MEDIA BIZ November #244

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Artemisia annua
The Fever
The documentary, which focuses on the
complex history on the present and future
of malaria had its world premiere at
DOK Leipzig International Programme
on November 1, 2019. “The Austrian
filmmaker Katharina Weingartner
produced an enthralling documentary
thriller which literally inscribes exciting,
context-shifting and -widening lines of
connection into the more or less familiar
general picture: connections between
the parasite and the pharmaceutical industry, between self-determination
in East Africa and the richest man in the world. The
focus is on three courageous people in Uganda and Kenya who are
fighting the disease on the spot and are often more successful with
alternative methods than Western medicine is comfortable with. Because
after all a solution of their own, without foreign help and technology,
without the mercantile and public philanthropic interests of
the helpers, would mean independence.” (Julia Weigl, DOK Leipzig)
Malaria has killed more people than all other diseases and wars on
Earth combined. In Subsahara Africa one child still dies every sixty seconds.
What if there was
an herb that could defeat
the deadly malaria parasite
and save a thousand
lives per day, every day?
One you could grow in
your backyard, which
costs next to nothing and
could be easily available
for everybody in need?
Nobody, including Big
Pharma, the Gates Foundation
or the WHO, seems to believe that Africans have their own solutions.
Big pharma corporations fear for their profits. Big donors like
Bill Gates want high tech science. They prefer the old colonial ways,
so they exploit a continent already ravaged by poverty and death.
“The Fever” is a passionate account of three amazing people in Kenya
and Uganda who show how local solutions could save millions of
lives. It is also a case study in greed and courage.
“At the start we were most interested in the relationship between tropical
medicine and colonial wars of conquest: Would the colonisation
of Africa – apart from the coastal region – even have been possible
without the oldest malaria medication, quinine?” Katharina Weingartner
states. “The European soldiers, missionaries and farmers died in huge
numbers while the local inhabitants were immune from the age of five.
It was like the parasite was an important defence against invaders.”
One of the protagonists, Rehema Namyalo, herbal practitioner in
Masaka, Uganda, runs a small clinic in her hometown. She works
© pooldoks
relentlessly to spread the knowledge about
how everyone can grow the herb Artemisia
annua at home and prevent their families
from getting malaria: “If the majority of the
local community uses Artemisia to treat
themselves, the government will not get
taxes as they get in case of imported drugs.
Because the taxes are not charged in case of
herbal medicine.”
After studying mosquitos in the Netherlands
and the US, Richard Mukabana, professor of
biology at the University of Nairobi, returned
to Kenya in order to find ecological and local remedies against malaria.
However, he soon realized that research grant donors like the
Gates Foundation have no interest in supporting community based
low-tech solutions and African scientists.
Patrick Ogwang, pharmacologist at Mbarara University of Science
and Technology, Uganda, conducted a clinical study on a flower farm
next to Lake Victoria with over a thousand workers about the efficacy
of the herb Artemisia taken as tea. The result: Malaria cases were
reduced by 85 %. He has proven that Artemisia could save millions
of Africans - if Big Pharma would finally stop pressuring the WHO in
banning its use: “When I started this study about malaria prevention
I was warned by many people. That I might get killed by those who
profit from the drug.”
For Katharina Weingartner
it seems “absurd that 90 %
of research money remain
in North America and Europe
whereas 90 % of actual
cases of the disease are in
Sub-Saharan Africa. Those
affected are rendered voiceless
and refused the medicine
they need. It was important to
us that our protagonists who
have to live their whole lives
with the malaria parasites were presented as self-reliant actors who
want to and are very able to battle the illness for themselves.“
filmdelights Filmverleih will bring the film to Austrian cinemas in
spring 2020.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/324980517
Written and directed by: Katharina Weingartner
Producer: Markus Wailand
Director of Photography: Siri Klug
Sound: Patrick Becker, Richard Fleming
Editor: Andrea Wagner
Production: pooldoks Filmproduktion
Worldsales: Filmdelights
www.dasfieber.com
© Jana Fitzner, pooldoks
EFA Young Audience Award 2020
Eligible are full-length fiction, animation or
documentary films, which must have had their
first official screening (be it at a festival or at
a regular cinema) between January 1 and December
31, 2019.
As an official category of the European Film
Awards the award is presented to the director
of a European film that addresses an
audience between 12 and 14 years of age.
Eligible candidates must be born in Europe
or hold a European passport.
A committee of five 12-14-year-olds from five
© Jaap Vrenegoor
„Fight Girl“,
EFA Young Audience Award winner 2019.
different countries watches the six pre-selected
films and suggests three films for a nomination.
Deadline for the submission of proposals is 15
December 2019.
www.europeanfilmacademy.org/EFA-Young-
Audience-Award.277.0.html
The three nominated films will be presented to
12-14-year-olds in cinemas across Europe on April
26, 2020.
The directors of the three nominated films
will be invited to Erfurt to attend the ceremony,
which will be streamed live on
http://yaa.europeanfilmawards.eu
MEDIA BIZ