Once again, Professor Madhukar Pai, Chair of the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University in Montreal, has created a “crowd-sourced list of over 100 inspiring, must-watch movies focused on global health topics.”
Although a few of the movies on Prof. Pai’s list lean heavily into the dramatic or even the apocalyptic (Parasite, Outbreak, or Contagion, anyone?), a few highlight the work of medical heroes in the way we do here at Angels in Medicine.
What follows is a selection of six movies about real and fictional medical heroes.
Period. End of Sentence
In a rural village in India, a group of women band together to install and operate a sanitary pad-making machine, combating the crushing stigma of menstruation, improving accessibility of sanitary products, and discovering newfound independence and hope for a better future.
“Period. End of Sentence.” was the winner of the 2019 Academy Award in the Documentary Short category.
Hunger Ward
Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, Hunger Ward documents two female health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides an unflinching portrait of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they try to save the lives of hunger-stricken children within a population on the brink of famine.
This short documentary was nominated for an Academy Award in 2021.
Be Your Sisters’ Keeper
Women who sell sex are coming together to address the violence and stigma that they face. Following moments in the lives of two among an estimated 39,000 women selling sex in Nairobi, this 9-minute film sketches their daily lives and experiences as they raise children, earn a living and organise to have their voice heard.
Heroines of Health: A Documentary
Mercy, Dr. Sharmila and Mrs. Rohani come from different backgrounds. They speak difference languages. Yet they share a common journey, overcoming steep challenges and expectations to bring better health to their communities. Today women make up 75% of the global healthcare workforce, yet too often their work is unrecognized. These are three of many untold stories that may hold the key to unlocking better health for more people around the world. Produced by GE Healthcare. A film by Lisa Russell.
How to Survive a Pandemic
Directed by acclaimed journalist and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker David France (Welcome to Chechnya), How to Survive a Pandemic takes an inside look at the historic, multi-national race to research, develop, regulate, and roll out COVID-19 vaccines in the war against the coronavirus pandemic. This documentary began filming in early 2020 as the largest public health effort in history got underway and followed those efforts over the next 18 months, exploring in real time the hard work and collaboration of health agencies worldwide, as well as the political and moral failures of governments to act impartially and equitably.
Ganashatru — An Enemy of the People
In this 1989 adaptation of the Ibsen play, an idealistic physician discovers that the town’s temple waters are dangerously contaminated. But with the community relying on the holy attraction for tourist dollars, his warnings go unheeded. IMDB