Your Average Joe Humanitarian: Dr. James Orbinski in Triage
Source: By CHRIS JANCELEWICZ
Posted: 04/21/08 2:55PM
Filed Under: Hot Docs 2008
Humanitarians are often viewed as otherworldly, saint-like people, who venture into areas of the world that the average citizen would dare not enter. In Patrick Reed's latest documentary, Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, we meet a doctor who not only doesn't fit into this mould, but shatters it into a million pieces. While he does visit war-torn and famine-ravaged countries, his approach to aid differs greatly from the modern celebrity-glazed humanitarianism. We see an average man doing above-average things; these feats and deeds are things we could do too, and that's exactly what Reed sets out to display.
No stranger to vivid documentary work, Reed worked on the groundbreaking doc Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, the story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. In Rwanda, Reed witnessed firsthand the nightmare of third-world crisis. It's also where he met Dr. James Orbinski.
"James was at a bar, we met there after a long day of shooting," says Reed. "I knew of him by reputation, and after we had a few drinks I found out he actually lived a few blocks away from me in Toronto."
He goes on to describe James' demeanour. "He was quiet in many ways, but there's always this sense that there's something going on beneath the surface with him. He's very intense, yet very engaging, very human. Some humanitarian workers have this cynicism or bitterness...a lot of them have this self-righteousness, like they think 'we’re doing this important work and the rest of the world doesn’t care'. There’s a certain superiority. I never felt that way about him."
Dr. Orbinski has experienced it all. He was president of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International Council. He has worked with MSF as a field doctor in a number of settings, including Goma, Zaire (now Congo) in the fall of 1996 during the refugee crisis; in Kigali during the Rwandan genocide of 1994; and in Baidoa, Somalia during the civil war and famine of 1992-93. He was also in Kosovo when the civil war was raging. In 1999, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
And yet, despite all the horrors he's seen, he still manages to have an air of hopefulness and comraderie. "He doesn’t seek easy solutions," says Reed. "In Western culture, there's this whole idea about getting over something, or healing yourself, particularly as a doctor. He’s definitely not about that. It’s about continually engaging and confronting these issues."
The documentary focuses on Orbinski's return to the horrific scenes, ten years later. It's heartwarming to see people come out of the crowd and reach for his hand; several individuals remember him for saving their lives. It's particularly touching to see Orbinski embrace a man he hasn't seen in a decade. Their five-minute hug is one of the most poignant moments of the film.
At one point, Orbinski describes one of his most horrendous moments as a field doctor in Somalia, where a woman's face had been slashed, her breasts cut off, and her stomach gutted. She had also been raped numerous times. He talks about suturing her stomach, even though he knew she was going to die. The viewer can see him slowly unveiling this memory, and how painful it is for him to recount it. "It took a long time for him to get to that memory, to express it," says Reed. "That was intense - his deep, dark secret in front of the camera."
But Reed hopes that the global audience doesn't get the wrong message. He doesn't want the public to see Orbinski as a superhero, but rather as a regular guy doing extraordinary things. He wants the film to be a starting point for all those people in the world who hunger to make a change; it shouldn't seem like such an unreachable goal.
"James is the entry point," says Reed. "We're hoping that some of the images of the film that you'll retain aren't of James, but rather of the people he meets...whether in his memories, or in real life, because those are the people that shape him. And so often, these people aren't included in the nightly news or in other documentaries."
On the same day as Orbinski's first Hot Docs screening, he's releasing a new book, one that he's crafting during the course of the documentary. Most of his contemporaries and friends (even family) believe the process has been cathartic for a man who's seen so many disheartening things. Called An Imperfect Offering : Humanitarian Action for the 21st Century, it works much like he does.
At this year's world premiere of Triage at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Orbinski had this to say about his book, and the current state of humanitarianism: "[Writing the book] was not about lessening my burden, it was about sharing my burden with the rest of the world. [Humanitarianism] is not a burden in a negative sense, but more of a responsibility. It's a challenge humanity as a whole must embrace."
This film is a must-see for anyone who feels frustrated about the international situation. It's helpful to finally see some sort of silver lining, and to understand that it's not too late to be part of the solution.
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