“Jim Allison: Breakthrough,” a documentary released in 2019, tells the story of 2018 Nobel Prize winner Jim Allison’s quest to cure cancer and the development of ipilimumab.
The film’s maker, Uncommon Productions, has been a contributor to the Cancer History Project since early 2021, and has published interviews from the documentary as well as an educational guide on CHP.
- Bill Haney on the making of “Jim Allison: Breakthrough”
By Alexandria Carolan
Jim Allison hadn’t been back to his hometown of Alice, TX, in 40 years when Bill Haney asked him to return there during the filming of “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
“I think, as is often the case with people who I make films with—it’s a voyage for discovery for them too,” said Haney, director, writer, and a producer of the documentary. “I think that Jim walking the streets where he was as a child, and where his brothers lived, and the school that he had been in, and the challenges he had at the school… reconnecting to it, it turned out, I think, to give Jim something, as well as I hope, the viewers something.”
Haney is a filmmaker, inventor, and entrepreneur.
Jim Allison’s personal connection to cancer, in losing his mother to lymphoma when he was young, as well as a brother to prostate cancer—a disease Allison has also survived—made the scientific aspects of “Jim Allison: Breakthrough” shine, Haney said.
That determined individuality, and in Jim [Allison]’s case with a sparkle of fun, creates a character that you can spend a lot of time with in Breakthrough.
Bill Haney
“That determined individuality—and in Jim’s case with a sparkle of fun—creates a character that you can spend a lot of time with in Breakthrough,” he said. “That you feel a sense of care and you feel empathy not only for, but you feel empathy from. And so, I don’t think we could have made Breakthrough without Jim and I don’t think we would’ve wanted to.”
Why film a documentary about the development of immunotherapy in cancer?
“At a time when there’s a lot of pessimism about global climate change and income inequality, and immigration challenges, and the nature of democracy in America, for goodness sakes, here’s a really optimistic tale, where something we’ve been trying for 5,000 years to work on we’ve been succeeding,” Haney said.
There aren’t many documentaries about Nobel-winning scientists out there, Haney said.
“I think part of the reason for that is, where do you pitch the science? If you ask Jim—just make it a little simpler—he goes from genius to post doc with 12 years of experience,” Haney said.
Jim Allison helped make “Jim Allison: Breakthrough” work, in part, because he wasn’t concerned with his image on camera, and came across very naturally throughout filming.
“I’ve filmed a lot of folks, and some fantastic people, when the camera shows up, they freeze, they’re not emotionally open, they’re not comfortable in a conversation,” Haney said. “We need to have a journey of common humanity, and, and so when we really decided we were going to stick with this was after we filmed him for the first two, three days.”
The day after Bill Haney wrapped up filming of “Jim: Allison: Breakthrough,” it was announced that Jim Allison won the Nobel Prize.
“That made us want to accelerate finishing the films, including going to Stockholm and putting this thing in. We made the movie in about a year and that’s a fast schedule for a [documentary]], especially for somebody like me, who’s got a couple of other jobs,” Haney said. “We are really happy that we were the number one film on PBS last year in terms of viewers, and I think that’s a good example where Jim winning the Nobel helped. It didn’t change the filmmaking, but it probably changed the footprint of the film.”
A podcast of the interview with Bill Haney appears here. A transcript of the conversation appears here on the Cancer History Project.
Videos from the documentary
- Melanoma survivor Sharon Belvin meets Jim Allison for the first time
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | March 25, 2021
Sharon Belvin is a 37-year-old mother of 2 and a stage 4 melanoma survivor. Cancer, however, isn’t her whole story; just a key player in an absolutely fantastic life. She had a “normal” happy childhood in Beachwood, NJ.
She loved sports, goofing off with friends and family, and never had any serious injuries or illnesses. However, when she turned 22 in 2004 that normalcy abruptly ended. She found out that she had stage 4 melanoma just 2 weeks before she was set to marry her now ex-husband, Rob.
Through the next 1.5 years that she and Rob actively fought cancer, they learned to never take a day for granted and that life is precious and far too short. Though they are now separated, they still remain friends and are both very grateful for the lessons that cancer taught them.
It has now been almost 15 years since her diagnosis and life sure didn’t turn out the way she thought it would. From the time she was 7 years old she thought that she was going to be a school teacher. Instead, through her own weight loss journey, after the birth of her 2 children, she became a personal trainer and health coach for a hospital system.
It was there that she met her now-fiancée, Janice. Talk about a life-stopping moment. She thought cancer would be the biggest life-altering event that she would experience, well … she was wrong. Finding out that you fall in love with the person and not a gender altered her perception of life irrevocably.
“Cancer shaped me into a person that tries to live each day as if it very well could be my last,” says Sharon. She would never change the fact she got cancer. She just NEVER wants to have to learn the lessons that cancer taught her ever again.
Learn more about Sharon’s incredible journey in the award-winning documentary “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
- Jim Allison on what inspired him to become a scientist
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | March 31, 2021
Dr. Jim Allison talks about his inspiration and what keeps him motivated in his breakthrough efforts to cure cancer.
- Padmanee Sharma on coming to America and falling in love with science
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | April 1, 2021
Dr. Padmanee Sharma discusses her childhood, immigration to the United States, and how she found her path into science. Archival footage from filming “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
- Jeffrey Bluestone on how far cancer immunology has come and his hopes for the field
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | April 4, 2021
Interview footage of Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy discussing the field of immunology in his interview for the film “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
- Rachel Humphrey on Jim’s impact on the team that developed Ipilimumab
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | April 7, 2021
Dr. Rachel Humphrey, the former BMS scientific director, discusses Jim’s impact on the breakthrough team that developed Ipilimumab. Archival footage from filming “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
- Lewis Lanier on his relationship with Jim and being outsiders in the field of cancer research
By Jim Allison: Breakthrough | April 14, 2021
UC San Francisco Professor Lewis Lanier discusses his relationship with Jim and being outsiders in the field of cancer research while filming for the documentary “Jim Allison: Breakthrough.”
This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.
The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.
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