"The Mind is Prepared": Using Film for Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Epidemic Preparedness and Response

Dr Luisa Enria is Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She worked with local partners in Sierra Leone to deliver an Innovation Forum over several events between October 2022 and April 2023.

She organised this Innovation Forum in collaboration with Mohamed Lamin Kamara from the Network for Rural Development in Sierra Leone and Abass S. Kamara from the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health.

This project involved screenings of a documentary film that brought together scholars and practitioners to explore the power of film for visualising interdisciplinary collaborations, including the challenges and possibilities of integrating different forms of knowledge for epidemic response.

The film chronicles how frontline responders – from epidemiologists and clinicians to community health workers, civil society activists and traditional healers, in Sierra Leone’s Kambia District – developed imaginative ways to build bridges across disciplinary divides in community-led responses to the Ebola epidemic. The documentary was based on research by Dr Enria.

In October 2023, Dr Enria presented the film as part of the official selection of the Montecatini International Short Film Festival for which they received an honourable mention for the documentary, Tarma: Communities on the Frontlines of Epidemic Response.

Outputs

Watch the trailer for the documentary

The research team wrote a blog post describing the process of creating the film and holding the previews, at which the documentary became a tool to facilitate interdisciplinary discussions differently. The article includes excerpts from the film. Read the blog post.

Read an additional blog, Supporting research based collaborative documentary, written by Luisa Enria and Michele de Laurentiis.