Lights! Camera! Action!
Student films based on Hurricane Katrina relief
premieres at UT Medical School
HOUSTON – (Feb. 21, 2006) – On a Monday in late September, a handful of medical students gathered around a pizza and plotted strategies for capturing on film one of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s proudest moments
Michael McKinney, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of the UT Health Science Center; Larry Gilstrap III, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Carlos Moreno, M.D., professor and chairman of Family and Community Medicine at the Hurricane Katrina clinic in the George R. Brown Convention Center.
The students, enrolled in the John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Health, Humanities and the Human Spirit’s first filmmaking class, planned to interview faculty members who were integral to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort at the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Astrodome.
Through polished interviews, crafty camera work and a lengthy editing process, they would document the stories of UT physicians who set up medical facilities for thousands of sick and injured evacuees from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Five months later, the students are presenting their final products – four short films called “Taking Care of Katrina’s Evacuees.” They also created and produced a separate short film on Professor of Medicine Herbert Fred, M.D. The schoolwide premier of the films was at noon Wednesday, Feb. 22, in room 2006 of the Medical School Building.
Thomas Cole, Ph.D., the Beth and Toby Grossman Professor and director of the McGovern Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit, said he and Bill Howze of Baylor College of Medicine developed “The Joys and Sorrows of Medicine: An Introduction to Filmmaking” to help medical students hone skills in observing, listening and constructing a coherent narrative.
These skills are essential for filmmakers as well as physicians, Cole said, and teaching students early in their medical training to develop a keen eye for filmmaking could ultimately make them more effective clinicians.
Cole originally intended for his students to interview seasoned faculty members about the highs and lows that have shaped their careers as physicians. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Cole said, it became clear that the focus of the students’ filmmaking projects needed to shift.
“This was such a historic event and a proud moment for the university,” Cole said. “There were such vivid and important stories that illustrate what it really means to take care of patients. The students felt it was important to document that.”
The four Katrina films features Carlos Moreno, M.D., professor and chairman of Family and Community Medicine; Margaret McNeese, M.D., professor of pediatrics and associate dean of Student Affairs at the UT Medical School; Larry Gilstrap III, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; and Michael McKinney, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of the UT Health Science Center.
The fifth film documents the remarkable career of Fred, an educator, clinician and author who proclaims the importance of bedside manner.
During the filmmaking class, first- and second-year students learned to operate the camera, use natural lighting and gather background images that help show the story of the faculty member they are interviewing.
“The first key skill is very careful attention to detail,” Cole said. “We also emphasized interviewing techniques and the importance of asking open-ended questions and engaging in genuine conversation. These are important skills for filmmakers, and they are equally important for physicians.”
Kenneth Estrera, 25, a first-year medical student, said the class was a creative outlet that helped him fine-tune his observation skills – at least when it comes to films and television. “When I watch movies from now on, I’ll look at them in a different way. I can recognize the tiny transitions and the way things have been edited.”
Estrera worked with fellow student Marisa Jennings on a film featuring Moreno. He said it was interesting to learn about Moreno’s firsthand account of setting up the medical clinic at the George R. Brown Convention Center and caring for patients with chronic illnesses who had been without medication for days after the hurricane.
“Everyone was there just to help other people, and that’s why most doctors go in to medicine,” Estrera said. “There was no insurance or other stuff to get in the way. It was just doctors taking care of people.”
Cole said he designed the class to help medical students develop a keen eye for detail, an ear for listening and an art for capturing people’s stories, but he hopes the students come away with much more.
“I hope they come away with a sense of excitement and inspiration about what it really means to care for people,” he said.
The class is expected to present the films again at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and at a Texas Medical Association meeting in May. Dates are pending.
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