More than 100 attend special screening of documentary about Banbury doctor’s work in Gaza

The film’s screening was moved to a larger cinema as the original (89-seater) was fully booked a few days in advance of the event.

The documentary film prominently features Oxford University Hospitals Trust doctor Professor Nick Maynard, who normally works in Oxford and Banbury and who has made several visits to support local doctors working in Gaza since 2022.

Because the world’s media are barred by the Israeli Government from entering Gaza to report independently, the outside world relies heavily on the testimony of doctors like Prof Maynard who communicate their first-hand experiences through this film.

Directed by Daniel Rugo (director of the acclaimed feature documentary ‘The Soil and the Sea’ about the Lebanese Civil War) ‘Life Support’ relies on footage shot on the smartphones and cameras of the international doctors working in Gaza.

The film includes visceral footage showing the daily struggles of healthcare workers as they operate in bombed-out hospitals, working to look after Palestinian people – predominantly women and children - increasingly threatened by starvation.

A doctor says – with remarkable restraint – how Israeli authorities block the supply of crucial provisions, such as infant formula, essential for babies whose mothers have been killed.

Dr Maynard reports that he and colleagues noticed that Palestinians were arriving at the hospitals with bullet wounds in similar body parts at similar times – right arm, buttocks, even testicles – leading them to speculate that Israeli soldiers were acting deliberately in some kind of twisted ‘game’.

The special screening was facilitated by local volunteers and community groups in liaison with the film’s distributors and The Light Cinema.

One of the organising group, Neil Wallis said: “This film is very difficult and disturbing to watch. The fact that over a hundred local people booked to see it on a Monday evening surely shows how strongly local people feel about this issue and about the unbearable suffering of the Palestinians.”

Sean Woodcock, Banbury’s MP, who attended the screening, said: “The film ‘Life Support’ was a very difficult watch but I am grateful to have been invited to the local screening of it.

“Peace for both Palestinians and Israelis, and working towards a viable and permanent two state solution is imperative and something I will continue to work for as an MP.”

The former Labour Party communications adviser and host of the Rest is Politics podcast, Alastair Campbell recently posted on ‘X’ about the film: “Just been to see LIFE SUPPORT, remarkable film about Gaza as seen through the eyes of British and other international doctors. Utterly harrowing. Genocide. It is on Apple TV but should be on the Beeb. And every MP should see it.”

Professor Maynard was the subject of a recent profile in the Banbury Guardian. Monday’s screening was followed by an informal gathering and discussion with

refreshments.

For more information about Life Support, visit: https://lifesupportfilm.co.uk/