Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders

CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS TO CLOSE DOC SOUP SEASON IN TORONTO

AN UP-CLOSE LOOK AT DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

DIRECTOR MARK HOPKINS IN ATTENDANCE

LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS screens Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema

Hot Docs is pleased to present the Toronto premiere of LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (Mark Hopkins, USA, 2008) as the final Doc Soup selection of the season for Toronto.  Recent winner of a Jury Prize at Cinequest, LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS screens Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West.  Director Mark Hopkins will be attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Filmed in the war-zones of Liberia and Congo with unprecedented access to the field operations of Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS follows four volunteer doctors as they struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions. 

Two volunteers are new recruits: a 26 year-old Australian doctor stranded in a remote bush clinic and an American surgeon struggling to cope under the load of emergency cases in a shattered capital city. Two others are experienced field hands: a dynamic Head of Mission, valiantly trying to keep morale high and tensions under control, and an exhausted veteran, who has seen too much horror and wants out.  Amidst the chaos, each volunteer must confront the severe challenges of the work, the tough choices, and the limits of their own idealism.

LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS is a raw and very real depiction of the dilemmas facing MSF staff in the field and the toll their work can take on them both personally and professionally.  It is about the reality of aid work – blood and sweat, tough decisions and hard consequences, laughter and tears, cigarettes and beer, arguments and all.

The Doc Soup monthly screening series brings the latest Canadian and international documentaries to the big screen in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. Single tickets for LIVING IN EMERGENCY are $12 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.hotdocs.ca (starting March 24) or at the door on the night of the screening (subject to availability). A limited number of free tickets for the 9:15 p.m. screening will be available to students with proper ID (subject to availability) at the door, on a first-come first-served basis beginning at 5:30 p.m.