Open Call for Short Films

THE HEALTHY SCEPTICISM SHORT FILM COMPETITION

We invite submissions of short films (under 15 minutes) to appear as part of the Healthy Scepticism film festival. Submissions should offer some contemplation of the issues under consideration at the Healthy Scepticism project (outlined below), and may do so in any way the filmmaker sees fit. Submissions might explore, for example, any of the following kinds of questions: What are your or others’ experiences of health, illness, wellness, medicine, healthcare? What is your perspective on how our healthcare systems do and do not work? How do we currently think of ourselves as “ill” or “healthy,” and why? What role does media – including social media – have in our perceptions of health, wellness, illness and disease? How do personal encounters, family histories, ethnic, sexual and gender identities change our experiences of health and illness, of healthcare and healthcare systems? How has COVID-19 changed things for us in terms of how we understand health and its care?

THE HEALTHY SCEPTICISM PROJECT

Health sceptics have never been more in the news. Though mask-abstainers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists filled our headlines early on, they have more recently had to share with new and more measured conversations around vaccine hesitancy and the very real fears, experiences and collective memories that drive it. These are not new feelings. Sometimes these scepticisms are the result of the ways in which healthcare has let us down now and in the past; other times, they are the result of unique, personal and specific experiences. Scepticism arises both within and outside the formal contours of medical practice. It differs from community to community, individual to individual and nation to nation. Scepticism can be transient or specific to single issues or perhaps revolve around other, more culturally embedded networks of caring and healing that trump in importance healthcare’s more formalised versions. Wherever these are and however they appear, the Healthy Scepticism aims to trace them: to explore what the history and present of medical scepticism can tell us about our current relationships to health and healthcare, and through this to explore ways to improve how we care for health long term.

We will feature the films of our finalists as part of our film festival, and one overall winner will be featured in the festival alongside an interview. The winner will be chosen by an interdisciplinary panel of judges working across the Healthy Scepticism project.