Living in Emergency

I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival This documentary chronicles the experiences of a few different doctors from different countries and backgrounds who volunteer to be part of the Doctors Without Borders or MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) program that offers medical services to more than 70 different countries around the world in mostly war-torn and third world nations where their services are at a premium. These people risk their lives as well as their sanity under extreme M*A*S*H-like conditions to provide health care and surgical services in areas where non exist. Director Mark Hopkins and his film crew were given unprecedented access into the organization in a shooting schedule that took two years. Hopkins was on hand for an audience Q&A at my screening. The editing process to get two years of film into a 93 minute documentary must have been monumental. Editor Sebastian Ischer and Hopkins deserve a lot of credit into the making of this film. There are several disturbing medical scenes if you are queasy but not a lot so you can avert your eyes for a moment or two. The psychological effect that the work has on some of the doctors filmed is of course expected yet unexpected at times. This is Hopkins debut feature and the the film has no voice-over narration by a narrator and all narration is interview-style dialog from the participants in addition to on screen written narrative descriptions and information. This is a very educational film that I would recommend and give it a 7.5 out of 10.