The university hosted a screening of HBO’s new film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on Monday. The film is based on science reporter Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book of the same name, which documented the life of a Baltimore woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951.
Lacks’ biopsied cancerous cells were, without the knowledge of her family, used by the Johns Hopkins Hospital for medical research and became the first immortal line of cells used for scientific research. The use of Lacks’ HeLa cells sparked a debate over consent in medical research that continues today.
Hopkins announced its decision to screen the film in an email on April 18.
In February of this year, Lacks’ eldest son opened a new lawsuit against the Hospital, asking to be compensated for the use of his mother’s cells. Lawrence Lacks, the plaintiff, and his son Ron Lacks have previously criticized the book about Henrietta Lacks. The younger Lacks felt that it failed to correctly represent the history of the family, according to a News-Letter article published in March of this year. Suits were also opened against the National Institute of Health (NIH), author Rebecca Skloot and HBO.
In his introduction to the film, James Page, the interim vice provost and chief diversity officer emphasized the importance of nurturing a conversation around Henrietta Lacks’ story, despite the fact that the book’s translation to the screen may not have reflected as well on the University as it could have.
“We at Hopkins are committed to celebrating the life and legacy of Mrs. Lacks, and that’s one of the most important things we can do. You’re going to see in this movie a powerful re-telling of a story that was first brought to us by Ms. Rebecca Skloot,” Page said. “What’s important to know is that this movie, like many other books that have been made into movies, does not quite get everything that was in the book into the movie.”
Page said that some important parts of the University’s history and medical research were left out of the movie.
“But we are happy because we get to help our audience learn about the story of Mrs. Lacks... and who she was,” Page said. “We have the ability to create a conversation about this phenomenal black woman and what many people say is the most important woman in medicine today.”
Page’s colleague, Dr. Landon King, the executive vice dean of the School of Medicine, explained the mentality behind hosting this screening, as well as of those on the medical campus.
“Once it was clear that it was going to be a movie — we had some dialogue along the way with HBO and with the Lacks family — we wanted to have the opportunity to share it with the community,” King said. “I don’t have HBO. I suspect lots of other people don’t have HBO, but, beyond that, this is just an important story for us. This is our history. Henrietta Lacks was our patient, which as a physician at Hopkins, means a lot to me.”
King said that he was proud that Hopkins took care of Lacks when other other healthcare providers didn’t.
“We took care of her when other places wouldn’t. She got the best care possible, but there’s other places that we really needed to do better and could’ve done better, so I think the publication of the book has reinforced for many of us that we have to redouble our efforts in trying to identify those places that we can make progress and do a better job,” he said.
The film itself is the work of playwright and director George C. Wolfe. The principal star is chat show icon and star of The Color Purple Oprah Winfrey, who plays Henrietta Lacks’ daughter Deborah, who was still young when her mother died.
Alongside Winfrey is Rose Byrne, the Australian actress who has starred in films like Insidious and several of the X-Men films, who plays the reporter Rebecca Skloot. Lacks herself is played by Renée Elise Goldsberry of Hamilton fame.
Hopkins sophomore Emma Maxwell said that while she found the movie to be a moving portrayal of the Lacks family, she wished it had focused more on the science of how the immortal cell line was developed and what kind of research it went on to be used for.
“The film, while emotionally compelling, failed to really capture the scientific process or importance of the HeLa cells,” Maxwell wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “That being said, it did a great job of conveying the generational impact that the theft of the HeLa cells had on the Lacks family, even beyond simply the absence of Henrietta as a mother.”
She also stated that the film focused more on portraying the emotions that accompanied the Lack’s families experience.
“It made clear the intellectual and emotional trauma that the Lacks family suffered as a result of years of scientists and doctors either lying or neglecting entirely to provide explanations,” Maxwell wrote. “In that sense it seemed to validate the well-deserved distrust of medical institutions that still exists today among many African-American residents of the Baltimore community.”
Maxwell found some of the content of the responses made during the conversation that followed the screening interesting, but overall felt as though the University’s involvement in the story lent a lack of impartiality when addressing concerns about their involvement.
In particular, she criticized panelists’ avoidance of tough questions regarding the role of the Hospital in the controversy and their relationship with Baltimore.
“For me, the most promising answer provided by the administrators was the current initiative to include more patients (particularly patients of color with lower socioeconomic status) on committees and feedback efforts,” Maxwell wrote. “Working toward healing what is honestly a condemnable history in this city absolutely requires a receptiveness to the voices of the people whom Hopkins has marginalized and abused for generations.”
Hopkins sophomore Caroline Lupetini agreed that the film could have done more to illuminate Henrietta Lacks’ life and the impact of her cells on science.
“I feel that the film left out a lot of the story. For a movie about the quest to learn about who Henrietta Lacks was, we didn’t really learn a lot about her, besides some brief flashback scenes,” Lupetini wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “I want to know more about her experiences at the hospital and her treatment, as well as the actual science behind the HeLa cells.”
Lupetini also echoed Maxwell’s idea that more complex dynamics need clarification.
“I didn’t know a ton about the Hospital’s initiatives to engage more with the community, and I appreciated hearing a lot about those (like having patients on internal review panels), and also that they acknowledged their current shortfalls in these programs,” Lupetini wrote. “At the same time, I would have liked to hear more about some of the programs (like [the University’s] massive land-buying in many areas around Baltimore) that might promote things like gentrification.”
