¡SALUD!
SYNOPSIS
Beautifully filmed in Cuba, South Africa, The Gambia, Honduras and Venezuela, ¡SALUD! traces the conflicting agendas that mark the quest for global health. Coming at a time when the world is struggling with glaring health disparities, ¡SALUD! examines the remarkable case of Cuba, a poor country with what the BBC calls “one of the world’s best health systems,” and explores Cuba’s extensive global health initiatives.
A feature documentary directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field and produced by Connie Field and Gail Reed, ¡SALUD! spans three continents to portray the philosophy and health professionals that place Cuba on the map in the worldwide movement for health.
¡SALUD! is a timely film about the competing values that mark the battle for global health. The film’s cameras travel to The Gambia, rural South Africa, Venezuela, coastal villages of Honduras and river settlements in the Amazon, where a Cuban is often the first doctor a poor community has ever seen and in some nations they staff entire health systems. ¡SALUD! suggests bold new approaches to developing the human resources critical to making healthcare a global birthright. ¡SALUD! accompanies some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals now staffing public health systems in over 60 countries. Their stories, and those of young medical students—now numbering 30,000—from the Americas, Africa and Asia studying in Cuba, challenge us to rethink the potential of international health cooperation.
A FILM ABOUT WIPING OUT THE DISEASES OF POVERTY AND MAKING HEALTH CARE A BASIC RIGHT…
From the Ground up: In The Gambia—one of the world’s smallest, poorest nations—we find the government taking the lead to bring healthcare to all. Over 100 Cuban doctors join local health workers at new clinics and hospitals across the country. Comments Dr. Yankuba Kassame, The Gambia’s Minister of Health: “Our infant mortality is down, life expectancy up… We wouldn’t be able to narrate this success story without the help of the Cubans.”
The Brain Drain: Post-apartheid South Africa, bound by its social and economic legacy, struggles to provide health care for the country’s majority for the first time in history. But a massive brain drain of qualified health professionals crippled its efforts as few remaining health professionals were willing to serve in poor, rural communities. To staff these hospitals and clinics, the government turned to Cuba. Explains former Director General of Health, Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluga: “Cuba shared our philosophy of health equity, prevention-oriented care and training doctors for public service.”
Into the Storm: Cuba’s medical teams are often among the first to respond to natural disasters like the devastation from hurricane Mitch in Honduras, 1998. Cubans remained to help staff a failing health system. Their service in poor, indigenous communities pitted the public against the country’s medical establishment, ensnaring in the dispute a government already straining under healthcare budget cuts mandated by the International Monetary Fund.
The Challenge of Change: In Venezuela, the film takes viewers into the impoverished, long-abandoned barrios overlooking Caracas and deep into the remote Amazon region, where the largest contingent of Cuban health professionals now works, focusing on their role in a country undergoing dramatic social change.
A PARADIGM SHIFT: TRAINING THE NEW HEALTH PROFESSIONAL
Cubans can’t stay abroad forever: home-grown doctors are needed with a commitment to serve the underserved. Cuba is helping to train them. ¡SALUD! looks at newly established medical schools in South Africa, The Gambia and Venezuela, where the largely Cuban faculty are training health professionals coming from poor communities.
¡SALUD! also takes us to the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in Havana, now the largest medical school in the world. There, 12,000 low-income students from 27 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia—including nearly 100 from the USA—receive a free medical education in exchange for a pledge to return to poor communities when they graduate. Students share their dreams and concerns about a world where such values are not often shared.
CAN HEALTH FOR ALL BE POSSIBLE?
Through the Cuban experience, the film challenges us to reflect on the larger questions: What will it take to stop disease from decimating poor countries and reaching around the globe? How de we get enough doctors and health workers to where they are needed most? Do governments have a responsibility for the health of their citizens?
¡SALUD! has a running time of 93 minutes. It is produced and directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field (The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, Freedom on My Mind), and co-produced by Gail Reed. For more information on reviews and sales, visit www.saludthefilm.net
Contact: Rasheedah Ali
Tel: 404-574-6724
Email: rali@mediccatlanta.org
