«You’re right!”: Documentary film on patients’ rights

On 28 March, a premier viewing will take place of a film about and endorsing patients’ rights, created by the “Roi group” with film director Olha Lubyana, Kharkiv.

The documentary film is part of the Sixth International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival – Docudays.ua – beginning this Friday, 27 March in Kyiv (see below for the address).

The film “You’re right!” is based on cases where people have turned for help to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group over infringements of their rights under medical legislation.

Monitoring of such appeals shows that people, despite feeling strongly that their rights have been violated, very rarely turn for help.  The creators of the film endeavour to understand why this is, but also to stress that people do have rights in this area.  And it is one that can affect us all since we can all fall ill and need medical assistance. If this assistance is slack or unprofessional, the consequences can be serious.

 The film is supported by the Public Health Programme of the International Renaissance Foundation. The Programme’s objective is to promote reform of the healthcare system and improve public health through supporting civic initiatives aimed at developing policy and practice in this sphere, based on the principles of social inclusion, human rights and medical screening.  The programme also supports the health rights website at: www.healthrights.ua

One of the focuses of the Roi Group is in creating documentary films with a social message. Olha Lubyana has considerable experience of work on television, and has been director or co-author of works on gender issues and on human trafficking (in cooperation with La Strada – Ukraine).  The Roi Group is presently working on a film about palliative care.

Docudays.ua begins at Kyiv’s Cinema House (Saksakhansky St, 6 at 19.00 on Friday.  More details of films and other activities will be posted here shortly.

“You’re right” can be seen in the blue hall at 12.00 on Saturday (those interviewed speak Ukrainian or Russian)