Voices for Choice, Vermont's pro-informed consent advocacy group against mandatory vaccination, is sponsoring a screening of Miranda Bailey’s new film, “The Pathological Optimist”, on Tuesday, January 30 in Brattleboro at the Latchis Theater, 50 Main Street. Skype Q&A and discussion will follow the film.
The Pathological Optimist is a documentary about Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the man behind the most controversial, intensely debated topic in modern medicine. The film was shown to a full house in Montpelier in December.
With The Pathological Optimist, director Miranda Bailey brings us a character study of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, one of 13 co-authors of a notorious 1998 paper in the UK medical Journal The Lancet. An expat from Britain who currently resides in Austin, Texas, Wakefield allowed Bailey and her team to follow him and his family for five years, beginning in 2011. Curiously, the film takes no sides.
Over the course of the film, Wakefield fought a defamation battle in the courts against the British Medical Journal and journalist Brian Deer. The results of that case – and the self-reflection, pronouncements, and observations of Wakefield, his legal team, wife, and his children – create a complex and incisive look at the so-called, “father of the “anti-vaccine movement.”
More information and tickets ($11): https://pathological_optimist_brattleboro.eventbrite.com
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