ITALY: Documentary 'Living in Emergency' about aid workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) working in Africa
Record ID:
1542956
ITALY: Documentary 'Living in Emergency' about aid workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) working in Africa
- Title: ITALY: Documentary 'Living in Emergency' about aid workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) working in Africa
- Date: 5th September 2008
- Summary: (AD1)VENICE LIDO, ITALY (AUGUST 30, 2008) (REUTERS) THE EXCELSIOR HOTEL WHERE INTERVIEW HELD FORMER DOCTOR, CHRIS BRASHER WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRIS BRASHER , DOCTOR, SAYING: "The other constraint that is relatively well shown in the film is the fact that when you are an expatriate, it is a very uncomfortable situation, you know you can always leave. You have your passport. But you are living and working with people that cant leave and that is their life and they cant get away from it, and I have never seen that portrayed before anywhere."
- Embargoed: 20th September 2008 09:46
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA1HAFH2NFYNX4K2ZO1DB23M3B6
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Shot in 2005-2006 and presented at the Venice film festival, "Living in Emergency" follows four Western volunteers working in Africa for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the French-based aid agency which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
Two are new recruits and two are experienced field hands working in Liberia after civil war and in the lawless northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. All struggled to cope under the load of cases, the lack of adequate supplies and the chaos and carnage around them.
Using some graphic footage of emergency surgery and frank interviews with aid workers, the documentary gives a powerful sense of what life in the field is like for MSF doctors, debunking some of the myths about humanitarian work.
"It was very clear from the beginning that we did not want to make some kind of cause documentary, that's a genre like everything is going to be okay and here are the heroes," director Mark Hopkins, who is a dual U.S.
and British national, told Reuters in an interview.
"They (MSF doctors) don't view themselves like that, they are humans. They are doing quite extraordinary stuff in crazy situations but...it would be disingenuous to the actual reality of the situation to turn it into one of those standard clich����s," he added.
The documentary shows the material constraints affecting the volunteers' work -- choosing which patient to treat first means deciding who will live and who will die, and often there are no other doctors to share the responsibility with.
It also explores how their ideals, perspectives and motives are transformed over time by what they witness in the field, and how difficult it is too keep morale high amid the tension and frustrations.
"This is low-grade medicine. The things that we do are not as good as they could be," one of the volunteers says in the film.
While most describe their work as a highly enriching experience, the stress and the exposure to the horrors of war can take a heavy toll.
Chris Brasher, an Australian anaesthetist who worked with MSF for nine years and is one of the doctors at the centre of the documentary, has left the agency for a Paris hospital.
"I was completely burnt out .... dreaming about burned bodies and dying people. I had trouble in my personal life maintaining my relationships, I was becoming aggressive," he said, adding it was very hard to readjust to normal life. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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