Brandy Schillace, Editor-in-chief, Medical Humanities Journal

Lambert Wilson, French actor and musician, and master of ceremonies at his opening speech for the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 said: ‘The world is written in an incomprehensible language, but cinema translates it for us universally. Without its guiding light, each person would remain in isolated darkness’’.

Medical Humanities online blogs is launching a new series ‘Film Legends Among Us’ revisiting the work of influential storytellers, writers, directors, and actors whose films shone a light on universal challenges such as social injustice, inequalities and access to dignified health and social care. These legends stood the test of time and continue to widen our cultural horizons through conversations and discourse generated by their films. We will revisit their impact in the film world and beyond in the realms of social activism, human rights, and the lives of marginalised communities.

We will reflect on the body of work of film auteurs from around the world such as Pedro Almodóvar (Spain), Ken Loach (UK), Gaspar Noé  (Argentine, France), Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy), Hirukazu Koreeda (Japan), Haifaa Al-Mansoor (Saudi Arabia), and film actors Elham Shahin and Hussein Fahmy (Egypt), Sir Ben Kingsley (UK), Tilda Swinton (UK), and Catherine Deneuve (France).

The series will include blogs written by our film and media correspondent Khalid Ali, commissioned essays, and interviews with contemporary film legends. We hope that ‘Legends Among Us’ will ignite the interest of academics and scholars to critique and analyse film as an important discipline in Medical Humanities.