Lebanon on Life Support
Commissioned by BBC ‘Our World’
“I thought the story told through the eyes of the hospital workers, particularly the young doctors, and their struggle about whether to stay or to go presented a really powerful narrative that resonated with me.“
-News Features Award Jury
Lebanon on Life Support shows two eventful weeks in the life of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in southern Beirut.
This film follows the director of Lebanon’s largest public hospital as he tries to stave off disaster, and a junior doctor forced to decide between her patients and her own future, all amidst the economic and social collapse of Lebanon. The film presents the day to day realities of staff and patients dealing with everything from fuel and medicine shortages, to the mass exodus of nurses and doctors away from the country.
It’s a bleak picture of a country facing unprecedented challenges with little hope on the horizon but with a small number of committed individuals working as hard as they can to do what they can.
Biography
George Henton is an award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in Tripoli, Lebanon.
With a focus on character led, observational films, George has worked across the region for the last few years producing, shooting and editing films for BBC World, VICE News and others.
He recently directed two half-hour films for BBC Our World, exploring the realities of Lebanese healthcare amidst that country’s economic collapse, and the story of a survivor of ISIS captivity now working as a deminer in Sinjar, Northern Iraq. George also worked as the DOP on an hour long investigation for the BBC World Service, exploring a historical assassination in Beirut.
George started his career as a photojournalist during the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya before moving into video work in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. He then joined a BBC current affairs unit in London where he worked for four years as a shooting director, producing documentaries across the UK for a regional and national audience.
George holds a BSc from Kings College London in War Studies and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics.