FastForward Health: Health Innovation’s Close-up

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Today marks the first ever FastForward Health Innovation Film Festival San Francisco.  Spearheaded by Andre Blackman and David Haddad, Fast Forward Health kicked off with events in Washington DC and New York  and screens tonight at the Delancey Street Foundation Screening Room on the Embarcadero.  I touched base with the festival’s organizer to pick their brains:

What was the impetus for putting on this event?
Fast Forward Health was born to turn up the volume on the silence that are our health innovation stories. We had an amazing run of show in Washington DC and NYC and excited to bring Fast Forward Health to San Francisco–the only place on the planet where people are motivated each and every day to change the world.

Outside of the films shown at the festival, what are your favorite health-related films? 
I love Lunchline and the Waiting Room.

What do you think about the future of health and film? 
Film is an incredible tool to inspiumake change. We watch a film about Invisible Children and the world wants to take out a despotic leader. I think the role of film to inspire action is profound and shouldn’t be overlooked. Traditional public health campaigns and fear-mongering tales of health care don’t cause people to take action. Engagement, action and changing health behaviors cannot exist in the 20th century. It must adapt to the realities we live in today. This means the use of mobile phones, the web, social media, film, TV and more must be used as tools to improve health.  Art plays a powerful role in helping catalyze the movement. Take for example Regina Holliday’s Walking Art Galleries, Designers coming up with better ways to visualize health data, and film makers telling the inspiring stories of change.