God Knows Why But It Works

1976, 49 Minutes

The story of the life and work of Dr Archie Kalokerinos, the doctor who pioneered the use of Vitamin C in the treatment of malnutrition in Aboriginal children.

The infant mortality rate of Australian Aboriginal children is amongst the highest in the world. From the late 1950s when he started working in northern NSW, Dr Archie Kalokerinos believed that Vitamin C deficiency lay behind many of the infant deaths and that his simple but revolutionary treatment of Vitamin C injections could save the lives of these children. He demonstrated that Vitamin C could also be used to treat a range of conditions in patients of all ages-from pneumonia to diabetes and strokes.

Told in a mixture of documentary footage and dramatised scenes, God Knows Why But it Works is the story of his life and his crusade, from his childhood in a Greek-Australian family to his practice in the tiny western NSW town of Collarenebri.

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.