The Edward Jenner Museum is one of six medical history museums participating in a cutting edge participatory film making scheme. Medicine at the Movies, funded by NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education), seeks to engage different groups in communicating by film.

As the story of smallpox is one of worldwide significance, the Edward Jenner Museum is working with CEMVO (Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisation) and GARAS (Gloucestershire Association for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) as their groups of choice. It has been fascinating hearing the stories about smallpox and its eradication across the globe from public information broadcasts in Iran to Ethiopian cures for cowpox.

Two films are being produced by Kirsty Hemming and Fiona Meadley. The films will premier at the Thackray Museum in Leeds on 13th March before being shown at the Edward Jenner Museum on 18th March, when viewers will have the opportunity to talk to the participants about the project.

Sarah Parker, the director of the museum, said “What Medicine at the Movies has shown us is how the museum experience can be very different for different people and these films have provided fascinating insights.”

Medicine at the Movies is the first part in the Edward Jenner’s program of film as an educational process and new projects are being planned with school groups. The library of material will then be available online providing a much needed source of media in the languages of Farsi, Twi and Amharic.

Fiona Meadley said “When one of our participants saw a tiny bit of Amharic on one of our posters, he got really excited. These are languages that you hear on the street in the UK but rarely see written down or hear recordings of so it’s great to be creating material that begins to fill that void.”
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