior administrators was 9.2%, compared with the average employee rate of 6.4%. The authors suggested several reasons why evidence has been ignored until now, including the West's preconceptions about African sexuality, the fear that people might lose trust in health care, and simple disbelief that medical practices could be so unsafe. They concluded, "A growing body of evidence points to unsafe injections and other medical exposures to contaminated blood" as an explanation for the majority of the spread of the epidemic. "This finding has major ramifications for current and future HIV control programs in Africa". This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports. |
Bud Henderson ADMITTED -- on camera -- to making $500,000 a year from selling tainted blood. Correcting for inflation, that would be more like $2 million a year, or a million-five.
We don't know how much the Clintons got, but from Arkansas understandings, and the amount of arranging and lobbying he did to protect the operation -- the Clintons got a bundle. A third? That could have been $5-6 million a year.
Even supposing that's much too high, they got a lot of money for spreading death by AIDS and Hepatitis C. His statement above shows him once again to be utterly without conscience or core.
I missed this, as we were away at Christmas, just got back yesterday.
Good point.
It's good to see you all again, it's been a loooong time.
bump
bump and a drip!
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