¡Salud!: What Puts Cuba on the Map in the Quest for Global Health 2006
Distributed by Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba, 1902 Clairmont Rd., Suite 250, Decatur, GA 30033; 678-904-8091
Produced by Connie Field, Gail Reed, Peter G. Bourne, C. William Keck
Directed by Connie Field
DVD , color, 93 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Area Studies, Health Sciences, Latin American Studies
Date Entered: 08/14/2008
ALA Notable: ALA.gif
Reviewed by Holly Ackerman, Duke University
Since 1959, more than a dozen documentaries have been produced on the organization and delivery of health care in revolutionary Cuba. Most have been simple travelogues featuring political tourists who give effusive endorsements as they shuttle between the tour bus and a series of clinics, day care centers and hospitals. These films are dull to watch and give little solid information. Predictably, most of them are not widely circulated.
In 2006, however, two engaging, substantive and well produced documentaries on healthcare in Cuba were released, both of which are readily available and organized for classroom use. What separates these two films is the frame in which each is embedded. ¡Salud!: What Puts Cuba on the Map in the Quest for Global Health highlights the international dimension of Cuban medical activism while Cuba: The Accidental Revolution looks at evolution and adaptation at the national level.
¡Salud! is grounded in the idea that healthcare is a universal human right as important as political rights. The documentary uses the Cuban system as a lens to view what is possible on a global scale when the health of the nation is used as a measure of the country’s success. Viewers not only learn about the Cuban health care system but see Cuban medical brigades in action in places as diverse as shantytowns in Caracas, remote areas in The Gambia, Honduras and underserved parts of South Africa. Cooperation among poor nations is well illustrated and the potential of primary prevention is made real.
The film hits at multiple health issues and policies in a way that only involved participants could creatively pack into a ninety minute film. Not surprisingly the film is produced by people who have had lifelong commitments to universal health care and have worked with the Cuban system. The producers are not medical tourists but, rather, are partners in change.
A special menu for educators divides the film into two parts for classroom use and includes an online study guide and class discussion guide. It is available in Spanish and English with subtitles provided in each language.
Awards
- Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media, conferred by the US Council on Foundations (COF)
- American Library Association’s 2008 Notable Video
- American Medical Student Association’s First Film Prize
- Audience Choice Award at Los Angeles’ Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF)
- Bronze Remi at Houston’s 40th Annual Worldfest