Cinéma Vérité
Documentarian Lisa Russell (SPH'98) Uses Film to Expose the Truths of International Health Crises
By Kelly Cunningham
Filmmaker Lisa Russell (SPH'98) in Ghana.
Filmmakers and public health practitioners don't often have a lot in common. Sure, both have messages to share, but the world of buzz-loaded screenings and slick editing tactics is light years away from that of policy-reform activism and third-world medicine.
Unless, of course, you're Lisa Russell.
"I really never thought I'd blend the two," says Russell (SPH'98), who entered BUSPH's international health master's program with plans to do field work for a nongovernmental organization. "Filmmaking was my outside hobby, while [public health] was my career, my academic interest." As she proceeded in her coursework, she took a class on media advocacy. "We were learning how to use various media to advocate for public health," she recalls, "which led me to take a class in PSA production." The symbiosis of Russell's dual passions clicked when, after receiving her degree, she co-produced a World AIDS Day report for a London TV channel. "I spent three weeks in Brazil working on that piece with a filmmaker, and that was the point where I said, 'Okay. This is what I want to do.'"
In 2001, Russell moved to New York City and founded Governess Films, a collective of woman filmmakers. "We didn't necessarily want to create a production company where we would all make one project, because we each had our own interests," says Russell. "But by coming together we can help each other out with connections, resources, and training." Since the formation of Governess, Russell has directed, produced, written, and edited, telling stories of AIDS activists in Africa and refugee resettlement.
These days, Russell puts in close to sixty hours per week, whether shooting and editing her own films, working on film projects for clients such as Family Health International and the United Nations Population Fund, or picking up extra money writing grants for nonprofits and producing live television. "I really don't have an average day," she says, though her recent weeks have consistently involved screening and discussing her latest film, Love, Labor, Loss, which documents the realities of obstetric fistula in Niger. The condition, a hole that develops between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum, is caused by days-long obstructed labor. According to Russell, it affects up to 100,000 women yearly and often results in incontinence and social isolation, despite the simplicity of fistula repair.
This film, says Russell, exemplifies the difficulty of balancing her duties as a public health advocate and her sensibilities as an auteur. "It's very hard for me to walk between these two worlds sometimes. The public health community is very careful about how they relay information to constituents. But in the filmmaking world, the school of thought is that you need to tell a story, and you need to engage people, and sometimes that's not always the safest way. There are some parts of my fistula film that go into the extreme of how bad fistulas can be. My intent, to show kind of the worst of the worst, is to make a stronger argument for prevention. But some agencies would rather tell a safe story: the woman goes in, she has a simple fistula, she gets it repaired, she goes back home, and everything's great. But in Niger it didn't happen like that."
Russell attributes a good deal of her eyes-wide-open approach to her education at BUSPH. "What's great about BU is that you'll be sitting in a class next to the minister of health from, say, Malawi—you get to meet and interact with and learn directly from people who are representing the countries that you might have an interest in," she says. "It's the next best thing to having tons of field experience."
After a recent series of Love, Labor, Los screenings, a friend jokingly remarked, "You're becoming the public health filmmaker!" and Russell realized that it's true. And, she says, maybe the two disciplines aren't such strange counterparts. "The issues that are being addressed in international health are so dynamic and so interesting. When you're able to capture the essence of what's happening with some of these issues and relay it in a very different medium, I think you mobilize a greater amount of support."