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- Convenors:
-
Mike Poltorak
(University of Kent)
Joe Spence (The University of Kent)
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- Format:
- Film
Short Abstract:
A series of transformative documentary, ethnographic and participatory films that intervene in local and global health issues and pose vital methodological questions for research and action on health. See colour programme: https://therai.org.uk/images/2022/RAIMed2022/Glocal_Health_Methods_Festival.pdf
Long Abstract:
The potential of film to inspire change is at the heart of many Global Health Film Festivals and initiatives such as the Global Health Film initiative (GHFi), a multi partner collaboration that includes the host of the conference, the LSHTM. Yet, ethnographic and documentary film's methodological contribution to multi-disciplinary research on health has yet to be realised. This curated festival will screen films that focus on vital health issues, integrate local and global concerns and creatively intersect with areas of medical anthropology. The responsibility of care and contribution, emergent from the ethnographic imperative will be central. We will present the transformative potential of interventionist, engaged and 'video as research' filmmaking and map new landscapes of symbiosis between filmmaking and medical anthropology. The panels will explore and interrogate the transformative and methodological potential of the curated films and include: attention, process/production and action. The value of collaboratively giving attention to an issue with the aim to produce something of local value has important co-creative, decolonising and transformative influence on 'video as research' methodologies. The production process of editing and feedback can extend the value of the film with key stake-holders and interest groups, thus increasing its transformative potential. The final film, as an audio visual gift, can open spaces for transformative communication, actions and impact.
See colour programme: https://therai.org.uk/images/2022/RAIMed2022/Glocal_Health_Methods_Festival.pdf
Accepted papers:
Mike Poltorak (University of Kent)
Paper short abstract:
In the South Pacific Island group of Tonga, a traditional healer and a Psychiatrist treat spiritual affliction and mental illness in challenging and inspirational ways.
Paper long abstract:
On the South Pacific Island group of Vava’u, the traditional healer Emeline Lolohea treats people affected by spirits. One day away by ferry, the only Tongan Psychiatrist Dr Mapa Puloka has established a public psychiatry well known across the region. Though they have never met in person, this film creates a dialogue between them on the nature of mental illness and spiritual affliction. Their commitment and transformative communication offers challenges and opportunities to help address the growing global mental health crisis.
Joe Spence (The University of Kent)
Paper short abstract:
Martin, Nick and Kevin are trapped in cycles of homelessness and addiction. When an outbreak of tuberculosis takes hold within their community in Canterbury, extraordinary measures are required to control the disease. Filmmaker Joe finds himself caught up in increasingly chaotic circumstances.
Paper long abstract:
From the Cubby began as a life biography project in 2017, when the film maker (Joe) meets an unemployed teacher (Martin) on his doorstep in Canterbury. When Martin dies, a local charity asks Joe if he would provide Martins friend (Nick) sanctuary in his home for a few days, unaware that Nick is infected with tuberculosis.
When Nick is discharged from hospital, he attempts to navigate emergency accommodation and complete six months of antibiotics, however the situation spirals out of control. Nick relapses to heroin and defaults on his medication. He abandons his emergency accommodation and goes to live with Kevin, a vulnerable man whose home has been taken over by a drug gang. In order the prevent the spread of tuberculosis, extraordinary measures are required.
Angélica Cabezas-Pino (Universidad de La Frontera)
Paper short abstract:
Many people living with HIV fear stigma so they remain silent about their diagnosis. "This is My Face" challenges this taboo by using "collaborative mise-en-scene", a method that combines photography and film to reveal a hidden dialogue only known to those who live with the virus.
Paper long abstract:
In Chile, people living with HIV fear stigma, and often conceal their condition and remain silent about what they are going through. This is My Face explores what happens when a range of men living with the virus open up about the illness that changed their life trajectories. It follows a creative process whereby they produce photographic portraits that represent their memories and feelings, a process that helps them challenge years of silence, shame, and misrepresentation. A lesson in the power of collaborative storytelling.
Natalia Luxardo (University of Buenos Aires) Leila Martina Passerino (CONICET-UNRaf) Marcel Kolvenbach (Academy of Media Arts Cologne KHM) Fernando Sassetti (Facultad de Ingeniería - Uner)
Paper short abstract:
The documentary draws from findings of a long-term community-based participatory study anchor in low-income rural and peri-urban areas of Argentina, with the goal of providing insights into the role played by social determinants of health in cancer inequity. It is based on a collaborative design.
Paper long abstract:
Latin America has almost twice the overall cancer mortality than global north countries, and a greater proportion of the burden of morbidity, with inequities associated with this cancer burden (IARC/WHO, 2008). The role played by the first level of attention turned out to be an important determinant for explaining this gap, especially since it is much more easily modified than distal determinants, due to the fact that there are cancers that diagnosed in time are either preventable, such as cervical cancer, or treatable and curable if detected in early stages, such as breast cancer. This documentary draws from findings of a long-term community-based participatory study anchor in low-income rural and peri-urban areas of Argentina, with the goal of providing insights into the role played by social determinants of health in cancer inequity during the first phases of the continuum of cancer control. It is based on a collaborative design oriented to equity; organized in a collaborative format; and work with communities. Eight health centres were selected through a strategic sampling that combined theoretical and empirical selection criteria. The populations of these communities have economic difficulties, low or no level of education and there were social problem scenarios in adverse environmental conditions. The strategy combined more specific forms of inquiry, mainly ethnography but also some other qualitative methods. These non-intrusive methods were enriched with the perspectives of the locals who were also researchers.
Paul Cooke (University of Leeds)
Paper short abstract:
'Nisha’s Story' developed out of a participatory video (PV) project we ran in partnership with Herd International in Nepal. The project used PV as a tool to help communities find their own solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance, which is a significant and growing problem in the country.
Paper long abstract:
'Nisha’s Story' developed out of a participatory video (PV) project we ran in partnership with Herd International in Nepal. The project used PV as a tool to help communities find their own solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance, which is a significant and growing problem in the country.
This film tells the story of one of the participants in the project.
Nisha is a Voluntary Female Health Working, working in Chandragiri Municipality, outside Kathmandu. The film shows how she's working to stop her community misusing antibiotics. This is a massive problem that is leading to antibiotics no-longer working, which could lead to a world where infections can't be controlled. For many in the medical world, this is a bigger threat to humanity than climate change
To watch the film trailer: : https://vimeo.com/462175011
Full film (16 mins): https://vimeo.com/461782833
Ursula Read (University of Essex) Erminia Colucci (Middlesex University London) Lily Kpobi (University of Ghana) Diana Setiyawati (Centre for Public Mental Health)
Paper short abstract:
We present two ethnographic documentaries which explore how healers and health workers in Ghana and Indonesia establish partnerships to improve mental health care and protect human rights. They suggest the value of visual methods in medical anthropology for researching ethically complex issues.
Paper long abstract:
Together for Mental Health (T4MH) is a GCRF/ESRC UK funded visual research project that was born out of the recognition that, while several scholars and institutions such as the WHO, acknowledge the potential of integrating traditional and faith-based healing into mental health care, there is very little research exploring these collaborations and how they work in particular contexts. Ghana and Indonesia have both been the focus of international concerns regarding human rights abuses against people with mental illness by traditional and faith-based healers. In both countries there have been attempts by mental health workers to establish partnerships with healers to prevent such abuses and improve care. This project used ethnographic visual methods to explore how mental health workers, families and healers come together in the two countries and the barriers and facilitators to these collaborations. We present two ethnographic documentaries which were produced through this research: Nkabom: A Little Medicine, A Little Prayer (Ghana) and Harmoni: Healing Together (Indonesia). Both films explore how healers and health workers build these relationships and suggest ways forward for a holistic approach to mental health care which promotes human rights whilst engaging with the search for meaning in mental illness. They illustrate the value of visual methods in medical anthropology for exploring ethically complex issues in health and the situated practices of healing relationships.