Burkitt

Synopsis

Burkitt is a creative documentary film directed by Éanna Mac Cana, a survivor of Burkitt's lymphoma. The film intertwines the personal with the historical, as Mac Cana tells the story of Irish surgeon Denis Burkitt, who discovered the aggressive cancer that bears his name while working in Uganda in the 1950s.

The documentary uniquely combines Mac Cana's own intimate, diaristic video recordings from his time as a patient with Burkitt's extensive archival footage and photographs from his work in sub-Saharan Africa. By weaving these two narratives together, the film creates a dialogue between the past and present, the scientific and the personal. It examines the complex and nonlinear impacts of trauma, colonialism, and medical ethics, all through a deeply artistic and personal lens. Burkitt is not just a medical history film; it is a meditation on legacy, survival, and the profound human connections that can be found across different lives, eras, and cultures.