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The Genius and the Boys

Directed by Bosse Lindquist
The documentary investigates late American Nobel laureate Carleton Gajdusek's enigmatic discoveries. Gajdusek discovered mad cow disease on Papua New Guinea in the fifties, as well as twenty previously unknown stone-age peoples and languages. From the late 1940's and onwards he commuted the world, focusing on the most isolated peoples still remaining on the globe. He adopted 57 children to his commune at the National Institutes of Health, MA, USA -most of them boys. In the late 90's he was charged with having abused one of the boys in his care - a then 16-year old boy from Micronesia. The film reveals how Gajdusek in fact was a self-proclaimed pedophile, who admitted to having had sex with numerous other children as well. One man who was abused in childhood is interviewed in the film, as well as several legendary scientists who were friends of Gajdusek and deemed the sexual parts of his character as of less importance.
Where to Watch The Genius and the Boys
Cast of The Genius and the Boys
  • Michael AlpersHimself - Professor of Medicine - Expert on Kuru
  • Warwick AndersonProfessor in Medical Anthropology
  • Sena AnuaMedical Reporter - PNGIMR
  • Carleton GajdusekHimself - Virologist - Anthropologist - Linguist - Author - etc
  • Robert GajdusekBrother
  • Robert GalloHimself - Director, Institute of Human Virology and Co-discoverer HIV
  • Oliver SacksHimself - Professor of Neurology and Author
  • Lovisa MbagintaoSecretary
  • Benoît B. MandelbrotHimself - Former Professor of Mathematics - Yale and Princeton (as Benoit Mandelbrot)

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