2004 Science in Society Journalism Awards

Television

Noel Schwerin

“Bloodlines: Technology Hits Home”

Backbone Media

Description:

A baby with five “parents” and none of them recognized by law. A patent application for a creature that would be genetically part human and part chimpanzee. A corporation secretly doing genetic tests on its workers. These scenarios are not only real, they are challenging our most fundamental beliefs and establishing legal precedents that govern our future. “Bloodlines: Technology Hits Home”, reveals how new life technologies are raising ethical, legal and social dilemmas as cutting edge science intersects with the law. What does it mean to be a parent? What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to have a right to medical privacy? Fueled by the human desire to do everything medically possible, given momentum by multi-billion-dollar investment in scientific research, and encouraged by a lack of regulation, these technologies are forcing us to ask: are we creating a world that we won’t want to inhabit?

Biography:

Noel Schwerin of Backbone Media has been making documentaries for over twenty years. In addition to writing, producing and directing “Bloodlines: Technology Hits Home”, Schwerin also wrote and produced its award-winning web site and award-winning discussion guide.

“Bloodlines” has won many awards, including two first-prize Clarion Awards from the Association of Women in Communications, first- and second-prize “Freddies” at the International Health and Medical Awards, and the best-of-print Ben Franklin Award and several Chris Awards at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival. The Democratic Policy Committee offered to deliver “Bloodlines” to the entire U.S. Senate, and the Senate Republican Conference uses “Bloodlines” in senior staff discussion groups.

Schwerin has spoken about her work at many special symposia and screenings, including those hosted by the Democratic Policy Committee, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Association of Women Judges, Harvard Medical School, UC Berkeley and < a href="http://www.stanford.edu" target="_new" class="reglink">Stanford University. Her previous PBS special, “A Question of Genes,” also won numerous awards as well as a special citation in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s “Public Broadcasting’s Services to Minorities and Other Groups.” Schwerin’s other titles include the PBS documentary, “Just Passing Through,” and, at NOVA where she worked for six years, producing credits on “Yellowstone’s Burning Question,” “So You Want to Be a Doctor?,” “The Big Spill” and “Freud Under Analysis.”

A graduate of Carnegie Corporation, ABC and CBS News, and a number of independent production companies. Schwerin’s work has received glowing reviews in, among others, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide and New York magazine. Schwerin had a half page Q&A in the New York Times, and has been featured in reports by O Magazine, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” CBS News Radio and many other broadcast media.

Schwerin’s work has been excerpted for museum exhibits, including major shows and permanent exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the San Jose Tech Museum in California.

Science in Society Journalism Awards:
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