Matter of fact: using creative film to disseminate sensitive research in medical sociology

Matter of Fact is a talking heads film based on extracts from qualitative interviews with a range of different health professionals. The film sought to co-productively and sensitively tell the story of baby loss and post-mortem from different healthcare perspectives. In the film, interview extracts are read by four actors from the applied theatre specialists Dead Earnest, who are each playing the roles of mortuary technician, pathologist, obstetrician, and midwife. The film was one of several installations in a project exhibition Remembering Baby, which used sound and visual art as well as acting to present and represent qualitative data. It had significant impact on parents, professionals, and public exhibition attendees and has subsequently been used as a bereavement support tool, and to run training events for health professionals. We use Matter of Fact in this article to show how a talking heads film can be used to directly but sensitively illuminate hidden and emotive aspects of healthcare, and in doing so provide a unique conceptual, substantive, and methodological contribution to sociology. We conclude by arguing that this film provides a novel example of what Bradby refers to as a progressive sociology of health and illness.