FRONTLINE/World’s Fabulous Short Docs

I’ve been a big fan of each of the screenings I’ve been lucky to see at the local women-focused theater Brava this year (Pop-Up Magazine and SF Women’s Film Fest included), and tonight’s film celebration of global social entrepreneurs was no exception. FRONTLINE/World, the documentary TV series created with KQED and WGBH in Boston, hosted the “Heroes from a Small Planet” event with the innovation advocate organization Skoll Foundation.

The brief international stories are carefully researched and well told, and two are particularly worth a watch. Marjorie Macafee’s “Wheels of Change” about a Bay Area engineer who’s created an open source model for this RoughRider wheelchairs tracks the chairs’ production and use in a Vietnamese factory. And Jenny Chu’s “Yeabu’s Homecoming” about a Sierra Leonen doctor’s surgical efforts to repair the obstetric fistulas caused by prolonged labor is a stark wakeup to the lack of adequate medical care in parts of the developing world. Brava is right.