Every day, roughly 400 people die from snakebite. Many more people survive with permanent injuries and disabilities.

And yet snakebite is treatable.

The Antivenom Interviews is a feature-length documentary film now in development about how we learned to treat snakebite, why effective treatment still fails to reach so many people, and how new technologies may finally transform a system that has changed surprisingly little in more than a century.

I’m Ray Morgan, an independent filmmaker and science communicator who has worked with venom researchers, clinicians, herpetologists, and snakebite experts for more than 15 years.

In 2016, I released The Venom Interviews, a documentary covering the work and science of venomous herpetology. This new film takes that approach much further.

A 130-year story — and a moment of change.

Modern antivenom traces its origins to the 1890s, when researchers discovered that animals could be immunized against venom and their blood serum used to treat snakebite victims.

That basic idea still underlies the antivenoms used today.

They have saved countless lives, but they also have serious limitations. Antivenoms can be slow and expensive to produce, difficult to distribute, specific to particular snakes in particular regions, and most effective when patients can reach appropriate medical care quickly.

That creates enormous disparity.

Someone bitten by a dangerous snake in Europe, Australia, or the United States usually has access to sophisticated emergency medicine and an appropriate antivenom. Someone bitten by a comparably venomous snake in a remote village may be hours from a hospital that has the right medicine—if it has antivenom at all.

Today, researchers are developing approaches that could fundamentally change snakebite treatment for the first time in more than a century: engineered antibodies, recombinant antivenoms, small-molecule toxin inhibitors, and other therapies that would have been impossible when antivenom was invented.

The Antivenom Interviews will tell both stories: how we got here, and what may come next.

What we are filming

The project will take us to researchers, physicians, antivenom producers, snakebite communities, and treatment centers around the world.

The film will explore:

the discovery and history of antivenom
how venom actually damages the human body
how traditional antivenoms are produced and why they work
why snakebite outcomes vary so dramatically between regions
the experiences of patients and clinicians on the front lines of treatment
the new generation of drugs and antibody technologies now being developed.

The film is built around the people who are actually doing this work right now. I want scientists to explain their own research, clinicians to describe what they see in their hospitals, and people affected by snakebite to tell their own stories.

There will be no manufactured drama, no demonizing snakes, and no attempt to turn a complex global-health problem into sensational television.

The subject is interesting enough without any of that.

What your contribution pays for

This is an independently produced film. Contributions to this fundraiser go directly toward getting the production into the field.

That includes international travel, local transportation, equipment and baggage costs, filming permits, insurance, production expenses, archival material, scientific animation, post-production, and ultimately distribution of the finished film.

I am doing the majority of producing, filming, and editing myself. Your donations will go directly toward getting to the people and places the story requires.

The production is being planned in stages, so every funding milestone unlocks another part of the film.

Why make this film now?

The WHO has designated snakebite as a neglected tropical disease, but public understanding of it remains remarkably limited.

But right now, the science is entering one of the most interesting periods in the history of snakebite treatment. For approximately 130 years, antivenom has meant variations on essentially the same biological strategy. We may now be approaching the point where that changes.

That makes this an extraordinary moment to document the field: to preserve the history of the people and institutions that created modern antivenom, to show what treatment looks like around the world today, and to follow the researchers trying to build what comes next.

If that sounds like a story worth telling, I’d be grateful for your help making it possible.

You can contribute directly, share this fundraiser, or simply help put it in front of someone who might care about science, medicine, global health, snakes, or documentary film.

Every one of those things helps us get a little farther down the road.

Thank you for being part of it.

— Ray Morgan, Producer