Les films médicaux

Historical medical motion pictures, 1918-1965. An evening of short films from the collection of the National Library of Medicine

Lecture by Michael Sappol, PhD (History of Science & Ideas, Uppsala University; BIH Visiting Fellow).

Time: Wed, 20 March 2019, 18:00 – 21:00 GMT

Place: Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD

Many decades after its invention in the 1890s, the motion picture was greeted with intoxicated technological enthusiasm. It was widely believed that the medium would transform, even revolutionize, science, popular entertainment, pedagogy and politics. Biomedical research scientists, medical educators, surgeons, dentists, nurses, psychiatrists, occupational and physical therapists, specialists in infectious disease, cancer, child development and emergency medicine — and public health officials and activists — became film-makers and film-screeners, invested time and money in film production and distribution. Movies were shot in laboratories, clinics, field hospitals, morgues, schools, military barracks, city streets, remote regions. And filmmakers used a variety of techniques: x-ray cinematography, cine-micrography, cartoon animation, conventional narration and storytelling. Genres of medical film also varied: there were fictionalized stories, documentaries, training films, clinical studies, animal studies, health education and propaganda films. Today, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has an archive of about 17,000 motion pictures, going from the 1910s to the present. Some are difficult to watch, others are charming; some are made for specialists, others for the broadest general audience; some are brilliant works of filmmaking, others are utterly incompetent. Nearly all are of interest, and many are compelling. This program presents a sampling of short films from the NLM collection, made between 1918 and 1965. 

The screening is free and open to the public, and will be preceeded by a drinks reception in the theatre foyer. All are welcome. Register at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medical-movies-1918-1965-tickets-57785914225

Please note: these films contain footage of a sensitive nature. Subjects include psychiatry, rehabilitation, autopsy, child development and infectious disease.