Directors:Charles Burnett, Daniel Loewenthal Producers: Barbara Berney, Roberta Friedman
Description:
The film reveals how the federal government, with crucial support
from medical professionals and civil rights activists, leveraged
Medicare funding to bring down the Jim Crow hospital system. Narrated
by Danny Glover, it begins as black doctors’ efforts to end racial
discrimination clash with the federally funded postwar expansion of
segregated hospitals.
Biography:
Charles Burnett was one of the few blacks who had access to
college education in the 1960s, and he studied at UCLA's Film
Department. He was first noticed in 1981 with Killer of Sheep which won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Burnett's film The
Glass Shield, a tense rapid-fire police drama on the corruption
and racism that plagues the LAPD, was shown in competition at
Locarno.
Daniel Loewenthal is an accomplished director for short films
and features. He most recently produced the feature film Good
Friday, and edited the feature film Lost Cat Corona.
Barbara Berney is a distinguished scholar in public health,
environmental justice, and the U.S. healthcare system. Dr. Berney is
Associate Professor at the CUNY School of Public Health. Her diverse
experience in public health includes working as a front line health
worker in Watts for the Los Angeles County Health Department and
policy analyst with the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement
Funds and with the Bureau of Health Professions in the Department of
Health and Human Services.
Roberta Friedman's projects have ranged from the commercial, such as her work for George
Lucas on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back specializing in sparks, matte work, and swords, to the experimental,
such as the interactive video The Erl King, the first
interactive art piece, which was acquired by the Guggenheim Museum
for its permanent collection. She worked with Michael Moore on "The
Awful Truth," his weekly documentary series.
