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Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma
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, 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.
Leaving his young family behind in Toronto, Canada - where he's a
university professor and doctor - Orbinski returns to Africa, revisiting the
past and engaging with the present. He hopes that here, in the place where he
witnessed humanity literally torn apart, he can rediscover the true heart of
humanitarianism.
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.
Filmed in an intense vérité style, Triage: Dr.
James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma presents a unique view of
the world through the penetrating eyes of Orbinski. He refuses to turn away
when confronting troubling memories or realizing disturbing truths and, in the
most unlikely of places, he finds where bonds of solidarity are forged, and
human spirits somehow remain unbroken.
Orbinski - a father, a doctor, a humanitarian - has seen lives saved and
lives lost and has personally witnessed a world gone astray. In Triage:
Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, he searches for a new
path and invites the viewer to follow.
2007, 46 min 58 s
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