A Second
Chance
27 minutes - screened SBS TV May 1999
One-year-old Kathleen Cruz (pictured)
turned out to be the star of this film
which followed a group of Australian
plastic surgeons out of their comfort
zone to the southern Philippine island of
Mindanao.
Operating in challenging
conditions for two weeks, the Sydney team
of two surgeons, an anaesthetist and
theatre sister, performed an exhausting
81 reconstructive procedures on patients
with cleft lips, cleft palates, burn
scars and skin cancers. The film started
off as a ten-minute promotional piece to
raise funds for the voluntary work of
Interplast Australia. It turned into a
moving 27 minute account of the ordeals
of children condemned by disfigurement to
lifelong rejection and of Interplast's
efforts to change their lives with just a
few hours of surgery.
The filmmakers also
operated under challenging conditions: A
Second Chance was made with a small grant
from AusAID.
Co-producers: Rob Simms and Gillian
Guthrie
Writer/director: Gillian Guthrie
Camera: Rob Simms
Editor: Robin Archer
Post-prod: Visualeyes
Post-sound: Michael Gissing
Narrated by: Gillian Guthrie
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