How I Live

4 children, 5 countries and the global fight to cure childhood cancer.
by
Year Released
2020
Film Length(s)
87 mins
Closed captioning available All4Access available
Remote video URL

Introduction

Take an unforgettable journey with four children diagnosed with cancer. How I Live follows the children, their families, and their healthcare providers as they confront the realities of living with cancer in Guatemala, El Salvador, Egypt, Myanmar, and Ghana. Through their journeys we see the realitites of global health inequities but also the movement underway to give all children access to treatment and a cure for childhood cancer.

Featured review

Thought provoking and inspiring.
The Lancet
The Lancet

Synopsis

How I Live follows the journeys of four children with cancer in Guatemala, El Salvador, Myanmar and Egypt and Ghana. Following them from diagnosis through treatment, the complex issues facing patients, families and healthcare providers emerge. The film documents the difficulties of accessing cancer treatment in low resource settings while providing examples of how global collaboration can lead to increased survival rates and closing global health inequities.

We meet the healthcare teams who know and understand what those challenges look like for families of children with cancer and are working to provide quality care to their patients in the face of adverse conditions. Weaving together four years of filming and stories from disparate corners of the globe, the film is a composite of: the power of parents’ love, children’s courage, and what is possible when a community is dedicated to treating and someday curing childhood cancer.

Reviews

Looking at all the inequities related to childhood cancer seen in the film, I realized that it was very important to start working to change the system. The faces of those kids from the film were the same faces I have been seeing in my country.
Liliana Vásquez - Vice President SLAOP - Sociedad Latino Americana de Oncología Pediátric
Liliana Vásquez - Vice President SLAOP - Sociedad Latino Americana de Oncología Pediátric
Watching this documentary I immediately realized that this was exactly what I was looking for: to capture the reality of childhood cancer care through the eyes of healthcare workers and especially through the eyes of their loving families. Because when the heart is involved, we can lift mountains together.
Dr Dille Mahamadou Issimouha
Technical Officer for Cancer / World Health Organization Africa
It was magical. It is such a beautiful portrait of family, children dealing with cancer, and collective medical support. We were transported to each location and taken into each child's world. The students were very moved by the film and so were the faculty.
Mary Buckley - Director of the EJS Women's Leadership Program - The George Washington University
Mary Buckley - Director of the EJS Women's Leadership Program - The George Washington University
Our participants left the workshop ever changed.The stories highlighted global and local challenges that we hope our future physicians will rise to face head on.
Christina Renteria
MEd, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Program Coordination at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine – Tucson
These stories are so moving, as they help demonstrate the additional burdens and barriers that families face in caring for their children with cancer in less resourced areas. However they also truly provide motivation for those of us in global health fields to never give up….just as these brave people show their resolve to do everything possible for their loved ones and their communities.
James H. Conway
MD FAAP, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin – Madison, School of Medicine & Public Health
As a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, so much of this film rang true to me. The film so beautifully depicts the emotional pain and struggle that comes with a diagnosis of childhood cancer but also the unbelievable resilience of children. Watching this film gives a rarely seen glimpse of the extremes of life, from tragedy to triumph, around the globe.
Cathy Lee-Miller
MD, Program Director for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship University of Wisconsin

Awards and Screenings

Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, 2021
Best Festure Film Fisheye Film Festival , 2020
Best Director Chambal International Film Festival, 2020
Finalist Health for All Film Festival World Health Organization, 2020
Whistleblower Film Festival , 2020
CINE Austral FILM FESTIVAL Argentina, 2020
ENFOQUE Film Festival , 2020
Asociación Hemato-Oncológica Pediátrica de Centro America (AHOPCA), 2020
The Hospital for Sick Children // Toronto, Canada, 2020
DUKE National University of Singapore School of Public Health //Singapore, 2020
The Société Internationale d'Oncologie Pédiatrique/International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) // Lyon, France, 2019
The World Health Organization Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, Philippines National Workshop on the Childhood Cancer Control Programme // Manila, Philippines, 2019
The World Health Organization Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer Regional Meeting // Cuzco, Peru 2019, 2019
The World Health Organization Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer Regional Meeting // Naypyidaw, Myanmar , 2019
Harvard Global Health Catalyst Summit // Boston, USA, 2019
SLAOP, South American Group of Pediatric Oncologist // Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2019
SIOP Africa The Société Internationale d'Oncologie Pédiatrique/International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) // Cairo, Egypt , 2019
The Lancet Oncology Commission on Sustainable Paediatric Cancer Care at The Société Internationale d'Oncologie Pédiatrique/, 2019
The United Nations General Assembly “Ensuring a Right to Cure - Global Initiative in Childhood Cancer // New York, USA , 2018

Director Commentary

My first experience with childhood cancer was an intimate one; in the lightning bolt that is diagnosis my family was told that my brother Matt’s shin splints were not shin splints at all but a tumor on his spine. Matt was 17 at the time, and lived valiantly for another ten years through five recurrences of cancer, losing a lung, a kidney and ultimately his life to the disease. It was during his treatment that I learned what the cancer journey looks like for a patient and family of a young person with cancer. Over the years of his treatment, I became familiar with many of the day to day negotiations that patients and families take on in life with cancer.

The experience having Matt treated in Boston made me curious about what the global picture of cancer looked like for young people. The statistics were grim, only 20% of pediatric patients globally survive, while by contrast in the US and other High-Income Countries, the survival rate is over 80%. This disparity appalled and intrigued me and I wanted to learn more. What were the treatment options and challenges for families globally? What were the contributing factors for the low survival rate, and who were these families that like mine had been rocked and changed by the disease? My brother’s doctor, Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, had been working in the global oncology field for decades and it was with him that I began to first discuss the possibility of examining children’s cancer from a global perspective in a film.

The conversations between our production team and Carlos and his colleagues at The Global Health Initiative at Dana Farber / Boston children’s began a five-year journey to document individual patients through their cancer treatment in Myanmar, Egypt, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ghana. The intention in the film is to represent the experiences of these patients and their healthcare teams as a window into the realities of cancer treatment globally.

As our production team followed these patients, we began to learn more about the larger approach to treating cancer in low resource settings and more about the people working to improve treatment and outcomes for patients in these difficult geopolitical contexts. While the global statistics are devastating, we met and worked with doctors, nurses, psychologists, and non-profits that have and are continuing to significantly increase survival rates in their countries. Seeing this, we expanded the lens of our film to include some of this context. We filmed at hospital sites with healthcare professionals actively and diligently working to increase survival rates. There is a global movement underway to bring the resources to places that urgently need them and address what will be an increase in the number of children with cancer in the coming decades. We hope this film can be a part of the conversation centered around empathy, awareness and action.

Features and Languages

Film Features

  • Closed Captioning
  • All4Access
  • Resources for Educators

Promotional Material

Promotional Stills

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