Anti-Vaccine Film, Pulled From Tribeca Film Festival, Draws Crowd at Showing
By MELENA RYZIK

A roiling controversy over the truthfulness and intent of a documentary about the widely debunked link between vaccines and autism did not keep theatergoers away from its premiere on Friday. Several dozen people (and more than a handful of reporters) arrived for the first showing of “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe” at the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan, along with a producer and co-writer of the film, and some of its distributors.

The movie, about the supposed connection between autism and vaccines, had been accepted for a screening later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival and then suddenly removed amid criticism. Robert De Niro, a founder of the festival, initially supported the showing but then decided to drop it, saying that upon reviewing it with scientific professionals, he felt it would not contribute to a positive discussion about public health issues.

Still, moviegoers were eager to see it on Friday. Bonnie Peters drove from Palm City, Fla. “Regardless of whether your stance is pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, you should have the opportunity to know all the facts,” said Ms. Peters, 66, who described herself as “more pro-information,” and who has two grandsons with autism. “I want to see both sides of the story,” she said. She left the screening in tears.

The film was directed and co-written by Andrew Wakefield, an author of a 1998 study that suggested the link. The study, published by the British medical journal The Lancet, was retracted in 2010. Though the film mentions the retraction, it does not note that the British General Medical Council revoked Mr. Wakefield’s medical license, citing ethics violations and financial conflicts of interest. Mr. Wakefield appears in “Vaxxed” as an expert on the topic.

“Wakefield doesn’t just have a dog in this fight; he is the dog,” the critic Eric Kohn wrote in his review of the film for the cinema site Indiewire. Calling it “one-sided propaganda,” he added that the film walks a “troubling ethical line, pushing an outrageous agenda only evident to viewers willing to look beneath its paranoid surface.”

The film’s distributor, Cinema Libre, has presented the film as an outlet for claims by Dr. William Thompson, a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author of a 2004 study on vaccinations. But Dr. Thompson does not appear in person in the film, nor has he seen it, said Del Bigtree, a producer and co-writer of the film.

Dr. Thompson’s voice is in the film, in conversations recorded without his knowledge (as the film notes). He is still employed by the C.D.C. and would not comment. In 2014, he released a statement saying that while he questioned the 2004 study’s presentation of some data, he would never advise people not to get vaccinated.

A spokeswoman for Reading International, which owns a chain of theaters, including the Angelika, did not respond to requests for comment about how the film came to be shown there.

Cinema Libre, based in Burbank, Calif., has been on both sides of this issue: In 2011, it released “Loving Lampposts: Living Autistic,” a documentary by Todd Drezner, whose son has autism. Mr. Drezner’s film argued against a connection between autism and vaccines, and for autism-spectrum acceptance. Mr. Drezner said he was “profoundly disappointed,” as he wrote in an open letter, in the company’s support for “Vaxxed.” (Cinema Libre did not respond to his open letter or a private email, he said.)

Mr. Bigtree, the “Vaxxed” co-producer, attended the screening and said he had not watched Mr. Drezner’s film. “I don’t want to be influenced by somebody else’s creative thoughts,” he said.

For many theatergoers, the controversy over “Vaxxed” was a selling point. “It makes me want to see it all the more, if the scientific community is that scared,” said Olivia Wolf, 48, a stay-at-home mother from New Jersey who brought her 9-year-old daughter to an afternoon screening. Subsequent screenings that included talks with Mr. Wakefield were sold out.

“Vaxxed” itself vacillates between vilifying vaccines and saying that they save lives. Sowing this kind of confusion, Mr. Drezner said in an email, may harm the very people it aims to save. “All the energy we spend fighting over a debunked vaccine conspiracy theory,” he wrote, “is energy we’re not spending on working with autistic people to help them better thrive in the world today.”

翠貝卡影展 / 勞勃狄尼洛 撤反疫苗爭議片

紐約「翠貝卡影展」主辦單位原本將播放一部討論「麻疹、腮腺炎、德國麻疹混合疫苗」（MMR三合一疫苗）與自閉症相關性的紀錄片，多位紀錄片導演和醫學專家強烈反彈，認為影展創辦人之一、奧斯卡影帝勞勃狄尼洛堅持放映，將重新勾起家長對三合一疫苗的恐慌，這恐慌卻沒有科學根據。勞勃狄尼洛廿六日宣布取消播映這部片。

影帝自訴 家有自閉兒

勞勃狄尼洛發聲明說：「我安排播放這部片，是為了提供機會，讓大家討論三合一疫苗與自閉症的關聯，這個議題跟我和我家密切相關，但最近幾天，我和影展團隊及科學界人士仔細研究這部片，我們不認為這部片對我希望促成的討論有幫助。」勞勃狄尼洛的兒子有自閉症。

這部紀錄片名為「疫苗接種：從掩蓋真相到大災難」，由英國人魏克菲爾德執導。一九九八年魏克菲爾德在英國醫學期刊「刺胳針」發表論文，主張三合一疫苗可能是自閉症案例增加的原因，呼籲暫停施打這款疫苗。不過，其他學者未能證實他的研究結果，而且調查顯示他的研究過程違反倫理涉嫌造假，例如他的報告中稱蒐集到十二個幼兒注射三合一疫苗出現自閉症狀的病例，後來被發現其中至少五人在注射前就已出現自閉症狀，其他幾個病例的陳述也涉嫌捏造，因此刺胳針在二○一○年撤銷這篇論文，英國醫學總會也以他行為「不誠實、不負責任」為由，撤銷他的醫師執照。

不實研究 將引發恐慌

英國媒體後來追蹤發現，魏克菲爾德的研究經費來自一些自閉症兒童的家長聘用的律師，似乎有意以這篇不實研究控告藥廠。他雖然在醫界名譽掃地，但仍有一批忠實追隨著認同他的主張，認為他是英雄。他的論文也一度引發恐慌，成千上萬父母不敢讓小孩注射三合一疫苗，以致麻疹和腮腺炎病例增加。

美國堪薩斯密蘇里大學小兒科教授瑪麗．傑克森說：「一個科學騙子成為鎂光燈焦點真讓人難過。」但紐約時報說，許多人擔心，魏克菲爾德會藉此大肆宣傳他這部「揭弊」紀綠片史無前例的遭影展封殺，一些相信陰謀論的人可能更堅定支持他。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/nyregion/anti-vaccine-film-pulled-from-tribeca-film-festival-draws-crowd-at-showing.html

2016-03-28．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯李京倫