The Sadness is Always There

Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York ‘This Shaking Keeps Me Steady’ directed by Shehrezad Maher, India, 2018  Showing in the London Indian Film Festival (http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/) In the film, ‘This shaking keeps me steady’ the deep emotion and dreams stirred by traumatic scenes are sharply juxtaposed with acting, which is presented as […]

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Ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and Face the Strange)

Review by © James Evans, Film Critic/Historian Review of Roobha, and Ghost of the Golden Groves Roobha (d: Lenin M. Sivam) and Ghost of the Golden Groves (Shonajhurir, d: Roshni Sen and Aniket Dutta) are two films at the London Indian Film Festival sharing similar themes, but radically different subject matters. The thematic similarities concern […]

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No Pain, All Gain

Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent ‘The Man Who Feels No Pain’ (Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota), Vasan Bala, India 2018 Showing at the London Indian Film Festival (http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/) The Bagri Foundation London Film Festival celebrates a decade of bringing the best new South Asian films to the UK. The festival will […]

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The Secret in Their Eyes

Film Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Two films screening in the Sundance London Film Festival explore the emotionally charged time around a terminal illness and how to communicate and share such bad news between patients and their families. Some family members urge doctors not to tell their relatives the true nature […]

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Cinema of Hope and Humanity: Introducing the World of Malayalam Filmmaker Jayaraj

by Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Medical Humanities will focus on ‘Global Humanities’ as a theme for 2019. Film can be a powerful medium for raising awareness about current global challenges as well as revisiting historical tragedies that befell humanity, as in the first and second World Wars. It gives me great pleasure to […]

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A Drive Through the Heart of Darkness

Review of ‘The Trial of Ratko Mladic’, directed by Henry Singer, and Robert Miller, showing in ‘London Human Rights Watch Film Festival’ 13–22 March 2019, https://ff.hrw.org/london by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York The Trial of Ratko Mladic begins on 22 November 2017 in The Hague, just as the world is anticipating a […]

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The Poetry of Addiction: Review of ‘Wherever you are-Ovunque Proteggemi’, Directed by Bonifacio Angius, Italy 2018

Showing in ‘Cinema made in Italy 2019’ London Saturday 2nd March, https://www.british-italian.org/cinema-made-in-italy-2019/ Written by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine ‘Wherever You Are’ is a new Italian film that portrays addiction along with its usual weight of bleak antecedents and consequences, including dependency, conflict, depression and the collateral suffering of family members. But this alternately […]

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Let’s NOT Talk About Death: Review of ‘Euforia’, Directed by Valeria Golino, Italy 2018

Showing in ‘Cinema made in Italy 2019’, London, https://www.british-italian.org/cinema-made-in-italy-2019/. Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent ‘Euphoria’ is defined as ‘a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness’. The word originates from the 17th century when it described well-being produced in a sick person by the use of drugs. In her second […]

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Cinema Bellissimo: Italian Cinema in London 2019

Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Italian cinema has always had a special place in world cinema; the neo-realist wave of film-making led by directors Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and Roberto Rossellini told stories of the Italian working-class facing poverty, social injustice and oppression. Classic films like ‘The bicycle thief’ (Vittorio De […]

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Streaming Content and Psychoeducation: Analysing the Interactive Approach of Netflix’s Black Mirror; “Bandersnatch”

by Nadeem Akhtar, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, McMaster University Over the last decade there has been a change in societal viewing habits. As a result of easy access to the internet, quicker download speeds and the advent of smart-devices capable of playing video content, there has been an increasing shift towards non-broadcast content, including the […]

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