Albino Crisis

Professor Murray Brilliant from the University of Arizona is testing a radical new medical theory.

His highly confidential research involves travelling to Africa to test hundreds of people with leprosy and albinism. The work is dangerous and risks the wrath of local witchdoctors, who covet white albino body parts for their alleged magical powers.

Two of Professor Brilliant's medical research volunteers with albinism are teenage sisters Semeni (16) and Shida (12), who live with their black mother Mary and black siblings. Their father is in jail, accused of arranging the murder of their albino sister, and selling her white limbs to a witchdoctor.

Mum Mary wants to contribute to Professor Brilliant's groundbreaking medical research and learn how to manage her daughters’ condition in the blistering African sun.

In an isolated camp nearby is one of the world's biggest leper colonies. Here, lepers like Melina queue to offer medical samples for Professor Brilliant’s research. Also Lee-Anne, a Canadian teenager with albinism, is about to go on the world's only albino summer camp in Canada, where families with albinism get together from all over North America. Could she too help with Brilliant’s work?

The confidential theory and results of this groundbreaking research, with international implications, will be revealed in this documentary.

Related links:
- See the Albino Crisis image gallery
- Watch Albino Crisis video clips
- Watch the first 5 minutes of the show

Further information:
- Link to charitable organisation Under The Same Sun
- Link to the National Organisation for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, NOAH
- Link to Positive Exposure, an arts organisation that works with individuals living with genetic difference

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