| NAIDOC Screenings in Sydney and Perth
Sydney – Wed 7 July @ 6:00pm Hoyts Lux Cinema Featuring Q&A with Noongar woman, Director RHD Australia and co producer Producer Vicki Wade and Deadly Science CEO Corey Tutt Bookings: https://www.broadwaysydney.com.au/whats-on/events/naidoc-22-take-heart-deadly-heart-film-screening Perth – Wed 3 July @ 2:00pm The Back Lot “We’re all Australians, and unfortunately, there’s one part of our community that is being affected by this disease, which is preventable. We all should be ashamed of that.” “We know how to solve rheumatic heart disease. We have a blueprint. It’s critical to take action today. Our country can no longer tolerate children having their chest opened for a preventable disease.“ |
This July, to coincide with National NAIDOC week, Australia’s leading impact film production company Moonshine Agency, will present Sydney and Perth screenings of Take Heart: Deadly Heart – A Journey to an RHD Free Future. The Sydney screening is co presented by Deadly Science and will be followed by a Q&A with Noongar woman, Director RHD Australia and co producer Producer Vicki Wade.
Take Heart: Deadly Heart – A Journey to an RHD Free Future is a powerful and riveting documentary that tells the story of how remote Aboriginal communities across the top end of Australia are adopting innovative strategies to eliminate Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) even as numbers across the country continue to rise. While RHD is a disease that is completely preventable, health system failures, low health literacy, overcrowding and environmental factors are contributing to growing rates of the disease in Australia.
The film tells the inspiring story of the journey towards an RHD-free future. It celebrates Indigenous culture and demonstrates how community-led programs can put RHD in the history books once and for all. The film incorporates themes of truth-telling, Indigenous leadership, language, culture, identity, reconciliation, education, health and self-determination.
Deadly Heart is the follow up the 2016 documentary ‘Take Heart’ that lifted the lid on this largely invisible disease, once widespread across all of Australia and the world, but today almost exclusively found in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.
Deadly Heart follows the stories of five Indigenous Australians – Roma Pamkal, Liddywoo Mardi, Yvette Booth, Carlisa Wilika, and Roderick Brown, and through them shows the devastating impact RHD can have on individuals and their communities.
The film includes interviews with Adam Goodes (2014 Australian of the Year) and experts in the field and community leaders including Dr Bo Remenyi (Paediatric Cardiologist, NT Australian of The Year), Vicki Wade ( Director, RHD Australia), Murrandoo Yanner (aboriginal activist), Roz Baartz (NT Nurse of the Year, Maningrida), and other experts in the field.
Producer Vicki Wade said, “Take Heart tackles the big subject of ‘Closing the Gap’ on Indigenous disadvantage through the story of RHD, profiling the lives of the young Australians and their families affected by the epidemic. The young people’s choices and insights reframe the largely misunderstood issue of Indigenous health from a fresh perspective, while their visible chest scars remind us that this wholly preventable disease has literally scarred these children for life.”
About Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD)
Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) starts with a sore throat or infected skin sores, symptoms of a common bacterial infection (Group A Streptococcus) common in children 5-15 years of age. If left untreated, this can develop into Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) and the permanent heart damage known as RHD, which can lead to open-heart surgery, permanent disability, stroke and premature death. Key risk factors include poverty, overcrowding and reduced access to medical care.
After an international resolution to eliminate RHD passed at the World Health Assembly, the global profile of RHD has increased over the past decade but still remains in the shadow of other communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV and TB, despite being the most common acquired form of cardiovascular disease in children, adolescents and young adults in the world. Indigenous children and young adults are up to eight times more likely than other groups to be hospitalised and nearly 20 times as likely to die from RHD, currently affecting over thirty million people globally and 2% of Indigenous Australasians living in the Top End.
For more information visit www.TakeHeartRHD.com
