– a documentary about Anne-Marie and Dr Unni
Silver Award Winner – International Screen Awards
Publicerad den 12 januari, 2020 av borjeperatt
We want to congratulate you, because your film The Patient Who Built a Hospital has won award in our festival!!!
This is the winner link: http://www.internationalscreenawards.com/internationalscreenawards/international-screen-awards-winners.htm
The Documentary The Patient Who Built a Hospital official selected to Västerås Film Festival 2019
Dear Börje,
We are happy to inform you that your film The Patient Who Built a Hospital has been chosen as an official selection for the 2019 Västerås Film Festival. As an official selection, your film is in competition and has a chance of being nominated for one or more of the awards we give out in different categories. The nominees will be announced at a later date.
As an official selection, your film will be screened during the festival week, October 4-12, at the Culturen culture centre in Västerås. More information about tickets, program, awards etc., will be available in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
The Team at Västerås Film Festival
LINK Västerås Filmfestival Competition
TEAM Documentary
Lars af Sillén: Photo, directing, editing SITE
Hans Welin: Photo in Stockholm IMDb
Börje Peratt: Script, interview, directing IMDb
Ritva Peratt: Executive producer IMDb
“The Patient Who Built a Hospital” has once again been awarded. Lars af Sillén & Börje Peratt (Stockholm, Sweden), of Cultnet organization, has won the prestigious Award of Merit from Accolade Global Film Competition! and also The Impact DOCS Awards Competition. The awards were given for exciting and important documentary features and exceptional story line.
“Lars af Sillén was told about the fate of Anne-Marie’s illness and her commitment to her doctor’s dream of a hospital. Börje who knows Anne-Marie for many years wrote a treatment and producer Ritva Peratt sent Lars to India. There he did a week of explorations and interviews. With promising result then Lars and Börje made another visit to Kerala and completed the recordings. Lars edited the material together with the support of Börje’s script and direction, which resulted in an international prize winner..”
Winning an Accolade is something you and your entire team can be proud of! Our judges base their decisions on the quality, creativity and technical aspects of each piece. The award appropriately reflects the endless hours you and your team have spent to create your outstanding production! Congratulations on your achievement! (Rick Pricket, Accolade Global Film Competition)
Impact DOCS recognizes film who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Documentaries were received from 30 countries. Entries were judged by highly qualified and award winning professionals in the film and television industry.
In winning an Impact DOCS award, filmmker joins the ranks of other high-profile winners of this internationally respected award including the Oscar winning director Louie Psihoyos for his 2016 Best of Show – Racing Extinction, Oscar winner Yael Melamede for (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies, and Emmy Award winner Gerald Rafshoon for Endless Corridors narrated by Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, and many more.
Rick Prickett, who also chairs Impact DOCS, had this to say about the latest winners,
“The judges and I were simply blown away by the variety and immensely important documentaries we screened. Impact DOCS is not an easy award to win. Entries are received from around the world. Impact DOCS helps set the standard for craft and creativity as well as power catalysts for global change. The goal is to help winners achieve the recognition they deserve for their dedication and work.”
The Patient Who Built a Hospital
Directed by Börje Peratt, Lars af Sillén
Sweden
L’Age d’Or International Arthouse Film Festival (LIAFF) is an ISO 9001:2015 Certified monthly international film festival, with a yearly live screening mega event, which has been scheduled on 17th & 18th October, 2019 in the City of Joy (Kolkata).
Calcutta is the capital of the Indian state Kolkata of West Bengal.
LIAFF is a division of Human Lab Corporation, a leading Multinational film production and distribution company.
At today’s team meeting with Hans Welin, Ritva Reratt (photo), Lars af Sillén and the undersigned, the future of the documentary “The Patient Who Built a Hospital” which is now submitted to 7 festivals and where it was selected/nominated by three and received at least three awards but we do not yet know the final result since some have yet another final level. From the other four we will be notified in the spring. On the table stands the figurine chosen to compete for Golden Fox Award at Calcutta International Cult Film Festival.
The Premiere at Bio Mauritz, the Film House in Stockholm on December 5th at 18.00 a clock.
The movie is 50 minutes.
Ticket 100 SEK can be purchased at Tickster
or cash directly in the door.
Welcome!
Lars, Ritva, Hans och Börje
Anne-Marie Johansson got cancer in 1996 and after surgery, she took help from Ayurveda for rehabilitation. She came to be treated by various doctors but then counseled to seek out Dr. Unni in Kerala, India. It developed into a collaboration that resulted in her helping Dr. Unni build a hospital.
By the end of 2017, Lars af Sillén and I visited the hospital and in January we went there to meet Anne-Marie an Dr Unni.
We have now edited an approximately 50-minute long documentary, which is scheduled for completion in autumn 2018. The trailer is a teaser and a summary of the story.
Börje Peratt
The Patient Who Built a Hospital. Trailer
The film team who made “The Doctor Who Refused To Give Up” is making a new documentary with could be seen as a similar subject, “The Patient Who Built a Hospital.”
TEXT BÖRJE PERATT
The main characters are Anne-Marie Johansson (the patient) and Dr Unnikrishnan (Ayurveda doctor). The director Börje Peratt became acquainted with Anne-Marie in the early 1970s and have worked with Anne-Marie on several projects since then. Börje also met Dr. Unnikrishnan when he visited Sweden in the late 1990s and received a fabolous effective treatment for rheumatism. Telling film crew partner Lars af Sillén the story of Anne-Marie convinced him of the need of making a Feel Good documentary after the mentally exhausting project about Dr Erik Enby. And we decided within Cultnet network to go for it.
In January 2018, Lars Sillén and I completed the final recording in India of the documentary film “The Patient Who Built a Hospital”.There were many threads clenched there. Anne-Marie and I met 45 years ago and we have occasionally worked together for almost as many years.It has mainly been about education and communication skills and leadership. Anne-Marie became a mentor and we have been able to talk about everything and discuss the many issues of life in an honest and open-hearted way without having to agree on each other’s views.
This freedom thinking, the right to different beliefs and opinions has also since become a natural foundation for the building of the organization Humanism & Knowledge. The association has attracted people who, like Anne-Marie, want to “improve the world”, help distressed, especially among women and children, and fight for respect and equal treatment.
I remember how Anne-Marie said that she made an early decision never to give birth because she, as a 5 year old, decided to devote her life to helping other children. Her empathy for unaccompanied Finnish refugee children during World War II, when she also was just a small child, was of great importance to this decision. She said at one point, when we came to talk about life and death, that as a young child she had already understood the essentials of life. When her father then died when she was around 16 years she was forced to grow up quickly.
Anne-Marie had lived a rich life when, 1996, just before her retirement, she suffered from cancer and decided to drastically remove both her breasts. “They would not benefit anymore,” she concluded laconically.
When the medical service in Sweden could not help in her rehabilitation, she listened to the tips of her good friend, Ishvar, to try Ayurvedic medicine, and eventually ended up at Dr Unni, a young, almost newly-graduated doctor in Kovalem, Kerala, southern India.
Anne-Marie tried to get me to visit her several times to make a documentary about life there (my only excuse for not going was the weather condition, to hot and to humid). She has returned to Unnis Clinic every year to assist him in developing the administration and organization of the clinic during the winter. She became his second mother, completely in line with her commitment to the children she has taken under her wings during the years.
One day, Unni told her the vision of building a larger clinic that could provide patients with accommodation and other services and treatments. Anne-Marie quickly made a plan for financing and realization. I probably think she knew what she was doing, but maybe she did not anticipate all the problems that might arise. She gave support and guidance to Unni and became “the patient who built a hospital”. A title that, of course, she would never have been able to think or accept. But after talking to Unni, his mother and wife, everyone says that without Anne-Marie, “Unni Krishnan Ayurvecic Hospital” had never been realized. Anne-Marie does not aggree, off course, she says Dr Unni would have made it anyway but perhaps it wouldn’t have come to the same result.
Lars af Sillén took the initiative to the film about Anne-Marie and I am him forever grateful for that. The circle has been closed. Lars was one of the photographers of “The Doctor Who Refused To Give Up” about Dr Erik Enby. His experiences of the injustice Enby was exposed to gave him the desire to make a “feel good movie” and after hearing my story about Anne-Marie, her life and efforts in India, he wanted us to do this documentary.
We aim to be able to screen the “Patient Who Built a Hospital” before Christmas 2018. This film may also be an inspiration to all those who want to see a continuation of Erik Enby’s act. The only real complementary care option we have in Sweden is the Vidarkliniken that is under threat from the anti-humanists who have now taken over the Academy of Sciences.
It therefore is urgent to form a new force to bring forth “the right to health”. Unfortunately, even among those who could cooperate with this complementary force, there seems to be doubts. I quote Ulla Premmert who took the initiative for Enby’s film:
””Now I read an article about Trump’s attack on Big Pharma, which I of course welcome, but I absolutely can not stand behind his nationalist, sexist and foolish opinions. Unfortunately, I have noticed that in alternative circuits [in Sweden] there are sometimes right wing-extremes and uncritical tribute to Trump. If no reflection is done about what Trump stands for, it may be even harder for the establishment in Sweden to think about and listen to the alternative movement. I hereby mark my resignation …”
I totally agree with Ulla, so we must be careful about what and who we are working with. Imagine if a joint movement could be formed with “patients who built an Enby hospital” in Sweden. Enby is educated and experienced physician and also the true source of school medicine that in many ways have been perverted in today’s healthcare. Instead, it should be called Western industrial medicine, which may have a few hundred years on the neck, since Eastern, such as Ayurveda, has empirical evidence for several thousand years. Here we can talk about proven experience.
Lars and I warmly thank Dr Unni and we are very impressed with the results, a hospital with qualified healthcare staff, 6 doctors and 30 therapists who take up to 130 patients a day with a very nice hotel with over 30 rooms and an annex to the “Eagle Hill”. They also offer dentist, pedicure, yoga, etc.
We are especially happy to see how Anne-Marie is now recovering and able to walk at a good pace even in the uphill slopes. Thanks to Mayne Sundewall-Hopkins and David Hopkins who helped with translations and subtitles. Thanks also to photographer Hans Welin who participated in film recordings in Sweden.
Börje Peratt
Filmmaker, journalist, Human scientist
Anne-Marie Johansson former teacher and educater in communication, organization and leadership, especially woman leadership got cancer 1996.
After a brutal operation the Swedish healthcare system was unable to help her recover. She began to seek alternative ways. And among several suggestions she decided to try an ayurveda clinic in India. She was sceptical but it was sort of clutching the last straw.
She met an old ayurveda doctor and she got better but far from good. Finally this docttor stated that he couldn´t help her any more and suggested that she should contact a younger doctor who might have a broader and more recent education.
So she met Dr Unni and the experience from his treatment made her convinced of that he could help a lot more people in despair of mal health and sicknes.
First she used her organization skills to improve the administration of the clinic.
Then also as perhaps from a subconscious agenda she wanted to improve the status and situation for the female workers. So without speaking about it the improvement of organization lead to a raising of equality and respect among women and men.
Helping also woman to equal right changed the atmosphere around the whole village to the better.
Finally, being an entrepreneur with visions she wanted to expand Dr Unnis clinic and it developed to an idea of a hospital. This was made and the expansion led to around 35 new treatment rooms and a hotel with almost 40 rooms
Mama
She today have the greatest respect and is respectfully called Mama. As she have become a maternal figure not only for the people working at the hospital but also for many others in the region of Kerala especially children and their parents.
Recently, a minister of the Indian government has contacted Dr Unni and asked about their mentioned policy on gender equality and women’s rights. Dr Unni has sent the letter to Anne-Marie because it is the source of the change.
When she got sick she made the best of it.
The plan is to go to Kerala in November / December 2017 to interview and and do research on the result of Anne-Marie’s effort and meet various involved to get an idea of how this mission could be accomplished.
It also is about the relationship between Ayurveda and so called school medicine. In India, all physicians have the same undergraduate education and then they continue in different specialist courses where Ayurveda is a direction.
Despite this basic acceptance, there is nevertheless a skepticism built up by the western world where the former in India was a scheme that complemented each other. Here you can wonder about what is cultural conflict and what is special interest.
The former medical council Christina Doctare believes she has been helped by Ayurveda. This has been criticized by opponents of alternative medicine in Sweden. Despite this polarization, it may be important to portray it too.
She believes in healing power from the east.
As a parallel line, Anne-Marie’s work is about making society more equal and women’s work equal to men’s.
BP