Hallah (S.O.S): A Crisis in Medicineis a 1971 promotional film produced for Johns Hopkins University. James E. Hinton created the film to inspire young black students to join the medical field where their services were much needed. Hallahbegins by panning through the crowded streets of Harlem while the narrator speaks about the limited medical facilities and personnel available in black communities like this one.

“Often times we say the only things relevant are black people getting their rights, privileges and progress that they deserve, but you can’t give a man the progress he deserves when he’s not in a physical condition to accept it.

The film makes a point of situating the doctor within the struggle for black liberation, because it is correct in recognizing how health is inseparable from the sociopolitical struggle.

The film moves on from Harlem to the Mississippi Delta, where two female physicians walk alongside black people, young and old, picking cotton. The historical significance of cotton picking sets the stage for the film’s continued discussion of the black experience and efforts to change it. While walking, the two physicians talk about the most common health issues facing the black community, most of them stemming from poverty, poor housing and poor sanitation. According to the physician, prenatal and neo-natal care are especially lacking for Black families, culminating in high rates of infant mortality.

Health issues were always a symptom of oppression that leaders of the struggle had no choice but to acknowledge. In Audre Lorde’s autobiography Zami: Another Spelling of My Name one of her first-grade classmates who always comes inn dirty, disheveled clothing, dies of tuberculosis over Christmas break. Health was inextricably linked to the problems facing the black community, to such an extent that the Black Panther Party included a free health clinic among its many initiatives.

By seeking to motivate young black students to become doctors, Hallah embodies the spirit of the radical Black Power movement. It aims transform the black community into a self-healing entity, one that cures its own ills. As the film states, the doctor is respected for the responsibilities that he or she takes on, to such an extent that they become like a community leader and this film’s primary goals is to engender more of that leadership.