New film about Agent Orange, once made in Nitro,WV
Gardner in a cave with camera man
Janet Gardner, the sister of former WV educational film mogul, Ty Gardner, contacted me about a new film she has directed about the long-term effects of Agent Orange on both the people of Viet Nam and plant workers in the Kanawha Valley. ( I once showed a film called “Agent Orange” to lawyers involved in some case, perhaps this one. It had a few scenes of the Nitro plant.) Hopefully the film will be shown somewhere in the Kanawha Valley in the next few months. ( Ty still owns an educational film company, Jaguar Educational, based in Charleston that was the descendant of Cambridge Educational after it was sold to a NY conglomerate, Primedia. He however lives in Florida.)
Written by Janet Gardner -
THE LAST GHOST OF WAR synopsis:
At Tu Du Hospital in Saigon, babies in a special unit have enlarged heads or
are missing limbs. Pham Thi Thuy Linh, born without arms, writes with her
feet. Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, she has been diagnosed
as one of the victims of Agent Orange. In The Last Ghost of War, we meet
plaintiffs in a class action suit against 32 US chemical companies.
Were the dioxin-laden herbicides chemical weapons? If so, who should be held
accountable? These alleged Vietnamese and American victims, attorneys,
scientists, and a military historian take us to a new battlefield.
The Last Ghost of War is a presentation of the Center for Asian American
Media with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Fund for
Investigative Journalism Inc. and New Jersey Council for the Humanities. An
international version is distributed by WGBH International and Filmakers
Library, Inc. Produced by Janet Gardner and Pham Quoc Thai, The Last Ghost
of War was directed by Ms. Gardner. Running time: 57 minutes. One of the attorneys featured in the program is Stuart Calwell of Nitro and Charleston. Two Monsanto retirees are also featured as they recount the production history at the plant during the Vietnam War. Greg Harpold and his crew shot the sequences in Nitro and Charleston. We also worked with staff at the Charleston Gazette.You can see photos from the film at www.gardnerdocgroup.com.
