DOWNLOADABLE
IMAGES of Director Lorna Green & Documentary Stills [link]
Reserved for use by media outlets & film festivals only. Permission must
be requested for any other use.
TRAILER
- 3 minute Quicktime file
[link]
Available also on VHS & DVD.
TOO DANGEROUS FOR THE US SCREEN? DOC AWARDED IN CUBAN & VENEZUELAN FESTS, 12-2005.[pdf]
HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE OF BLOODLETTING AT EGYPTIAN THEATER, 4-11-2005. [pdf]
THREE
LINE SYNOPSIS
What happens when a filmmaker borrows a camera to explore issues of healthcare
in Cuba? It becomes personal. It becomes a story about her family, and a poignant
snapshot of two of the 45 million uninsured in America.
140
WORD SYNOPSIS
Bloodletting is a tale of two countries, one rich, one poor; it's
the story of two healthcare systems, one nationalized, one profit-driven; and
it's the personal story of two regular people living without healthcare in America.
Filmmaker Lorna Green borrows a camera to make a documentary on Cuba's healthcare
system, revealing history, culture, and paradoxes of contemporary Cuban life.
When she returns to the U.S., she finds her mother, a teacher, and her brother,
a manufacturing worker, living without health insurance. Both become caught
in a downward cycle in the ugly underbelly of medicine for the uninsured in
America. Turning the camera on her own family, Lorna documents the struggles
of real life without a health safety net. What emerges is an intensely personal
story, woven in with grave statistics and commentary on a country where 45 million
people are uninsured. (67 minutes, 2004.)
67
WORD SYNOPSIS
BLOODLETTING: Life Death Healthcare is a politically charged and personal story
about healthcare and the people affected by it. When a filmmaker borrows a video
camera to investigate Cuba's healthcare system, she returns home, only to find
two family members, uninsured by their employers, in a downward spiral for lack
of healthcare. This poignant and visually stunning documentary reveals the cruel
underbelly of the American healthcare system.
250
WORD SYNOPSIS
BLOODLETTING is a tale of two countries, one rich, one poor; it's the story
of two healthcare systems: one nationalized, one profit-driven; and it’s
the personal story of two regular people, working everyday jobs, who find themselves
caught in a downward spiral because they're uninsured.
Our story opens as director Lorna Green borrows a camera to make a documentary on Cuba's healthcare system. Joining an NGO of healthcare professionals learning about Cuba's nationalized system, we follow the group through the seductive and vibrant streets of Cuba, while investigating the pillars of Cuba's community-based health system. A picture emerges of a country fundamentally committed to the health of their people.
When Lorna returns home, she finds herself pulled from editing as she attempts to support her family, struggling with their own healthcare. Her mother, a teacher, and her brother, a manufacturing worker, have no health insurance and find themselves caught in a downward spiral.
Turning the camera inward, Lorna documents the struggles of two of the 45 million Americans without a health safety net. What emerges is an intensely personal story about America's health system where healthcare is considered a privilege, not a human right.
Positing two healthcare systems in two countries, this powerful cinema verite documentary asks the question: what is the cost of continuing business as usual in the American healthcare system? With an international perspective and a compelling personal story about an uninsured American family, BLOODLETTING succeeds in exploring very timely political issues of healthcare and human rights.
Bloodletting began as merely a filmmaker's exploration of healthcare. My intent? To compare two healthcare models -- that of the United States and of Cuba. The idea was simple, a match to see which healthcare system was better, a David and Golith story.
But real life invaded the story; while I was editing, my own family started having health issues. With camera in hand, I started documenting their health issues, seeing a US healthcare system where the bottom line always comes first.
As a private person, I resisted sharing this footage, but it made sense, the power of the personal story. How else tell the story of healthcare without putting people to sleep? As it stands, mention healthcare, and people get bored. They wonder who'd really be interested in watching, or even making a documentary about it. Then, bring up the people they love, their mothers, lovers, siblings, and ask them, "What if it was your family?" For most people, their interests shift. It's the relationship healthcare has with human beings. We need it. It's what keeps us alive and healthy; it keeps our loved ones with us.
So, I followed my family around with a borrowed video camera constantly in record mode, catching unforseen twists and turns involving blood, life, death, and healthcare. In the midst, Bloodletting emerged, revealing the ugly truths of our healthcare system. As the filmmaker, what I'm most proud of is that it puts faces to the invisible, to the uninsured Americans who rarely have a voice in the facts and figures, and reveals the often forgotten humanity in healthcare.
NUEVO
CINE LATINOAMERICANO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Havana, Cuba (12-16-05).
[link]
Bloodletting comes home as an official documentary selection at this prestigious
festival.
4TH
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL OF 3 CONTINENTS, Caracas, Venezuela (11-12-05).
[link]
In addition to being featured in the festival, BLOODLETTING will show once on
VIVE TV, Venezuela's national TV Network.
ARTIVIST
FESTIVAL, Hollywood, California. [link]
Bloodletting played as a featured film in their human rights category.
MOLECULES
CREATIONS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL, Bangalore, India.
[link]
For a write up on the festival, see India's National Newspaper, The
Hindu.
THE
8TH INTERNATIONAL LABOR FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, Seoul, South Korea.
[link-general]
[link-bloodletting
details ]
Hosted by Labor news Production and sponsored by the Korean Film Commission
(KBC), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and MediACT.
PRESS & REVEIWS of BLOODLETTING
A CALL FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, Minnesota Spokesman Reporter, Journalist Latifa Boyce [link] [pdf]
FILM
DOCUMENTS HEALTHCARE CRISIS IN US, Notimex Reporter Jose Romero, IN SPANISH
[link]
[pdf]
Includes interview with the filmmaker, Lorna Green.
DOCUMENTARY
by LORNA GREEN, By Nicomar Leon Cotayo, IN SPANISH, [link]
[pdf]
REVIEW,
City Pages, By Caroline Palmer[link]
[pdf]
WBAI
of New York City Interviews Director Lorna Green [link]
Prairie Miller of WBAI interviewed Director Lorna Green about the documentary.
Green's interview aired on July 13th, 2004.
REVIEW,
Joan Malerich, Freelance Journalist [link]
"This intensely personal story of one uninsured family's interaction with the American health care system is a call to action. More than 45 million Americans like the Greens are forced to choose between financial crisis or their health. It's a choice that not one of us should ever have to make. If you're not already an activist in the fight for quality, affordable health care for all, this film will inspire you to sign up."
-- Andrew L. Stern
President of the Service Employees International Union
"Bloodletting
is an important and timely film that challenges government policymakers and
the American health care industry to end the the shameful and disgraceful disparities
in America's health care system in which the wealthy receive the highest standard
of health care while millions of Americans are totally shut out of adequate
health care."
-- Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Author and nationally syndicated columnist
President
Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable
"I highly
recommend this informative and insightful film. ...
"Bloodletting: Life, Death, Healthcare takes on the challenge of visually
awakening the American public to the plight of the United States’ healthcare
system and motivates the viewers to act before they become further entrenched
in a system that does not work.....
"Green’s intensity pushes the viewer out of the arm chair and into the arena of action... The stunning visuals and original sound track set the tone for this hard-hitting, emotionally intense docu-drama about real people dealing with life and death issues of a failing healthcare system."
-- Joan Marie Malerich,
freelance writer [For
a full text of her review, click here.]
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