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 TRIAGE: DR. JAMES ORBINSKI'S HUMANITARIAN DILEMMA (88 minutes) Canada/Congo/Rwanda/Somalia Director: Patrick Reed Producer: Peter Raymont Description: The act of triage is the ultimate humanitarian nightmare. Racing against time with limited resources, relief workers make split-second decisions: who gets treatment; who gets food; who lives; who dies. This impossible dilemma understandably haunts humanitarians like Dr. James Orbinski, who accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as their President, and was a field doctor during the Somali famine and the Rwandan genocide, among other catastrophes. Having seen the best and worst of humanitarian assistance and of humanity itself, Orbinski embarks on his most difficult mission to date-writing a deeply personal and controversial book that struggles to make sense of it all. In Triage, a feature-length documentary, Orbinski travels to war-torn Somalia, the first place he was posted with MSF in 1992; then to Rwanda, where he was MSF Head of Mission during the 1994 genocide. Finally he goes to Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, where it seems humanitarian dreams go to die. Biography: A decade ago, Patrick Reed abandoned a PhD program in history to work on documentaries, first as a writer/researcher, then as a director. Many of his films explore human rights issues in a vérité style, following compelling characters as they struggle with the past and present. Recently, Reed directed Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope, a cinema-vérité chronicle of the work of doctors and nurses fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Lesotho, Africa. Tsepong received the 2006 Deborah Fletcher Award from the Canadian International Development Agency for best documentary dealing with international issues. Filmmaker, journalist and writer Peter Raymont has produced and directed over a hundred documentary films and series during his thirty-four year career. Raymont is the recipient of thirty-five international prizes, including the Canadian Genie, four Geminis, several Gold and Silver Hugos, The Sesterce d'Argent and other international honors. His documentary feature Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire was honored with the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentaries at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and a 2007 Emmy for Best Documentary. Raymont's recent feature documentary film, A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, will also screen at UNAFF this year. Contact Information: Dylan McGinty National Film Board of Canada 1123 Broadway, Suite 307 New York, NY 10010 E-mail: d.mcginty@nfb.ca Web site: http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/triage/ |
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