Better Health For All

Darkness.

A sinister droning, plaintive chords and the distant tramp of marching feet.

Blood red letters emerge from the void, forming words, and then fading back into the night.

WAR ALWAYS TAKES A HEAVY TOLL…
EVEN AFTER THE FIGHTING ENDS, CONFLICTS CONTINUE TO KILL.

This is the riveting opening scene of “War & the National Immune System”, a short animated film written and produced by the Global Violence Prevention SIG in collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. You can watch it here. The film’s online release this week is the culmination of a long process to which many different people have made extremely valuable contributions. Therefore in the fine tradition of the Oscars acceptance speech, let me tell you the story of how this project came about.

As a special interest group (SIG), we have found it quite helpful to have an overarching theme or a primary project for each year (would you like to know about next year’s theme?). I like to think that this helps to guide and focus our activities. Sometime in mid-2017, we decided that our theme for 2018 would be the association between armed conflict and infectious disease, using the dual centenary of World War One’s conclusion and the Spanish Flu pandemic as a “hook”. It was an obvious opportunity to take an anniversary that we knew would be getting a lot of media attention (as it should), and to present it with a slight twist – a different perspective which would hopefully be memorable enough to help us draw attention to the wider public health impacts of armed conflict.

I had been mainly thinking in terms of some journal articles and a bit of public speaking, but when I mentioned our proposed annual theme to John Middleton he responded “Why don’t you make a film about it?”. It wasn’t an idea that I had ever considered, perhaps because of my total ignorance of film making. But what is a public health training programme for, if not for expanding your experience of different methods of communicating with the public?

Members of the SIG formed a working group and started putting together a script. The many benefits of collaboration quickly became apparent. We had a vision and the evidence base to create the film’s narrative, but no experience of script-writing to guide us. Fortunately we had colleagues from the Film SIG to advise and steer us towards the sort of concise story-telling that was required. We had vague ideas about what producing such a film might cost, but no contacts to give us actual quotes.

Luckily the Film SIG was again able to help, putting us in touch with independent film makers who gave us some estimates. We had the potential to raise some funds, but probably not enough to cover the scope of our ambitions. Fortuitously my contacts at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were interested in our ideas, so much so that they were happy to collaborate with us and to bear half of the total cost. They also brought fresh eyes to our script, new perspectives and some invaluable experience in using film as a tool of public communication.

A huge amount of work by many people went into the writing process. How to adequately describe the calamity of the Spanish Flu pandemic, coming at the end of the worst war the world had ever seen, in less than 30 seconds? How best to balance the messaging priorities of MSF with those of the FPH? It took months. Having decided that animation was the best medium to communicate all of the information that we wanted to get across, we pitched the finished script to a range of studios, and chose one called Beakus on the basis of the storyboards they created in response to our brief.

While the animators got to work, sending us progressively more and more detailed storyboards and tantalizing clips of what the finished film might look like, we turned our attention to where on earth we would find our half of the money. By a happy coincidence, a generous financial bequest had recently been given to the Faculty for the explicit purpose of supporting public health film collaborations, and we were able to get approval to use some of it for this project.

In a brilliant sequel to this good news, the excellent MSF team managed to secure the services of Academy Award winning British actor Jim Broadbent, who kindly donated his time and his mellifluous tones to the voiceover. We could never have achieved these things alone.

The finished product, of which we are all incredibly proud, is now being spread (can I say “virally”?) from various online platforms, as well as the Faculty website. For example, it is currently being hosted on the Telegraph Global Health Security page along with an excellent article jointly written by SIG co-chair Dr Sylvia Garry, and also on the Socially Minded Documentaries channel on Vimeo. We will be promoting this novel perspective on the centenary, and its implications for conflict prevention in the present, as we approach Remembrance Day.

Anyone interested in using film to better communicate public health ideas should definitely consider joining the Film SIG. Anyone interested in exploring (through a variety of mediums) the public health impacts of conflict and war should unquestionably think about joining the Global Violence Prevention SIG. If you have a passion, find a SIG. If there isn’t one yet, then start one – this is a member-driven organisation. And if you’re part of a SIG contemplating an ambitious project, consider who you might be able to partner with. Collaboration is an enriching and empowering experience.

Anyway, I can hear the orchestra starting to play me off. Let me just quickly thank the Academy, my agent, all of my hypothetical future children, my make-up artist, my lifestyle consultant… [music]

Written by Dan Flecknoe, FPH member and Chair of FPH’s Global Violence Prevention SIG.