Charles Drew was an African-American doctor who unlocked the secrets of collecting and preserving blood just in time to save thousands in World War II.


Now his discovery, how it saved lives on Europe's battlefields and the segregation he faced will be made into an independent film in Jacksonville.

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Filmmaker and Springfield resident Kathleen Bobak plans to start production locally of "Banked Blood: The Charles Drew Story" in early 2012. She calls Drew a "black American hero" and says an episode of the 1970s Korean War sitcom "M*A*S*H" that related his story of blood transfusions provided the inspiration to "de-mystify" the man.

"Jacksonville's home, and I love it here and I want to see big filmmaking come back," said the 54-year-old Bobak. "... The more I researched, the more I realized, wow, what an incredible man and nobody knows about the man and nobody knows what he gave to the world."

The Blood Alliance, started as the Jacksonville Blood Bank in 1942, will consult on the film and provide photographs of how donations were done back then. It is an exciting opportunity that can help viewers think about how they can save lives, too, said Blood Alliance spokeswoman Odette Struys.

"A story about blood is a good story because our need is constant, and what Charles Drew did for blood happens today - he is still saving lives," she said. "Because of what he did, we are able to have blood drives, not just at a center but bloodmobiles."

'A blood race'

Bobak has worked on such films as "The Last of the Mohicans" and Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" and received a Director's Guild Award as second unit director and second assistant director on "Titanic."

Drew received his medical degree in 1933 from the McGill University School of Medicine, according to the Drew University of Medicine and Science.

He taught at Howard University in 1935 and was an assistant surgeon at Freedman's Hospital. In 1938 his thesis at Columbia University was on the sterile collection and preservation of blood when many were seeking that secret, Bobak said.

"It was very similar to the arms race or the space race as we know it - a blood race to figure out how do we do this," she said. " ... The Russians were giving blood from up to 3-day-old cadavers, for Pete's sake. It was scary, and he saw so much loss of life."

Drew supervised plasma collection for British soldiers and citizens in early World War II and also directed the first American Red Cross blood bank for the Army and Navy in early 1941. When he learned the segregation of soldiers extended to blood as well, he resigned.

"The War Department came and said you can only give black blood to black people and white blood to white people," Bobak said. "Several months in he also found out that wasn't true either. They just threw all the black donations in the trash."

Drew returned to Freedman's Hospital and Howard University, then died after an automobile accident in 1950 at age 45.

Bobak said there will be a huge opportunity for local actors and crew to work on the film. Struys said The Blood Alliance plans to hold blood drives at the film's premiere and advise other blood banks to do the same nationwide., (904) 359-4549