PCC to Screen Compelling Documentary A Hole in the Head

Pasadena City College will host a screening and question-and-answer session Oct. 18 for the documentary film “A Hole in the Head” as part of the One Book, One College program.

This award-winning documentary is the compelling story of Vertus Hardiman and nine other young children who, in 1927, were severely irradiated during a medical experiment in Lyles Station, Indiana. Under the guise of a newly developed cure for a scalp fungus, parents blindly signed permission slips for the treatment.

Hardiman was the youngest of the children at five years old. After 20 years of friendship with the writer/producer Wilbert Smith, Hardiman unburdens himself on film and tells his incredible story, finally exposing the severe physical complications caused by this shocking medical crime.

“For over 80 years, only four individuals outside a few medical specialists have ever seen my condition: I hide it because I look like some monster,” Hardiman said.

“A Hole in the Head” will be shown in PCC’s Creveling Lounge, from 5 to 9 p.m. Following the film, Assistant Superintendent Robert Bell will be interviewing the filmmaker.

For more information, please contact Dr. Christopher D. Jimenez y West, PCC instructor, at (626) 585-7236 or cdjimenezywest@pasadena.edu.