Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Health & Medicine / Health Care / All Films

A Calling To Care

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:15:00 GMT

A Calling to Care is the inspiring story of 55 year-old Grace Stanley, a Canadian nurse who left her home and prestigious career behind to answer a calling halfway around the world in Karachi, Pakistan. Teaching nursing to local women in a strict Muslim culture that forbids them to even to touch men is a formidable task.

However, Grace challenges her own values and belief systems to find common ground with her students, helping them to excel and feel respect for themselves in a culture that doesn't respect them. Whether it is getting her hands painted with henna, swimming fully-clothed in the ocean, or marching bravely with them on International Women's Day, Grace bonds with her students in a very special way, and ultimately discovers how the West can learn a lot more from the Third World than she ever thought.

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Descending with Angels

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Descending with Angels
Buy Now: $320.00

Islamic exorcism or psychotropic medication? Descending with Angels explores two highly different solutions to the same problem: namely Danish Muslims who are possessed by invisible spirits, called jinn.

A Palestinian refugee living in the city of Aarhus has been committed to psychiatric treatment after a severe case of jinn possession which caused him to destroy the interior of a mosque, crash several cars, and insult a number of people. He sees no point in psychotropic medication since his illness has already been treated with Quranic incantations. A psychiatrist and nurse try to understand his point of view but find that even further medication is needed. In the meantime a local imam battles a stubborn jinn-spirit of Iraqi origin and tries to explain the Muslims of Aarhus that they should stop worrying so much about jinn, magic, and other mundane affairs since nothing can harm anyone except by the permission of God.

The film compares two systems of treatment that despite vast differences both share a view of healing as operating through submission of faith to an external non-human agency — namely God or biomedicine.

"It seems to rain a great deal in Denmark. With therain, angels descend to feed plants, bless homes, wash the city, and generallywatch over its residents. Christian Suhr's ethnographic film, Descendingwith angels, considers what comes down with the rain, as Suhr maneuvers betweenand through Islamic healing practices and the Danish psychiatric system.

The film accomplishes something unique in participatorysequences in which Suhr and the doctors, shaykhs, Muslim patients, and Muslimyouth attempt to make sense of what they are seeing, from footage Suhr has shotto online Islamic exorcism videos.

Descending with angels provides a complex picture ofMuslim life in Denmark, from the diversity of Muslim immigrant communities tothe transcultural spaces between medicine, religion, social services, andcommunity. It dives into and evokes the liminal and transgressive, avoidingtotalizing narratives and burdens of information while also getting at what itmeans to believe, whether in magic or Western medicine.

The film offers a productive point for pedagogical departurefor classes concerned with Islam and Islamic healing, immigration,consciousness and mental illness, religion and science, public health,ethnographic ethics and reflexivity, and visual anthropology."

Maryam Kashani, University of Illinois, AmericanAnthropologist, June 2018

SELECTED SCREENINGS

SVA Film and Media Festival, AAA, Washington DC 2014

Special Student Film Award, Göttingen InternationalEthnographic Film Festival, 2014

American Academy of Religion, Special panel aboutthe film, San Diego 2014

Athens Ethnographic Film Festival 2014

Munich International Ethnographic Film Festival2014

Sardinia International Ethnographic FilmFestival, Nuoro, Italy 2014

Göttingen International Ethnographic FilmFestival 2014

Beeld voor Beeld, Amsterdam 2013

CPH:DOX, Copenhagen 2013

NAFA Film Festival, Bilbao 2013

RAI International Ethnographic Film Festival, Edinburgh2013

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Family Victim

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

Family Victim
Buy Now: $295.00

Family Victim explores how families manage a troubled and troublesome member.

Estu Wardhani is a young Javanese man and has struggled for most of his life to achieve a sense of competency and inclusion in his familial and social world. The second youngest of eight children born to an upper-class family living in the rural region of Gunung Kidul in Cental Java, Estu has been 'different' ever since he was a young boy. Estu's actions, and their disorienting power, cannot be understood outside of the cultural and social context within which they have taken shape nor can they be considered apart from the disruptive and painful effects they have on his family.

Estu's problems are interpreted as 'psychopathy' by a psychiatrist, spirit possession by local healers, and as dimangakan or 'spoiled' by his family. Estu himself desires to be a 'big man', and he feels misunderstood and disrespected by his family. His case involves not only his own troubling symptoms, but the striking and extensive interpretive work his family, healers and community engages in while trying to understand Estu's personality and behavior.

This film explores the multiple ways the family interprets such dilemmas, and his tribulations and finally transformations as he matures into culturally defined adulthood.

Films in the Afflictions series
The Bird Dancer
Family Victim
Kites and Monsters
Memory of My Face
Ritual Burdens

Shadows & Illuminations

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Fantome Island

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

Fantome Island
Buy Now: $320.00

In 1945 seven-year-old Joe Eggmolesse was diagnosed with Leprosy. He was taken from his family under police escort and transported by rail and sea over a thousand kilometres to Fantome Island where he was to be incarcerated for the next ten years.

The isolated tropical island off the North Queensland coast became home to a close-knit community of indigenous “lepers” whose marginalized existence was hidden from white society and has until now remained absent from the mainstream historical record. Cared for by nuns from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary their isolation was the consequence of apartheid-like policies developed by the Queensland government and medical establishment which espoused a eugenicist philosophy and regarded racial segregation as standard practice.

As one of the few surviving former patients Joe returns to the island for a long awaited event, the Fantome Island Remembrance Day. As a 73 year old Elder he confronts the memory of his childhood on the island to pay tribute to those who lived and died there and to inscribe his own unique story into official Australian history. Drawing on an evocative archive, this film exposes how an ideology of racism and eugenics worked to justify horrific treatment of Australia's Indigenous communities.

In uncovering this shameful history, Fantome Island is a testimony of strength and endurance, demonstrating one man's incredible capacity for forgiveness and love.

Selected Festivals

Official Selection, Etnofilm, 5th Ethnographic FilmFestival, Rovijn Croatia, 2013

John Oxley Memory Award - State Library Of Qld, 2012

Best Australian Documentary, Human Rights Arts & FilmFestival, Melbourne, 2012

Finalist, ATOM Awards - Best Documentary History, Social& Political Issues, 2012

First Factual Films Festival, Adelaide, 2012

Brisbane International Film Festival, 2011

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Kau Faito'o

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Kau Faito'o
Buy Now: $295.00

This is a documentary which not only shows the ancient traditional art form of healing, but also tries to capture the essence of being a traditional healer in an ever-changing environment. Traditional healers are shown collecting, preparing and administering herbal remedies that they have passed down from one generation to the next.

Healers discuss where, why and how they gained their knowledge and why they choose to carry on age-old customs and practices despite the fact that Tonga is becoming a nation increasingly dependent on western medicine. Tonga's traditional healers are adapting to niches such as prenatal care and physical therapy.

Interspersed throughout the film are beautiful scenes of water, agriculture, rainforest and people, all of which comprise current island life in the Kingdom of Tonga.

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Lifecycles

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Lifecycles
Buy Now: $295.00

Malawi is a small country in South East Africa that has reached a turning point — it will either sink into unknown depths of despair and poverty or it must grow and change with AIDS as a catalyst. Lifecycles: A Story of AIDS in Malawi explores the themes of sex, witchcraft, poverty, death and religion in relation to AIDS.

With a soulful soundtrack from Bobby McFerrin, the film was shot over eight months and encompasses both the depth and breadth of a culture under siege. Lifecycles captures the intimate stories of people living with AIDS, traditional healers who claim to cure it, and prostitutes who put themselves at risk each night.

Educated and powerful politicians speak frankly about losing 29 members of parliament to AIDS, and one of only thirty-seven HIV positive Malawians then receiving ARV treatment shares his feelings of unmerited privilege.

Lifecycles is both earnest and uplifted as it uses the words of Malawians to reveal a nation for whom illness is mistaken for a witch's spell and physical love is dangerous.

“An intelligent and clear-eyed look at the plague that is devestating sub-Saharan Africa.” — Steven Wise, Take One

“It was very moving… an excellent documentary.” — Barry Berak, New York Times Magazine

Films in the Development Communications Workshop series

If It Doesn't Rain

If It Doesn't Rain: First Return

It's A Young Country: Turkey and Akbank

Lifecycles

Malawi's Green Revolution

Paths of Hope

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Official Selection, Atlantic Film Festival, 2003

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Lost and Found

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Lost and Found
Buy Now: $295.00

The legacy of the governmental policies concerning population growth and the family under the Communist rule in Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu were devasting. This documentary presents an uncompromising look at the situation of scores of thousands of children in the state orphanages today. Winner of 20 international awards, Lost and Found is an excellent film for the study of recent eastern European history, politics and their effects on health and human welfare.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

CINE Golden Eagle Award, 1992

Silver Medal, Chicago International Film Festival

Bronze Apple, National Educational Film Festival

Emmy Nomination

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The Lost Water

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Lost Water
Buy Now: $295.00

73% of the total salt production in India comes from Gujarat State, almost 60% of which comes from Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat. The government of Gujarat has consistently ignored the LRK area. The salt workers of LRK, known as Agariyas, are predominantly from the Koli and Chuvaliya Koli tribes. As bonded laborers, they are not only victims of wage discrimination, they are endure serious physical and mental health hazards due to the dangerous nature of their work. Kharaghoda village itself is home to 437 widows. Working in extreme temperatures without any protective gear, many Agariyas suffer major health complications, including blindness and skin damage due to unprotected exposure to salt. Living in abject poverty, Agariyas now face water scarcity as well as malnutrition since green vegetables are not available in this area. The LRK area has recently been designated as a wildlife sanctuary for the threatened Indian Wild Donkey, making salt workers and salt production in LRK now illegal. Agariyas have been forced by government authorities to look outside the LRK for work, now struggling for both their ancestors' land and their livelihood.

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The Mseyas

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:50:00 GMT

The Mseyas
Buy Now: $320.00

The Mseyas are Alberina, Maria, Amos and Orselina. A family of four siblings in Tanzania, they have been orphaned by AIDS like so many other young people in Africa. Their lives are a daily struggle to survive without parental or state support. Earning a small income by collecting firewood, the Mseyas contend with illness, debt and constant worry. However, they maintain a certain youthful optimism about the future.

"Such a hard life," says Alberina, "has taught us how to live." She and Maria - the two slightly older sisters - work and cook to make sure that their younger brother and sister can attend school, saying, "children have a right to an education," though not very old herself.

An intense commitment to one another and their religious faith give the Mseyas a desire to keep going forward. Spanish director Gustavo Vizoso was moved to document their situation, capturing the light and color of Tanzania in beautifully observed photography, in order to speak out on behalf of the 12 million AIDS orphans living in Africa today.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival, Qatar, 2009

1001 Documentary Film Festival, Istambul, Turkey, 2008

Document 6 Int'l Human Rights Documentary Film Festival,Scotland, 2008

Documenta Madrid film festival, Spain, 2008

Crossroads of Europe International Film Festival, Lulin, Poland, 2008

DOCSDF - International Documentary Film Festival, Mexico, 2008

Extremadura Documentary Film Festival, Portugal, 2007

L'Alternativa Independent Film Festival, Barcelona, 2007

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Mercy

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Mercy
Buy Now: $320.00

Filmed over two years at a community hospice in Klong Toey, Thailand, the story unfolds as a thirteen-year-old girl, Luk Nam, recalls the loss of her family to AIDS. Mercy is an unsettling document of another side to the growing AIDS crisis – the future of the children whose parents are HIV-positive or have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Surrounded by orphaned children who have inherited the disease, the filmmakers witness both Luk Nam’s sister and her best friend gradually fade away. Despite the horror of their circumstances, young Luk Nam and the hospice patients and workers show incredible compassion, strength, and hope. Luk Nam’s brave composure is as admirable as it is distressing, as when she assures the viewer: “Right now, I’m alive.”

“Mercy is a powerful and uplifting documentary revealing the everyday life challenges faced by an increasing number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Thailand today. Coping with family loss and the accompanying stigma often places children affected by HIV/AIDS in extremely vulnerable situations. This unprecedented crisis will require scaled-up national, regional and community responses in the decades to come.”
— Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director

“Mercy is a realistic and powerful portrayal of the world wide effects of HIV/AIDS on children. It gives us a chance to observe this ongoing crisis first hand. I highly recommend this film for college populations and everyone who wishes to make a difference in the fight against AIDS.”
— Scott Butler, MS, CPPE, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Mercy is a very moving, beautiful, poignant portrayal of a few years in the life of a very stoic, heroic child under horrendous circumstances. As a physician caring for children with HIV and AIDS for the past 20 years, I felt it showed so graphically the pain and suffering of those affected by but not infected with HIV, those who are living in the shadow of AIDS. Your film was an eye-opening experience for so many in our institution, who tend to forget what family members experience, while the focus is so much on the sick child.”
— Ann Petru, M.D., Associate Physician, Dept of Infectious Diseases; Director, Pediatric AIDS/HIV Program, Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland

“As one who has been involved with research in and about Thailand for over 40 years and as one who regularly teaches courses on culture and society of Southeast Asia, I found the film Mercy to be very powerful and compelling. It is clear from the film itself that the filmmaker was not only an observer, but was very much involved in the metta which the film depicts so well.”
— Professor Charles Keyes, Anthropology & International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle

“This film will be as useful for classroom teaching as it will for special events related to AIDS and hospice care. It's a rare film that can do so much in such a meaningful way.”
— Sara Van Fleet, Assistant Director of the SE Asia Center, University of Washington

“Together with a group of very dedicated and exceptionally unselfish people at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Hallacy shows us that the human spirit is marvelous and that when we support each other it is possible to generate hope even in the darkest of times.”
— Ole Schack Hansen, Director, Asia Pacific Development Communication Centre (ADCC), Dhurakijpundit University, Bangkok, Thailand

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

New Zealand International Human Rights Film Festival, 2005

East Asia Institute of Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Yunnan University, 2004

Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2004

Fukuoka Asian Film Festival, Japan, 2004

Pride International Film Festival, Manila, 2004

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