“East Meets West” and “9000 Needles,” both award-winning documentary films about alternative forms of medicine, will be screened Monday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. in Room 30 of ten Hoor Hall by the department of anthropology.
After the film screening, Dr. Sarita Elizabeth Cox, doctor of naturopathy, a UA graduate and licensed acupuncturist, will field questions.
“East Meets West,” a film about the history of oriental medicine and its potential future in modern society, was directed by Lynn Walker and produced and hosted by Jennifer Buys. The documentary subsequently won the Special Jury Award at the Oregon Film Awards, as well as an honorable mention at the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival.
“9000 Needles” tells the story of Doug Dearth, a 40-year-old man who, after suffering a massive stroke that left him unable to walk, exhausted all traditional American medical resources before finally travelling to Tianjin, China for acupunctural treatment. Dearth directed and produced the film himself and afterwards won awards for Best Documentary at the Phoenix Film Festival, DocuWest Film Festival and the Temecula Valley International Film Festival
These films play a significant role in the life of Michelle Satcher, a doctoral student in the department of anthropology.
“These films are important to the Anthropology Department because several of our faculty and students study biocultural medical anthropology, which investigates human health from the perspective that biology and culture are in constant interaction,” Satcher said. “[Oriental medicine and acupuncture] are powerful methods that have been healing people in Asia and worldwide for a long time.”
What concerns Satcher, however, is that the state of Alabama does not recognize acupuncture and oriental medicine as legitimate forms of treatment. Therefore, there are no licensing requirements for practitioners, and oftentimes people with little or no training can advertise themselves as practitioners of oriental medicine or acupuncture.
“Until Alabama changes its laws regarding this matter, these people will continue to do this with impunity,” Satcher said. “This is obviously a problem for health care consumers who may receive unsafe and ineffective care. Patients wouldn’t pay a person with no medical training to perform an appendectomy and are legally protected from persons who would do so under false pretenses. The same protection should be afforded to patients who pursue acupuncture and oriental medicine to treat illness.”
This is an exciting event for students like Michael Battito, a senior majoring in music, who would like to gain an understanding of what alternative medicine is.
“I would say I’m not as educated as I could be,” Battito said. “Just based on my prior knowledge, I’m open to the idea of other cultures. I’m sure the department here is going to handle it well and present it in a respectable manner.”
Satcher said alternative medicine is so ignored by the state of Alabama that the ten Hoor film screening will be the first actual media event about acupuncture and oriental medicine in the state.
