Flying on one engine : the slumdog surgeon /

This is the story of the inspiring work of 76-year-old Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet who continues his commitment to the Indian children on whom he operates every year. He performs free reconstructive facial surgery in marathon-like sessions, correcting up to 700 children who have cleft lips and other f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Weinstein, Joshua Z.
Format: Video
Language:English
Language Notes:English.
Published: New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 2009.
Series:Filmakers Library online.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this streaming video (Alexander Street Press)
Description
Summary:This is the story of the inspiring work of 76-year-old Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet who continues his commitment to the Indian children on whom he operates every year. He performs free reconstructive facial surgery in marathon-like sessions, correcting up to 700 children who have cleft lips and other facial deformities. Without the operations, these children would be not be able to develop normally and would be treated as outcasts. The eight-time Nobel Prize nominee is treated like a living god from the moment he arrives in India, with a reverence bordering on worship in the communities where he works. Watching the people who organize Dr. Dicksheet s surgery camps and those who help him perform the surgery, particularly his tough-as-nails nurse, viewers get an extremely up-close picture of contemporary India. When he is in New York, Dr. Dicksheet subsists on social security in his ramshackle Brooklyn apartment, wheelchair-bound, living without a larynx, and diagnosed with a life-threatening aortic aneurysm. Dr. Dicksheet suffered a car accident in the 1970s, a battle with cancer in the 1980s and heart attacks in the 1990s. The film shows how this quirky, funny, and sometimes difficult character overcomes his own ailments by curing others. His stamina and commitment are truly staggering.
Physical Description:1 online resource (50 min.)
Playing Time:00:50:38
Audience:For College; Adult audiences.
Awards:The Estonian People's Award, 2010
Association for Asian Studies, 2010
Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, 2009
Thessaloniki Film Festival, 2009
Belfast Film Festival, 2009
South by South West Film Festival, 2008
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2008
Audience Award, Best Documentary, South Asian International Film Festival, 2008
Featured in the Best of the Year, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, 2008