Blood Trail: Filmmaker Can’t Show Documentary, Judge Says

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE ^ | 040117 | LINDA SATTER

[Askel5]

Blood Trail: Filmmaker Can’t Show Documentary, Judge Says

LINDA SATTER | ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Saturday, January 17, 2004

On Friday, just two days before a Little Rock man was to see his name on a documentary on the big screen at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah, a federal judge ordered the showing stopped.

It was a victory for Michael Galster of Pine Bluff, who filed a lawsuit Dec. 24, 2003, alleging that a former friend and employee, Kelly Duda of Little Rock, had stolen Galster’s work and planned to show an altered version of it at the festival as though it was Duda’s creation.

U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele imposed a preliminary injunction prohibiting Duda from releasing the film or permitting anyone else to show it. Galster said he is going to Park City, Utah, to make sure the film isn’t shown.

Galster said he had edited down several years’ worth of work on the documentary Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal to four hours of usable material that he hoped to show publicly, possibly as a television series. But he said Duda made off with "the source films and everything," including the four-hour compilation, and reorganized the material into an 85-minute film that took a different slant than Galster had intended.

In a hearing scheduled for three hours that instead lasted three days, Galster said Duda’s version included interviews Galster had omitted and deleted material Galster planned to use.

Duda’s version of the film was scheduled to begin a series of showings on Sunday, the second day of the week-long 10th annual festival that coincides with the better-known Sundance Film Festival. The Slamdance festival showcases first-time filmmakers working with limited budgets.

Galster said he learned about Duda’s plans after Duda was interviewed about the film on Dec. 10, 2003, on National Public Radio.

The documentary was one of seven chosen from thousands to be shown at the festival, where budding filmmakers hope to get recognition and contacts that will propel them to the "big time."

Festival organizers couldn’t be reached Thursday or Friday, but the festival’s Web site said the film "investigates the sale of tainted blood from infected prisoners to Canada, Europe and Japan, thus spreading AIDS and Hepatitis C."

In 1998, Galster wrote a novel, Blood Trail, under the pen name Michael Sullivan. Galster said the fictional account of an amputee who became infected with tainted blood from prisoners is based on the same real-life situation the documentary is based on: a discovery in Canada of tainted blood from inmates at the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Cummins Unit near Grady. Galster, who operates an orthotics clinic in Pine Bluff, said he learned of the situation by working with amputees he fitted for prosthetics.

Duda, who testified by telephone from Salt Lake City on Friday, insisted that "this is my film" and that Galster only "sporadically contributed" to certain portions financially because he was a friend of Duda’s former girlfriend, who is the mother of Duda’s daughter. Both men claimed to have been independently researching the issue long before the production began. Galster said he hired Duda in 1998 to help him with filming, but Duda contends he was never an employee except at Galster’s clinic.

"I am the interviewer, the researcher, the writer," Duda testified.

Although Duda claimed he never had an agreement of any kind with Galster, a friend of Duda’s who testified by telephone as a defense witness said that years ago, Duda had "described what he thought was a gentleman’s agreement with Mr. Galster."

Eisele’s injunction prevents the documentary’s showing until after a trial — not yet scheduled — on the case. Meanwhile, the judge directed Duda to turn over to the court, for safe-keeping, all tapes, computer hard drives and research materials used in making the film.

"The real shame is that the film will not be shown on Martin Luther King's birthday, and the victims' voices will not be heard," Duda said after the ruling. "... We will fight this and we will prevail."

This story was published Saturday, January 17, 2004

[Askel5]

Backhoe, if you've got the bloodbox handy, I'd appreciate it.

[Prince Charles]

Score one for the good guys.

[T'wit]

There is no miscarriage of justice here. Mike owned the film and proved it easily with financial records. He prevailed on every point. It was Kelly who broke faith with all of us -- Bloodhounds certainly included -- who had contributed to the effort to publicize the Arkansas tainted blood story.

The video Kelly submitted was little changed in substance from the one Mike turned over to the RCMP some four years ago. Kelly did little more than shuffle old material and write himself in as narrator (4 minutes), in effect claiming credit for the whole effort.

If you worry that this was some kind of plot to suppress the story, remember that Mike Galster put his life on the line to get the story told. His clinic was firebombed -- a total loss. Of course he wants the story told, and he wants it told truthfully and well (the current video falls short on both counts). Now that Mike is getting his films and files back, the video will be reworked professionally for release, he hopes, within six months.

[T'wit]

Oh, yes, this is good news, and there is better to come.

[backhoe]

Fast grab:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1060651/posts

FreeRepublic EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Witness Regarding Arkansas Tainted Blood Scandal Movie
Tona DeMers | 1-18-03 | Doug from Upland

Blood scandal links -- CLICK.

Budge's Links to the Tainted Arkansas Prison Blood Story Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four SEARCH: "Blood Trail" ... "Tainted Blood" Clinton Timeline Blood Trail Timeline Who, What, Where … Posts by adanaC: BLOOD MONEY: What Canadian Donors Didn't Know (1976) HEPATITIS AGENT: They've Named It For What It Isn't (1978) Poisoned Blood Left Thousands to Suffer Unaided (early 1970's) RCMP Will Not Lay Charges Against Government Bureaucrats Who Destroyed Crucial Evidence LIDDY DOLE'S RED CROSS RUNS AMOK (New American) THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 1 -- HOW BLOOD, THE 'GIFT OF LIFE,' BECAME A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS THE LOOSE WAY THE FDA REGULATES BLOOD INDUSTRY FEAR OF AIDS SPURS CHANGE RED CROSS: FROM DISASTER RELIEF TO BLOOD AMERICA: THE OPEC OF THE GLOBAL PLASMA Series Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 22:14:30 PDT by Wallaby MUST READ: Is the Blood Trade Responsible for the AIDS Epidemic? (Compiled by Wallaby)

Budge's Links to the Tainted Arkansas Prison Blood Story Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four SEARCH: "Blood Trail" ... "Tainted Blood" Clinton Timeline Blood Trail Timeline Who, What, Where … Posts by adanaC: BLOOD MONEY: What Canadian Donors Didn't Know (1976) HEPATITIS AGENT: They've Named It For What It Isn't (1978) Poisoned Blood Left Thousands to Suffer Unaided (early 1970's) RCMP Will Not Lay Charges Against Government Bureaucrats Who Destroyed Crucial Evidence LIDDY DOLE'S RED CROSS RUNS AMOK (New American) THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 1 -- HOW BLOOD, THE 'GIFT OF LIFE,' BECAME A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS THE LOOSE WAY THE FDA REGULATES BLOOD INDUSTRY FEAR OF AIDS SPURS CHANGE RED CROSS: FROM DISASTER RELIEF TO BLOOD AMERICA: THE OPEC OF THE GLOBAL PLASMA Series Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 22:14:30 PDT by Wallaby MUST READ: Is the Blood Trade Responsible for the AIDS Epidemic? (Compiled by Wallaby)

[thinden]

reorganized the material into an 85-minute film that took a different slant than Galster had intended.

based on following the blood trail story for a few years, I CAN imagine what michael's "slant" would be.

after looking at the same videos and listening to the same interviews, I CAN'T imagine why duda's "slant" would be any different than michael's.

well, hold on. I can think of one or two.

[T'wit]

>> well, hold on. I can think of one or two.

Sure. He put himself in. Four minutes of footage at the beginning. (Mike had not done a comparable segment. He did not want a narrator in the video; he wanted the individuals interviewed to tell the story in their own words.)

Here's a mystery of sorts about the interviews Kelly switched. The witness recently quoted in another thread was indeed one of those originally interviewed several years ago. Mike didn't think her comments added anything, so he did not include her interview in the video. Given her pleading for Kelly's version, her claims of inside information, and her financial support for Kelly, one would instantly guess he put her back in?

He did not. The judge was puzzled by that and asked her (on the phone) why she wasn't in the video? Well, she said, she looked just horrid that day so she begged Kelly not to include her.

I think Kelly used the lady exactly the same way he used Mike and a few sympathetic folks in Canada. He told them all the same thing, that he needed money to continue... It went on for four to five years. Now it ends.

[murdoog]

Didn't Clinton have a lawyer or private detective named Duda?
This name sounds familiar for some reason.

[murdoog]

I've heard Duda is alson in trouble with the guy who wrote "Camptown Ladies" for stealing most of the song and inserting his name into the lyrics. :)

[Wallaby]

>private detective named Duda? This name sounds familiar for some reason.

---

Good memory!

---

HILLARY CLINTON WISE TO HUSBAND, NEW BOOK SAYS; MISTRESS LIST GETS PRIVATE-EYE CHECK Compiled by J.E. BOURGOYNE NATIONAL; Pg. A20 Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) April 23, 1999 Friday, ORLEANS A new biography says Hillary Rodham Clinton hired a private detective in 1982 to give her the goods on a list of 14 women. In Joyce Milton 's book, "The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton," private eye Ivan Duda says President Clinton 's wife never told him why she wanted the dirt on the women. He said she showed emotion only when one of the 14 women turned out to be an employee of the Rose law firm, where she worked. A spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton said: "I don't think there's any basis for this as far as I can tell." Duda lost his private investigator's license in what he says was a retaliatory move by the Clintons. The book also says that Hillary Clinton barred Barbra Streisand from a White House overnighter because her visits had fired gossip and that on their second date, Clinton gave his future wife a copy of Walt Whitman 's "Leaves of Grass," the same gift he later gave Monica Lewinsky .

[BigM]

interesting!

[thinden]

A new biography says Hillary Rodham Clinton hired a private detective in 1982 to give her the goods on a list of 14 women.

In Joyce Milton 's book, "The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton," private eye Ivan Duda says President Clinton 's wife never told him why she wanted the dirt on the women.

hot dang. nice find there walls.

duda is not a common name. suppose kelly & ivan duda are kin?

[thinden]

good question. great memory.

[thinden]

her financial support for Kelly

1st I've heard of this.

thanx.

[MizSterious]

Certainly connects some dots!

[T'wit]

>> duda is not a common name. suppose kelly & ivan duda are kin?

Father and son.

[thinden]

father & son, you say.

and pops once worked for hildabeast?

hmm.

[Old Professer]

Rotten.