This is the story of filmmaker M. Trinh Nguyen’s journey to her native Vietnam. She observes and documents her
great-uncle’s folk medicine practices treating many patients and making his medicines for tumours, leprosy, and infections. She also seeks out people cured by her great-uncle, talks to local doctors and herbalists, and ultimately realises that through her investigation she has unwittingly begun to apprentice.
GTC Medical Anthropology Film & Discussion Group - Film Programme Trinity Term 2018
Tuesdays 3.30-5pm, GTC Barclay Room (Weeks 2 and 4)
Convened by Paola Esposito
‘Herbs, Pills and Pots’
What happens when medical anthropology meets visual anthropology and ethnographic film-making? Can film as a language and a method of inquiry extend the theoretical and methodological boundaries of medical anthropology? The GTC Medical Anthropology Film & Discussion Group is an experimental, informal group exploring the extent to which ethnographic film can complement, enrich and further the study of medical anthropology themes, topics and methods. After each screening, we comment on the film’s content and approach, and interrogate its capacity to support the analysis of issues relating to illness, crisis, health and wellbeing. This term we look at the uses of herbs and
substances in medical treatments.
