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New York Film Festival to Feature Story of Hope and Healing in Haiti

Posted byBy Megan Reed | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

A documentary about hope and healing in the midst of the horrific aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake will be a featured presentation at the NYC Independent Film Festival on Friday and Sunday.

Unbreakable: A Story of Hope and Healing in Haiti tells the amazing story of children who not only recovered physically, but also helped recast the perception of the disabled in Haiti — a country that is often considered one of the poorest in the world. The recovery was facilitated by Healing Haiti’s Children, one of Haiti’s success stories, which was initiated through a partnership between the University of Miami-affiliated Project Medishare and the Knights of Columbus.

In September, the film won the Most Inspirational Documentary Award at the DocMiami International Festival/Florida Documentary Film Festival.

“This film shows that when there is the will to do so, both in terms of those providing aid and those receiving it, lives can be saved and transformed by a program that is truly sustainable,” said Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson, executive producer of the documentary. “The work of the dedicated medical staff and the unbreakable spirit of these Haitian young people, in circumstances most of us can’t imagine, are truly inspiring.”

The film is narrated by actor Bruce Greenwood, who, among his many roles, played President John F. Kennedy in the movie 13 Days.

Unbreakable focuses on a segment of Haitian society that might easily have been ignored — the thousands of children who underwent emergency amputations in order to survive the shocking carnage that unfolded 4 1/2 years ago. Not only did these young people survive, they thrived and formed an amputee soccer team that helped to change the hearts and minds of many Haitian people.

“In Haiti, there has long been a stigma about disabled people,” explained Dr Robert Gailey, rehabilitation coordinator for Project Medishare, the group that runs the amputee rehabilitation program in Port-au-Prince. “The traditional thinking was that disability somehow reflected a negative supernatural judgment on the person. This rehab program, and the soccer team, has really changed that way of thinking.”

 

Read more at caribbeannewsnow.com

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