The story of chemist and UH professor Alice Augusta Ball comes to life in this new short film
The Ball Method (2020) tells the little-known story of Alice Ball, a 23 year-old African American chemist living in 1915 Hawaiʻi who fights against racial and gender barriers to find an effective treatment for leprosy before Kalani, a 10-year-old patient, is exiled to Kalaupapa on Molokai.
Alice Ball and her legacy are an important part of Black history in Hawai‘i and even more relevant today as we consider the history of public health crises, the practice of quarantine, and how scientific endeavors can be a profound expression of humanity and compassion.
Join us for this exclusive online screening and post-film talk story with filmmaker Dagmawi Abebe and special guest experts in public health, historians, and scholars of Alice Ball.