Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders (2008)

In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions.

Director:

Mark N. Hopkins

Stars:

Chris Brasher, Davinder Gill, Tom Krueger

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Chris Brasher	...	Himself
Davinder Gill	...	Himself
Tom Krueger	...	Himself
Chiara Lepora	...	Herself

Storyline

In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions. With different levels of experience, each volunteer must find their own way to face the challenges, the tough choices, and the limits of their idealism. "Living in Emergency" is a window into the seldom portrayed and less-than glamorous side of humanitarian aid work. It explores a world that is challenging, complex, and fraught with dilemmas - the struggles, both internal and external, that aid workers face when working in war zones and other difficult contexts.

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Plot Keywords:

war zone | doctor | liberia | medical examination | surgical operation | 

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Taglines:

Higher Stakes. Tougher Choices. Medicine like you've never seen it.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official MySpace

Country:

USA

Language:

English Swahili French

Release Date:

15 January 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Beni, Democratic Republic Of Congo

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Red Floor Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the film one of the actors, Dr. Chris Brasher, makes a comment about a global agency's 'meetings' about future development, as opposed to the immediate and direct action that MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) takes. When questioned at the 2009 Berlin Babylon Film Festival on 4th December 2009, director Mark Hopkins said his brother works for that agency and he checked with him whether it was acceptable before including it in the final edit.

User Reviews

Educational look into MSF

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.