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New student documentary to be screened on campus April 24 and 25
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By Kathy Henry Dowell
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A collaborative research project between a media arts class and a public health class has yielded a new documentary about health care in South Carolina. Two screenings of the film will take place on campus this month.
Rx was created by undergraduates in Susan Hogue's "The Digital Documentary" media arts class and public health graduate students who work with Amy Brock Martin. The thought-provoking film began as a lunch-time discussion between the two in spring 2006.
"From the start, it was clear we had intersecting interests in research and in the display of quantitative and qualitative information regarding health care in South Carolina," said Hogue, whose undergraduate students created the highly praised Promises Made documentary last year. "We knew our students could really benefit from finding out firsthand about the social issues surrounding access to health care. And I knew a documentary would help them do that. Rx does deal with facts and figures and statistics, but the students put a face on the subject through interviews with patients, caregivers, and administrators."
For Rx, student crews went to three health care delivery centers for underserved and rural populations in South Carolina. At the first location--a federally qualified health center--physician Stuart Hamilton talks about seeing patients, including a large number of pregnant Hispanic women. The second location is a non-profit pediatric dental center, where the focus is on the overwhelming need for dental care for poor children. The third location is a critical access hospital, where Larry Dozier, CEO of Fairfield Memorial Hospital in Winnsboro, talks about challenges faced by hospitals that have been changed through the federal Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant.
Project funding--used to purchase equipment, film, and other materials--came from the Office of the Vice President of Research, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Art.
The art department will present Rx in Room 239 of McMaster College at 5:30 p.m. April 24. Public health will present Rx in Room 114 of the Health Sciences Building at 4:30 p.m. April 25. Both events are free and open to the public.
For more information, go to www.cas.sc.edu/
ART/Faculty/hogues/whereDoTheyGo/
index.html.
4/07
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 Susan Hogue, media arts, Department of Art
 Amy Brock Martin, Department of Health Services Policy and Management, Arnold School of Public Health
| If you go...
What: Rx, a student documentary
When: 5:30 p.m. April 24, and 4:30 p.m. April 25
Where: Room 239, McMaster College, April 24; Room 114, Health Sciences Building, April 25
Admission: Free and open to the public.
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