The Genius and the Boys

Overview

D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile. Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations? (Storyville)

Details

Status

Released

Release date

November 20, 2009

Original language

English

Spoken languages

English

Countries

Sweden

Production

Svenska Filminstitutet,BBC Storyville,ARTE GEIE,SVT Dokumentär,Eight Millimetres,DR-Dokumentar

Cast

Bosse Lindquist,Lovisa Mbagintao,Sena Anua,Warwick Anderson,Robert Gajdusek,Daniel Carleton Gajdusek,Oliver Sacks,Robert Gallo,Benoît B. Mandelbrot,Michael Alpers

Director

Bosse Lindquist

Writer

Bosse Lindquist

Producer

Jonas Kellagher

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

View on IMDb