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By Francis G. Lu, M.D.
Chair
Media Subcommittee
The media program at APA's 1998 annual meeting in Toronto will include innovative film, video, and computer program sessions that will inspire, illuminate, educate, and entertain those who attend. Session themes include healing of racial divisions, women's issues, substance abuse, family/consumer perspectives, urban and rural psychiatry, among others. Many sessions will feature films or videos made or set in Canada.
The ever-popular computer-related sessions, under the leadership of Steven Hyler, M.D., continue to attract greater interest and thus attendance. They were described in the annual meeting issue of Psychiatric News (February 20). Several CME courses on computers will definitely sell out in the advance registration period, which ends April 20.
The Video Production Clinic on Monday, June 1, at 9 a.m. will be chaired by Richard D'Alli, M.D., an experienced video producer/director before he entered psychiatry. The focus in the clinic has been changed from technical issues to the conceptual planning, collaborative, and marketing aspects of video production.
This year's program includes sessions consistent with President Clinton's call for a dialogue on race. "Towards a Healing of Racial and Religious Divisions," which will be held Sunday, May 31, at 7 p.m., features two powerful documentaries: "Blacks and Jews" and "Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories." The 1995 feature film "Cry, the Beloved Country," starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris, will be shown Monday, June 1, at 9 a.m. Based on Alan Paton's 1948 novel, the film depicts how the pre-Apartheid racial divisions between a black father and a white father are reconciled unexpectedly through the tragic deaths of their sons. Charles Ndlela, M.D., a black psychiatrist originally from South Africa, will be the discussant. "Shattering the Silences," which will be shown Tuesday, June 2, at 9 a.m., will examine the importance of diversity among faculty in higher education, with significant lessons for psychiatry. Finally, the Academy Award-winning documentary film "When We Were Kings" on psychiatric perspectives on race and boxing will be shown Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.m.
Among the feature films to be shown at the annual meeting is the Academy Award-winning "Shine" (Monday, June 1, 2 p.m.); Alan Stone, M.D., and Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., will discuss how "Shine" portrays mental illness. APA's annual joint session with the Forum for the Psychoanalytic Study of Film will feature "Pennies From Heaven" with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters. It will be shown Monday, June 1, at 11 a.m., and the discussion will be by Justin Frank, M.D. "Contact" (Tuesday, June 2, 2 p.m.), starring Jodie Foster and based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, will be discussed from the perspective of "Film and Healing: Hope Arising from Despair." The film "Train-spotting" will be shown as part of the APA/NIDA track on drug abuse research on Tuesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. This controversial film graphically depicts substance abuse in Scotland. "Beautiful Dreamer," set in Ontario, depicts the 19th century meeting of Walt Whitman and the noted Canadian psychiatrist Maurice Bucke. This movie will be shown Thursday, June 4, at 9 a.m.
Three award-winning films will be shown on Monday, June 1. "Breathing Lessons" (to be shown at 9 a.m.), which won the 1997 Academy Award for short documentary, powerfully shows the daily life and courage of a man who lives in an iron lung. "Girls Like Us" (11 a.m.), a winner at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, depicts the culturally diverse developmental pathways of four adolescent girls. "Licensed to Kill" (2 p.m.), another winner at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, illustrates the attitudes and values of imprisoned men who have killed homosexual men.
A number of women's issues will also be covered in this year's media program. On Tuesday, June 2, at 11 a.m., the session "Rape: Is Reconciliation Ever Possible?" will feature the video "Glimmer of Hope," which shows the parents of a murdered rape victim confronting the perpetrators. At 7 p.m. that same day, popular songs that speak about violence against women will be analyzed in the session "Violence Against Women." This session is a follow-up to a successful session at last year's meeting on suicide in popular music. The film "Ms. Conceptions," which will be shown Thursday, June 4, at 12:30 p.m., depicts the lives of mothers who are single by choice. This video is set in Toronto.
"Where Have All the Children Gone?," which concerns the economic and social changes in rural North Dakota, speaks to issues that rural psychiatrists face every day. This session will be held Thursday, June 4, at 11 a.m.
For the annual meeting day featuring sessions for medical students and residents-Tuesday, June 2-the session "Innovative Teaching of Psychopathology" has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Video programs will be shown on paranoia, OCD, Munchausen's syndrome, and anorexia.
For those APA members who are interested in the intersection of film and psychiatry, I will co-lead with Steven Hyler, M.D., the component workshop "Film Clubs: How to Have Fun While Learning Psychiatry" on Tuesday, June 2, at 11 a.m. The workshop is sponsored by the APA Media Subcommittee.