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DATE: 1941

LENGTH: 21 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

DIRECTOR: Lewis Milestone (uncredited)

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, US Public Health Service

Warning: The film contains explicit images of disease and intrusive medical treatment. Viewer discretion advised.

Summary

Convinced that motion pictures could convey information more effectively than almost any other medium, the United States Public Health Service, led by Dr. Thomas Parran, produced or contributed to about a dozen films on venereal disease in the 1930s and ‘40s. Some were aimed at clinicians, others at soldiers, and others at the public. Parran and his colleagues at the PHS sought to frame the battle against VD as a public health concern—how to prevent it, how to treat it—rather than a moral one focused on abstinence….Read the Essay

View another film featured in the essay.

To the PeopleTitle text over stars and stripes.

DATE: 1944
LENGTH: 22 min
PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Walter Wanger, US Public Health Service
CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White


Supplementary Materials

Film Stills from Know for Sure


In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection

A newborn wrapped in blankets.Explore digitized films on venereal disease in the NLM Digital Collections

Posted by:Circulating Now

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