¡Salud!
93 min
Directed by Connie Field
www.saludthefilm.net
www.medicc.org
Against the alarming backdrop of the global health crisis and deteriorating
public health systems in even the richest nations, ¡Salud!
tells the little-known story of Cuba: a poor country overcoming
its lack of resources to provide universal health care and help
other developing nations do the same.
A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud! looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, there are 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries. In Cuba, 30,000 international medical students, including nearly 100 from the USA, are currently studying medicine. Their stories plus testimony from experts around the world bring home the competing agendas that mark the battle for global health—and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.
The film spans three continents to look at the philosophy and health professionals placing Cuba on the map in the worldwide movement to make health care a global birthright. Today, Cubans are among the world’s healthiest people, despite the island’s poverty.
Through the Cuban experience, the film challenges us to reflect
on the larger questions: What will it take to stop disease from
decimating poor countries and reaching around the globe? How can
we get enough doctors and health workers to where they are needed
most? Do governments have a responsibility for the health of their
citizens?
Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth)
93 min. 2007 Corrugated Films
Filmmaker: Jill Friedberg
www.corrugate.org
In the summer of 2006, a broad-based, non-violent, popular uprising
exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. This documentary
captures the mass movement that emerged when tens of thousands of
schoolteachers, housewives, indigenous peoples, health workers,
farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station
into their own hands.
In this film, the people of Oaxaca tell their own stories of the
uprising and their unprecedented use of the media.
"No one has the whole truth, but lots of voices have lots
of little pieces of the truth. The more voices, the more truth.
The title comes directly from a statement made by one of the women
who took over the state television station. She said: 'We just wanted
to disseminate a little bit of so much truth,'" says director
Jill Friedberg.
Alternative journalist David Barsamian describes the film as "a
tour de force of documentary filmmaking, brilliantly conceived and
executed, [it] demonstrates the essential role of radio as a weapon
of mass instruction"
Director's Statement:
We should
all question the role of media in our lives. How have the media
shaped the war in Iraq? Does mass media truly create a space for
public debate? How many voices are heard in the commercial press?
I have worked in community radio, both in the US and Mexico, and
I participated in the creation of the global independent media network,
Indymedia.
I returned to Oaxaca in July of 2006, thinking that I would do a
bit of filming to add an epilogue to my previous documentary Granito
de Arena, which chronicled the history of the Oaxacan teachers'
movement. The political climate in Mexico was already highly charged.
Allegations of massive electoral fraud in the nation's recent presidential
elections had everyone on edge, and in the streets. Many saw the
mainstream media as the ones who had really stolen the election.
Meanwhile, the uprising had exploded in Oaxaca, with hundreds of
thousands of people using non-violent, civil disobedience to demand
the resignation of a corrupt and repressive governor. The commercial
media portrayed the uprising as handful of violent vandals wreaking
havoc in one of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations.
Then 3,000 housewives took over the state-run television station
and opened it up to the participation of civil society. Thousands
of voices were suddenly countering the commercial press version
of the uprising.
I knew then that a new film was in the works. And what I witnessed,
and filmed, in the following months, was a phenomenon that would
forever change the way Mexicans view the media. When the state government
used paramilitaries to destroy the state-run television station,
the movement took over 14 radio stations. For the first time in
history, a social movement had more media outlets in its hands than
the state, allowing them an unprecedented capacity to organize,
mobilize, and defend themselves against some of the worst human
rights abuses ever documented in Mexico.
I chose to use audio and video recordings from the occupied media
outlets as the primary narration for the film, adding additional
voice over only where background context was needed. In the film
we hear and see what Mexicans heard and saw throughout the six months
of conflict. We hear the bullets fired as paramilitaries attack
the occupied radio stations and see the women's excitement and fear
during their first broadcast as they do something that had never
been done before.
The film is not only an account of these stunning events, but also
my way of raising important questions that need to be asked about
the role of the media in our lives.
- Jill Friedberg
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