I’m [Soon To Be] Famous

As I mentioned to some of you before coming, a film crew joined us for the last 5 days of the trip to get footage for a documentary they are making on the problem of cervical cancer in developing countries.  They are planning to use Guatemala, and our trip, as the centerpiece of their documentary.  When I first heard, I was kind of excited about the idea, but eager to improve my Spanish so as to not look dumb in front of a potentially large viewing audience.  As we got swept up in the first few weeks of the trip, I completely forgot about the upcoming documentary.  Once they arrived, I got very nervous but for completely different reasons than before.  It seemed so backwards that they would arrive for the last week of our project.  I felt like it would be akin to starting a book three quarters of the way in and having no idea how the characters had gotten to that point.  I worried there would be no context to our work, and that we would appear tired and more than a little burned out.  I was concerned that we would have a hard time connecting with the crew and expressing our thoughts after we had gone through so much together prior to their arrival.  As the three of them schlepped their loads of cameras and video equipment into the hotel, not surprisingly I found more apprehensions.  I worried about my patients – what impact would cameras have on their clinic experience?  Would they feel scrutinized?  Violated?  Would the aversion be strong enough that they wouldn’t seek care at our clinic?  Guatemalans are typically very private people, and Guatemalan women even more so, and native Mayan women (a large portion of the population in Petén) even more so – for a variety of reasons much too complicated to enumerate here (and honestly, much too complicated for me to fully grasp at all).  These include a very long civil war that ended less than 20 years ago, a history of discrimination against and repression of the poor and indigenous populations, and experiences of subjugation at the hands of foreigners.  In short, gaining the trust of the people here has been a tenuous process especially when we are seeking to provide gynecologic care.  It has only been possible with the reassuring work of Ismael and Orfelinda and we have still met many roadblocks.  Thus, the whole documentary thing had me worried.  

Some Mayan (Quechi) women in their beautiful traditional dress in clinic.

However, on a whole, the experience was a great one.  The two filmmakers (Chad and Nate) and their translater / friend (Brian) were all respectful, compassionate, and unimposing.  They came in with a vision for the film, but remained fluid as new opportunities, ideas, and patients presented themselves.  They were very open to suggestions and receptive when we requested privacy for our patients.  We each provided extensive interviews, and they took the time to delve into difficult subjects and gave us the time to provide thoughtful answers.  It didn’t take them long to realize that I could talk for hours on subjects about which I’m passionate, for better or worse.  We’ll see how I feel when I see the actual footage and realize just how unbecoming the combination of heat, tiredness, and scrubs can be, but for now I’m feeling pretty content about it.  I have no idea how widely the film will be circulated, but I believe that if it gets into the right hands it could be quite compelling and raise important awareness. 

Here’s the trailer, for those interested.  (Aside: Yes, I realize there is a typo in the captions, and most of you probably know how I feel about that…  already discussed it with them – I couldn’t help it!)  It was made with pre-existing footage, so the real thing should be much more professional and, most importantly, include much more of me. 

Here’s the website for the organization: http://wordoncancer.org/cms/word-site/.  And the page specifically for the movie: http://nomorethemovie.com/.

By the way, I completely reserve the right to decide against sharing the actual film with any of you if it turns out what I said made no sense (in English or in Spanish) and everyone, patients included, failed to tell me that at the time!  For now, best of luck to them – I don’t envy the job of trying to pull the plight of women in developing countries trying to get access to women’s health care into a cohesive and comprehensive story.