DOCS Rx:
A World of Documentaries on Global Health

Latest press on DOCS Rx

Advisory Committee List

What is DOCS Rx: A World of Documentaries on Global Health?

SILVERDOCS is committed to using documentary as a catalyst for public discourse and social change. In this vein, DOCS Rx will showcase films that challenge audiences to understand the critical issues on the global healthcare landscape today and to discuss the opportunities for film to communicate and help solve these pressing health concerns. By bringing together films from around the world, SILVERDOCS will create a forum for exploring contemporary issues in international health such as the expanding epidemics of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as the increasing concern over universal access to health care, food and clean water.

The best documentaries illustrate without telling, introducing people and characters we can relate to, and make complex, sometimes startling issues in worldwide health and healthcare more comprehensible. DOCS Rx brings these revealing, inspiring and thought-provoking documentaries to the big screen.

SPOTLIGHT EVENT

THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
Wednesday, June 14, 7:00 PM, Theater 2
China, 2006, 39 minutes
Ruby Yang, Director

DESCRIPTION: Little is known about the film's main character, Gau Jun, not even his age. Indeed, he does not even speak a word until the closing minutes of the film. Yet the AIDS orphan's search for a home to call his own forms the dramatic center of this stunning documentary set in rural China.

Opening Video:
Jimmy Carter , Honorary Chair, DOCS Rx
39th President of the United States,
Founder, The Carter Center,
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2002

Opening Welcome:
Ann Curry
NBC News Anchor, The Today Show, Co-Anchor, Dateline NBC

POST-SCREENING PANEL
Moderator:
Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPH
Former US Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health,
Medical Director, DOCS Rx: A World of Documentaries on Global Health

Panelists:
Nils Daulaire, MD MPH
President and CEO, Global Health Council
Thomas Lennon and Ruby Yang
The China Media AIDS Project
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Clifford Lane, MD
Clinical Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID)
Jack Valenti
President, Friends of The Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Former President, MPAA
Frank O. Richards, Jr., MD
Technical Director for the River Blindness Program, Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, and Schistosomiasis Control Program, The Carter Center.

PANEL DISCRIPTION:
This panel will focus on the global fight against AIDS, the scientific future of the vaccine and AIDS treatments, the use of media to raise awareness about the epidemic, and the impact of AIDS' efforts on the eradication of other prevalent and neglected diseases around the world.

DOCS Rx FILM PROGRAM

THE DEVIL'S WATER
Wednesday June 14, 5:30 pm, Theater 3
France/Bangladesh/India, 2005, 53 minutes
Amirul Arham Sheikh, Director

DESCRIPTION: In Bangladesh and India, 75 million people have been contaminated by arsenic contained in the water they unwittingly drank every day for years. Through the personal accounts of village residents, this striking film unveils the story of what is considered today as the worst mass poisoning in human history.

GUESTS:
Amirul Arham Sheikh, Director
James Herrington, MD, Division of International Relations, Fogarty International Center (FIC)

MEMORY FOR MAX, CLAIRE, IDA AND COMPANY
Thursday June 15, 4:00 pm, Theater 2
Canada, 2005, 112 minutes
Allan King, Director

DESCRIPTION: Who do we become upon losing some of our memory? Meet Max, Claire, and Ida in their slightly off-beat and yet challenging existence on an Alzheimer's ward. Veteran director Allan King provides an intimate look a small band of Jewish elders as they come to grips and find comfort in their adopted home.

GUESTS:
Allan King, Director

A CERTAIN KIND OF BEAUTY
Thursday June 15, 7:15 pm, Theater 3
USA, 2005, 65 minutes
Elizabeth Witham, Nancy Aronie

DESCRIPTION: Dan Aronie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 22. Before MS, Dan was an aspiring actor -- handsome, strong-willed, able-bodied. Intimately captured for six years, his story is of a man who is no longer built like a rock, but whose heart could move a mountain.

GUESTS:
Elizabeth Witham, Director
Nancy and Joel Aronie, Film Subjects

BEFORE FLYING BACK TO THE EARTH
Friday June 16, 4:00 pm, Theater 3
Lithuania, 52 minutes
Arunas Matelis, Director

DESCRIPTION: A moving and poetic glimpse into the lives of children living with leukemia at Vilnius Pediatrics Hospital in Lithuania. As the parents cope with their children being sick, the children begin a new life with friends, games and even love in the hospital.

GUESTS:
Arunas Matelis, Director

THE VOYAGE OF THE WOMEN OF ZARTALE
Saturday June 17, 1:00 pm, Theater 3
France/Afghanistan, 90 minutes
Claude Mourieras, Director

DESCRIPTION: Set against the striking vistas of Afghanistan, Burka-cloaked women walk for hours to reach a health clinic to treat their tuberculosis. As the women fight for their lives, the medical tent provides a space for both the men and women to experience modern medicine, gossip about loved ones, and debate the role of women in their society.

THE BREAST CANCER DIARIES
Saturday June 17, 2:30 pm, Theater 2
USA, 2006, 82 minutes
Linda Pattillo, Director

Preceded by The DOCS Rx Community Breast Cancer Diary
10 minutes.

DESCRIPTION: THE BREAST CANCER DIARIES is an intimate, unvarnished first-person account of a young mother's nine-month journey with breast cancer, punctuated with humor, poignancy and romance. Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38, Ann Murray Paige sets up a video diary camera in her bedroom, resulting in a memoir of a life turned sideways.

GUESTS:
Linda Pattillo , Director
Ann Murray Paige and Family, Film Subjects
Susan Blumenthal, MD, Former Assistant US Surgeon General and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health.
Rachel Brem, MD, Director of Breast Imaging and Intervention, Professor of Radiology and the Vice-Chairman in the Department of Radiology at The George Washington University

PERSPECPLEJIA
Sunday, June 18, 3:30 pm, Theater 3
Chile, 2005, 98 minutes
David Albala, Director

DESCRIPTION: PERSPECPLEJIA is the story of what happens when life gets in the way of a film director. Chilean filmmaker David Albala becomes a paraplegic in a traffic accident and is unwittingly transformed into a narrator and protagonist in a journey to discover how life can be remade from a wheelchair.

GUESTS:
David Albala, Director

DOCS RX CONFERENCE PROGRAM

CROSS-PLATFORM MEDIA CASE STUDIES: RX FOR SURVIVAL; GOSPEL OF JUDAS; GOLD MINING

Thursday, June 15
9:30 - 11:00 a.m. Silver Theatre 3

Case studies of three media projects drawn from public media and the commercial world that have successfully combined broadcast, print, radio,internet and other digital tools. Featuring Rx For Survival, WGBH/PBS; GOSPEL OF JUDAS, National Geographic; GOLD MINING, NYTIMES TV
Moderator: Mark Halperin, Political Director, ABC News

Panelists:
David Rummel, Senior Producer, New York Times Television
Larry Klein, President, Production Group, Inc., Executive Producer Ð RX For Survival, WGBH
Maryanne Culpepper, Senior Vice President, Editorial Development, National
Geographic Television and Film

SPECIAL CONFERENCE SCREENING
GLOBAL HEALTH IMPACT (Part I)

Friday, June 16
2:30 - 3:20 p.m. Discovery HD Theatre

Introduced by Nina Gilden Seavey

ASK ME I'M POSITIVE directed Teboho Edkins, Day Zero Films
The protagonists of the film are three attractive HIV+ young Basotho men. They travel with a mobile cinema unit screening their film for remote communities and sharing their stories and dilemmas of living openly with the virus. How does one go about picking up girls if you have just publicly disclosed your HIV status?

Introduced by: Don Edkins, Executive Producer, Steps for the Future Documentary Project

GLOBAL HEALTH IMPACT: Case Studies (Part II)

Friday, June 16
3:30 - 5:00 p.m. Discovery HD Theatre

A look at the positive impact social issue documentaries addressing health issues have had when accompanied by innovative community outreach and grassroots engagement. Case studies examine FIGHT MALARIA, a prevention program in Uganda; THE FORGETTING, an Alzheimers awareness campaign in the US; THE LION IN THE HOUSE, community engagement outreach around pediatric cancer; and THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT, improving care for AIDS orphans in China.

Introduced by: Nina Gilden Seavey, Director, DOCS Rx Program, SILVERDOCS

Moderator: Rear Admiral Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D.

Case Studies:
FIGHT MALARIA, Aric Naboa, Global Education Partnership
THE FORGETTING, Naomi Boak, Executive Producer, Twin cities Public Television
THE LION IN THE HOUSE, Dennis Palmieri, Director of National Outreach, ITVS
THE BLOOD OF THE YINGZHOU DISTRICT, Thomas Lennon, Ruby Yang China Media Aids Project

Respondent: Don Edkins, Executive Producer, Steps for the Future Documentary Project

DOCS RX ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND KEY PERSONNEL

HONORARY CHAIR
JIMMY CARTER
39th President of the United States
Founder, The Carter Center
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2002

MEDICAL DIRECTOR
SUSAN J. BLUMENTHAL, MD, MPA
Former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General
Rear Admiral (ret.)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health
Clinical Professor, Georgetown School of Medicine

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

NEAL BAER, MD**
Executive Producer, Law & Order SVU
Former Executive Producer, ER

PAMELA W. BARNES
President and Chief Executive Officer
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

ROBERT BAZELL
NBC News, Chief Science and Health Correspondent

NILS DAULAIRE, MD, MPH**
President and CEO, Global Health Council

DON EDKINS**
Executive Producer, STEPS Global Documentary Project, South Africa

MARIA C. FREIRE, PhD
CEO and President of Global Alliance for TB Drug Development

JULIE LOUISE GERBERDING, MD, MPH
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

DONALD R. HOPKINS, MD, MPH
Associate Executive Director, Health Programs at The Carter Center

SHARON HRYNKOW, PhD
Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center

GAIL IFSHIN, PhD
Executive Director, Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership

LARRY KLEIN
Executive Producer, Rx for Survival - A Global Health Challenge
Writer, Producer, Director
President of Production Group, Inc. and Unicorn Projects, Inc.

ARLENE DONNELLY NELSON**
Filmmaker
SILVERDOCS 2005 Sterling Award Winner, Short Film, POSITIVELY NAKED

MIRTA ROSES PERIAGO, MD, MPH, MID
Director, Pan American Health Organization

RICHARD SEIFMAN, JD, MBA**
Senior Advisor, World Bank's AIDS Campaign Team for Africa

JACK VALENTI
President, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Former President of the MPAA

PASCAL VILLENEUVE, MD, MPH**
Chief of Health, UNICEF

RICHARD WALDEN
President and Founder, Operation USA

**Denotes member of the DOCS Rx Jury

STAFF

Nina Gilden Seavey
Director, DOC Rx

Violette Davis
DOCS Rx Programming Coordinator

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Please contact:
Patricia Finneran, Festival Director, info@SILVERDOCS.com
Nina Gilden Seavey, Director, DOCS Rx, GlobalHealth@SILVERDOCS.com
Amy Dotson, Assoc. Programmer & Special Programs Manager, ADotson@AFI.com

SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
8633 Colesville Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301.495.6759