Secret People: The Naked Face of Leprosy in America

The voices of those living in the last remaining leprosy sanatorium, in Carville, Louisiana, USA.

Overview

Secret People: The Naked Face of Leprosy in America is a 1998 documentary by John Anderson and Laura Harrison that chronicles the stories of patients forced into quarantine at the Carville Leprosarium in Louisiana. The 59-minute film highlights the stigma, discrimination, and forced isolation of hundreds of Americans with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) during the early-to-mid 20th century. Although it has conjured horrific images of society's most feared outcasts ever since Biblical days, leprosy is in fact a mildly communicable disease that has been treatable since the 1940s. "Secret People" recounts the shocking history of this disease in America through the voices of victims who live in the last remaining leprosy sanatorium, in Carville, Louisiana