Lifelong Learning

PHX Announces New Health in Focus Film Festival

The festival aims to use the intersection of visual arts and science to improve the health of populations through engagement, education, and the elevation of the voices and lived experiences of vulnerable populations.

Population Health Exchange (PHX) in the Office of Lifelong Learning at the School of Public Health has created and launched a new film festival, called Health in Focus. They are currently seeking film submissions.

Set to take place later this year, the festival aims to use the intersection of visual arts and science to improve the health of populations through engagement, education, and the elevation of the voices and lived experiences of vulnerable and marginalized populations.

“Very few film festivals have a direct focus on public health, and none approach the topic through the lens of population health,” says Nick Gooler, digital media producer for PHX and the festival director and programmer. “With an increasingly divided country and world, we hope that the excellent visual storytelling in these films will help to establish common ground and encourage empathetic responses to people with lives and views that may be different than one’s own.”

Films submitted to the festival must be less than 20 minutes in length, with subject matter that fits into at least one of the following categories: the world as it is, which highlights the conditions that keep populations from being healthy and those that are characteristic of unhealthy populations; health inequities, which focuses on the health of marginalized populations; and looking ahead, which presents aspirations for the future of health.

Awards will be granted to the best short film, as selected by a jury, as well as to the audience favorite and to a young filmmaker, who is a current high school student.

The decision to include submissions from high school students in the festival, Gooler says, comes as the PHX team is expanding their efforts to engage youth in the education, research, and practice of public health. PHX has also added a new media production component to their PopHealthExperience program this summer, which offers rising 10^th thru 12^th graders an engaging and immersive introduction to the field of public health.

“This is an incredible time for public health,” says Leslie Tellalian, assistant dean for lifelong learning. “We are excited to use this film festival as a starting point for engaging with and learning from others of all ages and backgrounds about different topics within public health in new and creative ways.”

The Health in Focus Film Festival will take place December 1-3. The deadline for early festival submissions, with a discounted fee, is August 4. The regular and late deadlines for submission are August 25 and September 15, respectively. Decisions will be made and communicated to filmmakers by September 29. Current students and filmmakers from low- and middle-income countries are eligible for a discount on submission fees. Interested filmmakers can submit their work through FilmFreeway.

PHX is a resource hub and continuing education experience for health, providing opportunities to engage with field experts online and in the classroom and developing new perspectives and advanced skill sets for enhancing the health of populations. Their lifelong learning resources provide affordable opportunities to grow professionally and keep up with emerging population health trends.