Art of Psychiatry Society

Medfest is a medical film festival coming up soon.  They say:

In May 2011, the UKs first national medical film festival, “Medfest”, was established. Organised by a group of psychiatrists, its purpose was primarily to encourage medical students to choose a career in psychiatry, but ultimately the 9 events held around the UK drew an audience of students, health professionals, actors, filmmakers, scriptwriters, the public….. and indeed patients. It was a huge success, and was enthusiastically reviewed in “The Lancet”

MedFest is running again and in 2012 will be extending to events across 16 universities (with an anticipated audience of over 1,000) and is broadening its scope to all medical specialities. The theme this year is: HealthScreen: Understanding Illness through Film

We aim to provoke debate of the social, political and ethical implications of depictions of health and illness on our screens, not only in the form of Hollywood film, but also public health campaigns and advertisements. Such depictions are hugely powerful: When inaccurate, they can create myths and incite stigma; but when correctly presented, they have the potential to empower patient groups and dispel prejudice. We will be watching short films from The Wellcome Trust archive collection, charitably funded campaigns such as Animated Minds, and some silver screen successes and nightmares! Topics such as childhood obesity, autism, HIV and OCD will have prominent coverage.

Our diverse panellists include doctors, filmmakers, medical ethicists, social scientists and media celebrities with an interest in medicine. We look forward to welcoming the Prodcuer and Director of BBC2’s “Great Ormond Street”  Simon Gilchrist, author Max Pemberton, BBC’s ‘Radio Doctor’ and GP Stuart Flanagan, film director Mat Whitecross and  stand-up comedian Paul Sinha, amongst many others.  All events are FREE and will take place in February and March 2012. For further details on dates, venues and much much more, please visit www.medfest.co.uk