White Coffins
Matthew Jackett, Writer
Sloan Grant(s) Received:
2020, Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize, Tribeca Film Institute
2019, Screenwriting Award, NYU
Project Type: Feature
Genre: Historical Biopic
Length: 104 pages
Field of Science: Infectious Disease
Stage: Development
Synopsis
In 1907 New York City, Dr. Sara Josephine Baker (Jo), a young female health inspector, works to stop the spread of disease in the immigrant communities of Lower East Side tenements. When Jo is assigned to a mysterious outbreak of typhoid in the wealthy homes of the city’s elite, she begins to suspect the source may be an Irish cook named Mary, even though Mary had never had typhoid and asymptomatic disease transmission was yet to be discovered. As Jo becomes increasingly obsessed with her mission to track down and arrest Typhoid Mary, she must reckon with her own role in a public health system designed to punish the poor and vulnerable.