Preview
About
On the South Pacific Island group of Vava’u, the traditional healer Emeline Lolohea treats people affected by spirits. One day away by ferry, the only Tongan Psychiatrist Dr Mapa Puloka has established a public psychiatry well known across the region. Although the two healers have never met in person, this film creates a dialogue between them on the nature of mental illness and spiritual affliction - and the shared obstacles they face in providing their services to the people in need. Their commitment and transformative communication offers challenges and opportunities to help address the growing global mental health crisis.
For two years, film director Mike Poltorak used a video camera as an
integral part of his medical anthropological research on traditional
healing and mental illness in Tonga. After many more years of research
and filming, he learned just how important the
relationship between filmmaker and subject is in creating a film
respectful of Tongan values and of utility for the global Tongan
community. Through this relationship, his film presents possibilities
for improvement in health communication and outcomes for
the Kingdom of Tonga, the development of a public psychiatry more
sensitive to traditional healing, as well as to encourage culturally
valued talanoa between traditional and biomedical practitioners.
Reviews
"The film offers close-ups into the intimate life of therapeutic rituals and allows the viewer to experience the sounds, colors, and affects that compose and make possible healing practices at the thresholds of different cosmologies." — Samuele Collu, McGill University
"This is going to be a valuable resource for mental health here in New Zealand and in Tonga. The reason being the Government has finally agreed that healing ought to happen, or the system, closer to the community. What really touched someone from the front line perspective, is how you had culture, community and clinical knowledge come together and connected up but also the story itself reminded me when the system fails it costs lives. This is something for us to be mindful of." – Pauline Taufa, Clinical Psychologist, Auckland
"The Healer and the Psychiatrist is a very moving and intense documentary that speaks to the value of ethnographic research over a long period of time. It explores the value and limitations of Tongan indigenous and Western medicine. The traditional healer, Emeline Lolohea, may have access to nature’s abundance and the richness of spiritual knowledge but her husband Tevita’s tragic illness speaks to the need for better access to biomedicine. Dr Mapa Puloka combines psychiatry and what is valued in Tongan culture, but how much does the continuity of his novel practice and healing depend on his individual efforts? This insightful and sensitive ethnographic documentary asks us to consider how the treatment of illness and wellness can be ‘decolonised’ even in a country that was never colonised." – Jacquie Leckie, Associate Professor, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ & University of Newcastle, Australia. Author of Colonizing Madness
Indigenous Studies:
Credits
The Healer and the Psychiatrist
Filmed, Directed, and Produced by
Dr. Mike Poltorak
Film Editor
Heidi Hiltebrand
Translation
Sefita Hao'uli
Sound Design
Reto Stamm
Digital Colourist
Andi Chu
Graphic Design
Sergio Constanini
Voiceover Design
Silvana Ceschi
Production Finance Manager
Dr Alexandra Leduc-Pagel
Subtitles
Dr Mike Poltorak
Poster Design
José Manuel Barrera Alba
Saskia Janssen
Trailer Editor
Heidi Hiltebrand