Hot Docs 2008

"I don't think it's heroic...I think it's decent. I think it's normal," remarks 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. James Orbinski, former president of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, of his humanitarian aid work. While writing a book about his experiences, Orbinski is accompanied by filmmaker Patrick Reed on a stirring journey back to Africa, where he faced the world's most inhumane suffering. Reed and Orbinski paint a compassionate picture of tending to an ever-more-desperate population during the crises of the Rwandan genocide and Somali famine. Facing threats of violence, lack of supplies and worsening corruption by governments who would co-opt even the word "humanitarianism" in support of their destructive agendas, Orbinski chooses decency over callousness, care over cynicism and life over darkness even when making impossible decisions about who lives and who dies.
-Angie Driscoll

Co-presented with Dignitas International.