2019 Pulitzer Center-CUGH Global Health Film Festival

Join us on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, for a screening of Pulitzer Center-supported films by journalists, documentarians and international reporting fellows. Filmmakers Marcia Biggs and Pat Nabong join a discussion/Q&A following the screening, moderated by Ann Peters, Pulitzer Center university and community outreach director.

Films include:

Bangladesh's Leather Industry Exposes Workers and Children to Toxic Hazards—Larry C. Price and Justin Kenny

Pollution is the leading cause of premature deaths around the world, contributing to an estimated one in seven, according to the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. Workers in Bangladesh's capital, where hundreds of leather tanneries are packed into two square miles and workers, don't know the full danger they face.

Breathtaking: Gasping for Air Across the Globe—Larry C. Price

Airborne particles—sometimes much smaller than the width of a human hair—are not just contributing to climate change. They are a leading driver of serious illness the world over. Exposure to such pollution, the most deadly of which scientists call PM2.5, is the sixth highest risk factor for death around the world, claiming more than 4 million lives annually, according to recent global morbidity data.

Ebola Leaves Survivors with Debilitating Reminders—Seema Yasmin

Ebola no longer dominates the headlines but for an estimated 17,000 survivors of the largest Ebola outbreak in history, the struggle is not over.

Inside Yemen—Marcia Biggs

As the conflict in Yemen enters its fourth year, the U.N. is calling this the "world's worst humanitarian crisis." A crisis of water, sanitation, and hygiene led to an outbreak of diseases such as cholera and diphtheria. With limited purchasing power, families have to decide whether to spend their money on food, medicine, or transportation to medical facilities. The domino effect of this food crisis, within an already untenable economic and medical crisis, is causing children to die of preventable diseases and malnutrition. 

Migrant Life in Qatar—Ana Santos

In Qatar and other Gulf countries, mostly low skilled migrant women pay the price for the crime of zina, which criminalizes unmarried sex and pregnancy out of wedlock. Far from home, Filipino workers share stories of delayed wages, maltreatment, and challenges they face under the kafala system in Qatar. Yet they persist—seeking opportunities for a better future and a better life.

Sorrowful Mysteries: Secret Abortions Kill Thousands of Nigerian Women Each Year—Allison Shelley and Allyn Gaestel

In Nigeria, birth control is stigmatized, misunderstood, and inaccessible—especially for youth. Abortion is legal only when the life of a mother is endangered. But at least 760,000 occur every year.

The Psychological Toll of Duterte's Drug War: Mental Health in Low-Income Communities—Pat Nabong

The drug war in the Philippines has killed thousands of drug suspects from low-income communities. Despite the severe psychological toll of the drug war on families of slain drug suspects, mental health resources are sparse and often inaccessible.