Taxol And Yew

Straight out of today's headlines, producer/director David Heine's Taxol and Yew tells the mesmerizing story of the controversy surrounding the harvesting of the yew tree-the yew being the source of the cancer combating drug, taxol. Combining interviews with authorities such as Hal Hartzell, Jr. (author of The Yew Tree: A Thousand Whispers), forestry officials, chemists, and academics, the film offers insight into the taxol controversy and raises important questions about our priorities. Particularly effective in the treatment of ovarian cancer, taxol is being produced by the Bristol-Myers Co., which has a virtual lock on the yew bark necessary for creating the drug. As the tale unfolds, we learn that a) the Pacific Yew is headed toward possible extinction due to immediate-gratification harvesting methods (strip the bark, trash the tree), b) that the National Cancer Institute handed Bristol-Myers the exclusive rights to produce taxol using the yew bark (which, oddly enough, is being provided to their extracting company, Hauser Chemicals, at no charge by the forestry folk), and that c) current research in extraction from the needles rather than the bark has proven that a renewable method for producing taxol exists. Tracing the recent resurgence of interest in the yew tree (once revered for its wood in making bows and lutes, and eventually considered a "trash tree"), Taxol and Yew provides a context for understanding the headlines about taxol, the wonder drug. A timely documentary which is likely to be popular. Highly recommended. (Available from: Aspect Productions, 1593 Jefferson St., Eugene, OR 97402.)