For a few hours every Saturday, Dr. Marc Lasher and a group of volunteers provide free medical care and clean needles to IV drug users from across Fresno County, California. On a dingy old school bus, Dr. Lasher slices abscesses, bandages open wounds and counsels his patients, many of whom have turned to street medicine to avoid the stigma and cost of our failed healthcare system. A selection of Short of the Week, the web's leading curators of quality short films.
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The Clinic by Elivia Shaw
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Instagram: @eliviashaw
www.eliviashaw.com
"Spend a day with Dr. Marc Lasher as he runs his own free health care clinic out of an old school bus. With the help of a few volunteers, he provides counsel and treatment to his patients in a no-nonsense, pragmatic way. His seemingly gruff demeanor does not lack empathy however—most of his clientele are battling addiction and their need of Lasher and his marvelous medical bus is just one more signifier of hard lives filled with disappointment. As much as they need medicine, they also need a counselor, and Dr. Lasher in his distinct way often wears both hats. In The Clinic, director Elivia Shaw takes us inside one man’s selfless attempt to provide care to some of society’s most vulnerable members. Via an intimate verité approach, Shaw allows us to witness the day to day face of addiction and the lengths good samaritans must go to shoulder a burden that government will not.
“As a filmmaker, I look for spaces teeming with our society’s complications and contradictions.” – Elivia Shaw
The tight space that is the bus acting as a clinic—the doctor, the volunteers, the immense line of patients—all these elements combine in a setting that is charged with socio-cultural undercurrents. Though Shaw takes a somewhat neutral, observational approach to the film, as an audience member we can’t escape the subtext that is invoked during the runtime of the film. The very existence of the bus, its necessity for its patients, is a marker of the inadequacy of the United States healthcare system. By highlighting this community, Shaw confronts us to this harsh reality. However, she makes a point of avoiding over-sensationalized tropes via a non-voyeuristic perspective and instead focuses on the treatment side of the issue. As much as The Clinic is about healthcare writ large, it is also about the ongoing drug crisis in America’s forgotten areas, and provides a clear-eyed, yet compassionate view of the damage it is causing. She clearly developed a strong trust with her subjects which allows very open conversations about addiction and how it affects the patient’s lives. Addiction affects people in different ways, and each patient by sharing their unique experience brings a new challenge for Dr. Lasher and his team. Where Shaw succeeds with this work is by not stripping her subjects of their dignity—she catches them in very vulnerable moments, needing help—yet her camera captures for the screen honest looks, not pathetic ones.
Filmed over eight different Saturdays, in editing the film was condensed to look like a single day in order to not create any chronological distraction and not alter the experience as an audience member. What really struck me about the film’s approach was how bright and colorful the film looks in contrast to its subject matter—the sheer beauty of its execution at times providing balance to what could otherwise be an overwhelmingly depressing subject." S/W Curator, Céline Roustan
CREDITS
Dr. Marc Lasher - Cast
Sound Recordist - Erin Kokdil
Additional Camera - Nathan Reich
Production Assistance - Paloma Martinez
Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmaker.
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