Synopsis | Director's Statement | Crew Bios As the Call, So the Echo documents the transformative experience of an American ear, nose, and throat surgeon, Dr. Alex Moreano, during several weeks he spent as a volunteer physician in a Vietnamese hospital in 2003. After
practicing in a Seattle HMO for 20 years, Dr. Moreano planned to
launch a private medical office there but decided In
the film, Dr. Moreano discovers the reality of third world medicine
rarely seen by Western doctors. Undersupplied clinics are presented
with pathologies that have progressed far beyond the stages where
they are usually treated in the United States and Europe. Dr. Moreano
finds himself treating conditions he has rarely seen since medical
school, if at all. Confronting both a language barrier and a lack
of equipment, When a woman with a perilous tumor is presented to Dr. Moreano, his first reaction is informed by training which recoils from incurring liability when surgery is extremely risky. But after learning the woman has been waiting in the hospital for over a month, and recognizing the alternative is certain death, he reluctantly agrees to operate. As the Call, So the Echo unfolds against the backdrop of a hauntingly beautiful country that belies a war-torn history so familiar to Americans. We discover how much the Vietnamese remain a gentle and industrious people who defy the challenges of endemic poverty with a spirit of hospitality and grace. The film documents the personal journey of one American doctor, but also transports the viewer to a land we thought we knew, but do not know well at all. The images are as powerful as the story, and the result is a compelling documentary full of drama and hope. Director's Statement “Viet-what, what did you say?” I sputtered. My shock arose from a deep sense of confusion —as if my father had just told me I was an adopted child. As anyone who knows my father can tell you, he is the type of person who is more likely to burn his house down than he is to donate his time in a third world country. He is a vehement Republican, a proud immigrant, and a cynic to the core. Or so I had told myself. What followed was the ultimate take-your-son-to-work day: an intense five-week journey that led us both to Hue, Vietnam. From the moment we stepped into that hospital, all of my previous assumptions about my father began to melt away. After watching my father open up another person's head to remove a brain tumor, I realized that I never before really knew him. My relationship with my father, however, is entirely absent in the film. The moment I encountered the very first Vietnamese patient my entire life changed. Many people I met on that first day were about to die — some of them bleeding from their eyes, missing noses, tumors bulging from their eye-sockets — and all of them wanted to say something. Suddenly all my personal baggage with my father got thrown out the window. Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in the world. Until very recently it had been at non-stop war with its neighbors, colonial powers, and the United States. Its poverty is well-hidden but crippling. Four-thousand Southeast Asian children die every day from diarrhea and other common conditions that are entirely treatable in our country. The average citizen’s situation was overwhelming and filled me with a new sense of gratitude and duty. I originally started this film to understand why my father had announced he would travel to Vietnam (a purpose which is revealed in the film), but I finished this film because I came face to face with the very real strength of the Vietnamese character in times of incredible stress. And it really shook my heart. I hope it shakes an audience too. Keir
Moreano |
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KEIR
MOREANO - director/producer Keir Moreano is a graduate of New York University's prestigious Film and Television Program. THE REUNION, a film edited by Mr. Moreano, won the schools top prize for excellence in filmmaking while Moreano was a junior. Since graduation in 2005, Mr. Moreano has produced directed two feature length documentaries including AS THE CALL, SO THE ECHO (2005), and UNSPOOLED to be released in early 2007. He recently returned from Ethiopia shooting a third short documentary A CHILD'S REACH (2006), about the struggles of an orphanage for children with AIDS. Mr. Moreano's fledgling company, Necessary Nomad Films, has helped raise thousands of dollars for international charities, including the MEDRIX foundation, the Ovarian Cancer Fund, and the Kilung Foundation. Keir currently a producer at Tea Dragon Films where he is managing the
global production of the documentary film "The Meaning of Tea" which
is set to premiere in 2008. |
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TIM
MALIECKAL - editor
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JOEL
DOUEK - composer |
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MATTHEW
J. SANTO - camera
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GORDON
ARKENBERG - camera |
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DAVID
GROSS - sound designer
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instead to become a partner in another established practice in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Saddled with thousands of dollars worth of expensive
medical equipment he had already purchased, Dr. Moreano opted to
donate the supplies to a hospital in Hue, Vietnam via the international
Christian charity MEDRIX. 
he
endeavors with the Vietnamese doctors to provide the best care possible
against considerabe odds.