A Drop in the Ocean

200248 min 50 secFilm: Documentary

Direction: Lise Éthier

Production: Yves Bisaillon

Script: Lise Éthier

When Doctors without Borders, the humanitarian medical aid agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, Dr. Claudette Picard was in Liberia. Her first mission with the agency had begun in this small country of West Africa six years before. In the meantime, she had practised medicine in other wartorn countries such as Zaire and Afghanistan, always in extremely hazardous conditions.

What impels women and men like Dr. Picard to leave their easy lives behind and go off to do what little they can to alleviate human suffering? Whatever the motivation, the doctors are in the field, providing medical care and helping to draw attention to distant places often forgotten by the world's media. Places like Harper, a small town in Liberia devastated by a decade of civil war. This is where we follow Dr. Picard on her rounds. With her halting English, her comforting presence and a few scarce drugs, she sometimes manages to do the impossible. But not always...

Some subtitles.

Subject categories


  • Developing Countries > Africa - West AfricaHealth and IllnessHealth in AfricaInternational Development and Service Agencies
  • Health and Medicine > Developing CountriesMedical PersonnelPortraitsWorld War II
  • Women - Portraits > Social Issues
  • Diversity > Black Studies
  • Civics/Citizenship > Citizen ResponsibilitiesHuman Rights
  • Social Studies > Development/Global Issues
  • Geography > Human Geography
  • History and Citizenship Education > Issues in Society Today

Credits


participation
Claudette Picard
research
Lise Éthier
script
Lise Éthier
direction
Lise Éthier
camera
Jorge Martinho
François Vincelette
location sound
Serge Bouvier
Diane Carrière
editing
Hélène Girard
production assistant
Ryofa Chung
sound editing
Leopoldo Gutierrez
foley
Lise Wedlock
original music
Yves Chamberland
re-recording
Jean Paul Vialard
Shelley Craig
music recording
Studio M. Dusty
administration
Colette Brodeur
Denise DesLauriers
administration assistant
Dany Delpy
Josée Trudel
Marie-Christine Guité
Brigitte Sénéchal
technical coordination
Richard Cliche
Jean-François Laprise
distribution officer
Joanne Carrière
online editing
Sylvain Desbiens
titles
NFB Postproduction Image Service
translation
Claude Dionne
subtitles
Claude Dionne
assistant to the producer
Christiane Germain
Johanne Bergeron
producer
Yves Bisaillon