Addiction Incorporated
Film Screening and Forum
Charles Evans Jr. and Victor DeNoble
January 10, 2012
4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Santa Monica
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| Whistleblower Victor DeNoble, left, with Mike Milken and filmmaker Charles Evans Jr., takes questions from the audience after the documentary screening. |
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Victor DeNoble, a research scientist at Philip Morris in the 1980s, was supposed to create a safer cigarette. In the end, he created a firestorm of controversy for the tobacco industry after discovering scientific evidence that nicotine was addictive.
"Addiction Incorporated," a new documentary by director Charles Evans Jr., tells the fascinating tale of DeNoble's path from principled scientist to intrepid whistleblower. The film recounts DeNoble's testimony before Congress - and the heads of seven major tobacco companies declaring under oath that they believed nicotine was not addictive - that helped trigger the first federal regulation of the tobacco industry.
The documentary was screened at an invitation-only Milken Institute Forum shortly before opening in Los Angeles on January 13.
Charles Evans Jr., who founded Acappella Pictures in 1993, is making his directorial debut with "Addiction Incorporated." He is the producer of "The Aviator," starring Leonardo diCaprio, and "The Brave," starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. Previously Evans was director of development for Randall Kleiser Productions at Touchstone Pictures. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the USC film school, Evans' thesis project, "Second Son," is the winner of 12 awards from various film festivals.
Victor DeNoble is vice president of Hissho Inc., a scientific and medical communications company. Previously DeNoble worked in drug discovery for the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company and Ayerst Research Laboratories, specializing in central nervous system diseases. DeNoble earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Adelphi University and held postdoctoral fellowships at the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the National Institute of Drug Abuse at the University of Minnesota.
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