Founding of the Global Health Film initiative

Abstract

advocates, and those interested in fi lm and in global health to combine the skills and the language of fi lmmaking with the technical knowledge of public health sciences and critical appraisal. We hope that this innovative approach will bring together some leading minds to better communicate the advances and challenges in global health to the public, health professionals, and policy makers. In concert with the open access movement in medical publishing, we aspire for documentary fi lm to join the open-access movement. The Global Health Film initiative will work with sector-leading organisations, film production companies, and funders to develop an online platform to share high quality documentary film on global health. We urge the public health community to support the initiative by contacting the secretariat with nominations for the film festival and suggesting collaborative centres for satellite screenings. Exposure to public health information in the media has the potential to educate, empower, and inspire individuals to live healthier lives. 2 JRF is director of the Global Health Film initiative. LB is coordinator of the Global Health Film initiative. We declare that we have no competing interests.