Ruthless Times – Songs of Care

Alene Duerk: First Woman to Make Admiral

January 2020 •English

Following the tradition of military service in her family, Alene Duerk enlisted as a Navy nurse in 1943. During her eventful 32 year career, she served in WWII on a hospital ship in the Sea of Japan, and trained others in the Korean War. She became the Director of the Navy Nursing Corps during the Vietnam War before finally attaining the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Despite having no other women as mentors (or peers), Admiral Duerk always looked for challenging opportunities that women had not previously held. Her consistently high level of performance led to her ultimate rise to become the first woman Admiral.

Capturing the Killer Nurse

November 2022 •English

Charlie Cullen was an experienced registered nurse, trusted and beloved by his colleagues at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey. He was also one of history’s most prolific serial killers, with a body count potentially numbering in the hundreds across multiple medical facilities in the Northeast.

Alma Anciana

October 2024 •Portuguese

Three juxtaposing stories taking place in Portugal, Austria and Cuba create an intimate and poetic portrait of the daily lives and struggles of the elderly in an unstable world, seen through the eyes of their grandchildren.

Retirement Home

December 2017 •Portuguese

A group of elders spends their weekdays in a retirement home in Sandim, in the north of Portugal, where they talk, do arts and crafts, practice yoga and pray. We follow them between October 2012 and March 2013, when an economic crisis overshadowed Portuguese society and unemployment rates reached record levels. Meanwhile, arrangements are made for the Carnival ball. Will they bring the first place home this time?

Defining Hope

November 2017 •English

We aren't dying the way we used to. We have ventilators, dialysis machines, ICUs-technologies that can "fix" us and keep our bodies alive-which have radically changed how we make medical decisions. In our death-denying culture, no matter how sick we get, there is always "hope." Defining Hope tells the story of patients dealing with life-threatening illness as they move between ICUs, operating rooms, hospice care and home. Diane is a nurse caring for end-stage cancer patients when she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer herself. 23-year-old Alena undergoes a risky brain surgery that destroys her short-term memory. 95-year-old Berthold lives with his elderly wife who struggles to honor his wish of dying peacefully at home. Defining Hope follows these patients and others- and the nurses that guide them along the way- as they face death, embrace hope, and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living.

Whoopee!

September 1930 •English

Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, whose race is an obstacle. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she left a note saying they've eloped! Chasing them are jilted Bob, Henry's nurse Mary (who's been trying to seduce him) and others.

Nurse Unseen

October 2024 •English

Explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the front lines of a pandemic, thousands of miles from home.

The Singing Sheriff

September 1944 •English

In this comic western, a Broadway star leaves his musical revue to go West and help out his troubled friend. While there, the performer finds himself forced into becoming the town sheriff. Mayhem ensues, but somehow, the crooner manages to round up a band of killers.

Playboy's Girls in Uniform

September 1997 •English

If clothes make the woman, a uniform makes her even hotter. Playboy brings you and exclusive look at the foxy forms that make these uniforms sizzle.

Stopping for Death: The Nurses of Wells House Hospice

April 2013 •English

A year following four hospice nurses who question their calling as they face emotional distress, financial hardships and the possible closure of their facility.

Valley of the Rulers

February 2019 •Hebrew

A poetic and metaphysical view on a daily life routine in a distant nursing home, on a top of the mountain in Uzice, Serbia – the closest place to heaven. This is the last station on earth for old people that called “clients”. While they’re waiting for the end of their lives, prisoned in a desolate nursing home and their old-dying body, they are fighting for the freedom of their soul, the only place they can feel young and alive. A fight between light and darkness, suffering and acceptance, life and death.

Francisco Massiani

February 2015 •Spanish

This documentary is a chronicle of the journey through the most important sites of the life of venezuelan writer Francisco Massiani who reveals the details of his work and the love of his life.

Bente gaar til Sygeplejen

September 1945 •Danish

A movie about the education for nurse told from Bente's perspective. She starts at the preschool at Rødkilde Højskole at Møn and comes from there to a hospital, where student time begins. After three years, Bente is trained and can get the nursing needle attached to the robe.

Her Honor, the Nurse

January 1956 •English

This RKO-Pathe Screenliner short looks at the duties of the modern nurse. The story tracks the education of a student nurse as she works toward graduation and shows the earning of her cap during her student days, in retrospect. At the beginning, she wears the Student Nurse uniform dress and apron only, with no cap. She appears later in the movie as a more experienced Senior student with her cap already wearing a stripe. This was frequently done in the three year hospital programs to differentiate the Junior level students from the Seniors, more experienced and closer to Graduation. The capping ceremony illustrated shows the bare headed students receiving their plain white cap, and addressing it as something from her past that she will remember fondly.

A Calling to Care

September 2001 •English

A Calling to Care is the inspiring story of 55 year-old Grace Stanley, a Canadian nurse who left her home and prestigious career behind to answer a calling halfway around the world in Karachi, Pakistan. Teaching nursing to local women in a strict Muslim culture that forbids them to even to touch men is a formidable task. However, Grace challenges her own values and belief systems to find common ground with her students, helping them to excel and feel respect for themselves in a culture that doesn't respect them. Whether it is getting her hands painted with henna, swimming fully-clothed in the ocean, or marching bravely with them on International Women's Day, Grace bonds with her students in a very special way, and ultimately discovers how the West can learn a lot more from the Third World than she ever thought.

Contract

January 2008 •Finnish

Documentary about the nurses' strike in Finland on autumn 2007.

Pactes de silenci

November 2018 •Catalan

Due to the increasing privatization of basic public services in Spain, companies such as BB Serveis are accused of misappropriating several million euros of public money intended to finance care for the elderly and other dependent persons.

Yarım Kalan Saadet

January 1970 •Turkish

Trevor McDonald and the Killer Nurse

October 2018 •English

25 years after he first reported on it, Sir Trevor re-visits the case of Beverley Allitt, one of Britain's most prolific serial killers.

Nurse Helen Fairchild: Killed in Action?

January 2018 •English

Bravery, compassion and the will to save lives motivated the young Nurse Helen Fairchild to leave home in Pennsylvania and embark on a journey to Europe, where she served as a surgical nurse during World War I before dying on the front lines.