Medical Humanities Podcast

’Bernie and Rebecca’ is Melissa Kent’s directorial debut: ”a lifetime of emotions in 15 minutes”

In this podcast, Khalid Ali speaks to Melissa Kent, Hollywood film editor, about her debut as a director with "Bernie and Rebecca", at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which explores "a lifetime of emotions in 15 minutes".
The short film had its UK premiere during the Scottish festival, in June, and will be available on the Internet in January 2017. It has also been selected to three upcoming festivals:
MADRID INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (July 2–9) - nominated for Best Director of a Short Film and Nominated for Best Original Screenplay of a Short Film;
GO WEST FEST (July 17–19) Oakhurst, California;
ACTION ON FILM FESTIVAL (AOF) Early acceptance. Monrovia, California (September 2–10).
Melissa Kent also tells the Medical Humanities' Screening Room Editor the stories behind other films she edited, such as "The Virgin Suicides" and "The Age of Adaline", which throws a different perspective into the concept of fighting ageing. Her next feature film is "American Pastoral", based on the 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Philip Roth, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut. "American Pastoral" is released in October 2016.
Watch the trailer at www.bernieandrebecca.com, and to learn more about Melissa Kent’s editing career visit www.melissakent.com. 
The 70th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival was held from the 15th to the 26th of June 2016, in Scotland.

The Nightingales: Sudan’s First women band: music for healing and hope

The three Sudanese sisters The Nightingales (or 'Al-balabil'), who have been singing for 45 years, are doing their first world tour.
On their stop for a concert in London, at the end of May, they spoke with Khalid Ali, the Medical Humanities' Screening Room Editor, about their memories as children in Sudan and the power of their music in supporting people with illnesses. A conversation with a lot of music involved.

Coma through the eyes of a doctor and relatives: interview with Anu Menon, director of ’Waiting’

In this podcast, the director Anu Menon talks to the Medical Humanities' Screening Room Editor Khalid Ali about her latest film 'Waiting'. The film explores the relationship between doctor and patients' relatives as well as the bonds established through coma.
This is the second of two Medical Humanities' podcasts about the Indian film 'Waiting', which was part of the London Asian film Festival (LAFF), Tongues on Fire, in March 2016. It will be released internationally on the 26th of April, in India and Singapore.

Film ‘Waiting’ - lives united by coma: interview with co-writer James Ruzicka

In this podcast, Dr James Ruzicka talks about the connection between the story of the film 'Waiting', which he co-wrote, and the real life of a doctor. ‘Waiting’ is directed by Anu Menon and explores the bond established between two people whilst their spouses lie in coma in an hospital.
This is the first of two Medical Humanities' podcasts about the Indian film, which will be the closing night gala of the London Asian film Festival (LAFF), Tongues on Fire, on Sunday, 13th March 2016. It will be released internationally on the 26th of April, in India and Singapore.

Producer Simon Field invites to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s season of films and installations in UK

In this podcast, Khalid Ali talks to Simon Field, producer of "Cemetery of Splendour", a film about a lonesome middle-age housewife who tends a soldier with sleeping sickness and falls into a hallucination.
The film is the starting point of a conversation about the work of the director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which legacy is being showcased in the UK:
Film retrospective, Tate Modern, 6-8 April;
'Cemetry of Splendour' film, BFI Southbank, April 2016;
Visual installation 'Primitive' - The Tanks, New Tate Modern, June 2016.

Sharif Hatata: doctor, novelist, film critic about medicine, doctor strike and ”Egypt’s health”

The 93 year-old retired doctor Sharif Hatata, Egyptian political activist born in the UK, tells MH Screening Room editor Khalid Ali about his novels, "resistance", junior doctors strike, "poor health care" in Egypt and his film passion.
This interview was recorded in Cairo, during The Panorama of the European Film, in November 2015.
See the full program of the festival at http://panoramaeurofilm.com/

Bringing cinema to those with visual impairment, reporting from the Panorama of the European Film

The president of The Panorama of the European Film, Marianne Khoury, explores the new possibilities opened by the last edition of the festival in Cairo, including the new technologies allowing cinema for those with visual impairment.
The film-maker introduced the event in Egypt more than a decade ago, presenting alternative cinema to the country.
In this podcast, Marianne Khoury tells Khalid Ali about the other films in this festival, including her own 'Shadows-Zelal', which explores the dark reality of Egypt’s mental asylums.
See the full program of The Panorama of the European Film at http://panoramaeurofilm.com/

Psychological coercion in UK government workfare programmes

How is positive psychology being used as a coercive strategy in UK government workfare programmes? What effect does this have on the people who receive unemployment benefits, and how have psychologists responded?
In this podcast, Lynne Friedli (Hubbub) and Robert Stearn (Birkbeck) discuss their research with BMJ Medical Humanities Associate Editor Angela Woods.
“Positive affect as coercive strategy: conditionality, activation and the role of psychology in UK government workfare programmes” appears in “Critical Medical Humanities,” the first special issue of Medical Humanities mh.bmj.com.

Mohamed Khan, Egyptian screenwriter and director, on what clinicians can gain from his films

Khalid Ali, screening room editor at Medical Humanities, talks to Mohamed Khan, screen writer and actor, and one of the leading directors of of neo-realist cinema in 80s Egypt.
They discuss his range of films and the parallels with, and lessons for, practicing medicine.

The Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference 2014: The mad scientist

Khalid Ali, Screening Room editor, reports from the Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference in Exeter.
Here he speaks to Laura Habbe, a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses around the figure of the mad scientist, often taking the shape of a doctor, in popular fiction of the last two decades of the nineteenth century. She is interested in the question of how the mad scientist became firmly established as a stereotype in our culture and how this relates to questions of science communication and the public understanding of science.