Category: Cinema Medica

Join us for a screening of Bedside Manner (2016), a short film that explores the important role of performance in physician-patient encounters through the lens of standardized patient simulations. The screening will be accompanied by a discussion with the visiting filmmaker, Corinne Botz, and collaborator Dr. Alice Flaherty, who is a neurologist at Harvard.

RSVP here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P3KHG7K 

Key learning themes:
Communication, e.g., empathy, professionalism
Performance and health outcomes, e.g., help-seeking behaviours, physician wellness
Person-centred approaches to care

Synopsis:

In the 18-minute film Bedside Manner (2016, Winner, Grand Jury Prize for Best Short at the DOC NYC Festival, Oscar-qualifying), director Corinne Botz explores doctor-patient encounters through the lens of standardized patient simulations. It broadens the traditional medical gaze to include doctors as well as patients. It creates an uncanny space in which viewers and participants suspend disbelief and rehearse for trauma.

The film begins with the repeated simulation of a case of delirium that highlights the wavering boundary between reality and art in medicine. Standardized patients and students connect in an ensemble performance of acting sick and playing doctor, yet the encounters are also real. The film’s protagonist, the neurologist Alice Flaherty, plays herself as a doctor, standardized patient, and real patient, and raises questions about the importance of acting well.

Presenters:

Corinne Botz is a Brooklyn-based photographic artist, writer and filmmaker, whose work has been shown internationally. She is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her best known book, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, first brought Frances Glessner Lee’s dioramas of violent death to the attention of the art world. The dioramas will be shown at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts this winter.

Alice Flaherty trained as a neurologist and now has a joint appointment in psychiatry. She has written three award-winning books, all of which have been translated into several languages. Two have been multiply dramatized. Her book The Midnight Disease explores the neurology of creativity. Flaherty is writing a book about the role of acting in both the art of medicine and the under-studied art of being a patient. In the course of her research she has appeared in over 25 television productions, and consulted on two Hollywood doctor show pilots.

Date: Monday, March 11, 6pm
Location: Mount Sinai Hospital (600 University Ave) – 18th floor auditorium
Time: 6:30-8pm

Call for Submissions: Mary Seeman Humanities WRITING Award: 2019

The Mary Seeman Humanities Award: 2019: Deadline April 12, 2019

This award is intended to encourage creative and scholarly activity in the interface between the humanities and issues related to mental illness and emotional well-being. The award is open to students from Dentistry, Kinesiology and Physical Education, Medicine (including undergraduate, residents and fellows), Nursing, Medical Radiation Sciences, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, psychology , Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant, Social Work, Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto, as well as students from medical humanities disciplines including literary studies, history, bio-ethics and disability studies. The award is based on documented evidence of completed work of artistic and/or scholarly merit that contributes to a better understanding of the human condition. Submissions will be judged on the basis of originality, creativity and relevance to mental health and illness.

Please note only one submission per applicant will be accepted.

The following guidelines are suggested to assist applicants in preparation of their submissions.

1. a) The submission must be sole-authored and previously unpublished. To qualify for inclusion the submission must be:
i. a scholarly essay in the area of humanities and mental illness

ii. a personal memoir, medical illness narrative

iii. a short story

iv. a description of program development that integrates humanities and mental health
All above formats may be illustrated, if appropriate, by drawings, photography or video but the core of the submission must be a well-written narrative
Word content of submitted narratives should be no greater than 4000 words.

If applicants are uncertain about the suitability of a submission, they are encouraged to contact any of the committee members. Submissions will be judged by the committee, with outside consultation where appropriate.

Deadline for submissions is April 12, 2019. The award consists of a certificate and cheque for $ 500.00

Prospective applications and queries should be addressed to:

Dr. Ron Ruskin Department of Psychiatry (ronaldruskinmd@aol.com) Mount Sinai Hospital 600 University Avenue, Toronto, M5G 1X5

Cinema Medica Presents:

RADAR (Recovery Advocacy Documentary Action Research)

RADAR is a collective of consumer survivors and academics making short films about mental illness — a product of  a research project led by Dr. Robert Whitley of McGill University and The Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal. One of the project’s main goals is to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental illness by giving consumer survivors the opportunity to tell their own stories. For the past 18 months, RADAR has provided members of Sound Times Support Services in Toronto with equipment and training to allow them to conceive and produce their own short documentary videos about issues surrounding mental health.

Featuring a selection of short films created by consumer survivors followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers!

Admission is free but seating is limited.

Date: Tuesday, Jan 9th
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Mount Sinai Hospital, 9th floor, room 939