Operation Smile

One of the great upsides of working in this industry is that every now and then a project comes along that moves you so much it alters your perceptions, changes the way you think and improves you personally as a human being. I am lucky enough to have the privilege to work on such a project at the moment. Ocean Vista Films is producing two films for Operation Smile. Operation Smile is a world-wide charity that raises funds to put teams of volunteer surgeons and nurses into medical missions which fix cleft palates and cleft lips on children and adults, largely in third world countries and remote areas where people cannot afford such operations. The OVF team spent a week in Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang province, in the far North-West of China) filming volunteer doctors and nurses from around the world operating on patients - mostly children - afflicted by the condition. These children and their families came from hundreds of miles away, travelling for weeks on end, many on donkey and horse back, across mountains and deserts, to reach the mission in Urumqi. The volunteers then screened them, tested their blood and prepped them for operation. What happened next just blew me away. Four operating theatres with two tables in each theatre worked constantly for four days from 8 am until 7 pm restoring the smiles on hundreds of children. To see these children before with such disfigurement and to hear their parents and relatives tell stories of abandonment and persecution by others because of this disfigurement would make you weep. And then to watch these world-class surgeons perform amazing surgery to correct these problems was an absolute privilege. The ultimate however, was seeing these children post operation with new lips, new smiles and new hope in their lives. Watching the parents see their children for the first time post op was heart wrenching. Many broke down in tears and couldn't offer enough thanks to these wonderful volunteers for their work. We are editing the films in the next seven days and I hope to have a rough cut to put on this site soon. The film will be used to raise funds for the charity and an event in Hong Kong called Fight Night (white collar lads engaging in a bit of biffo!) will kick off the fundraising effort in October. We will be heading to London early October to film James Blunt who is putting his support behind the Hong Kong chapter of the charity. If you'd like more info on this event or the charity, let me know.