By Max Mogensen,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Local otolaryngologist (doctor of the ear, nose, and throat) Ben Lounsbury will be showing his 5-minute film “Why Don’t We Do It In Our Sleeves?” at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

Lounsbury, who works in Lewiston, created this piece of “edu-tainment” to address the problem of spreading germs by coughing into your hands. The Centers for Disease Control has been pushing the idea of coughing into your sleeve, where germs dry out and die, Lounsbury said. “But people are still coughing into their hands,” he said.

So Lounsbury spent three months crafting a “public service announcement,” but one “that’s funny,” he said. The production was relatively low-budget, though the film features a cast of 46, including one “great” actor who plays three different roles.

Lounsbury himself plays a couple of small parts and narrates the film, he said. Three months of acting, directing and producing may seem like a lot of work. However, “you don’t count the hours when it’s a labor of love,” Lounsbury said.

His labor of love debuted in December, when it was shown to almost all the employees of both local hospitals. Lounsbury has made 10 other “joke” videos for use at the hospitals, he said.

But there was something different about “Why Don’t We Do It In Our Sleeves?” Lounsbury aired the film for his family, who subsequently showed it to their friends. It’s health-centered message also made it a perfect film for patients. “Patients thought it was great,” he said.

The film was also put on the Internet. Bloggers touted it as “the instructional video on proper cough/sneeze covering techniques,” and called it “hilarious.”

With a growing following, Lounsbury decided to push his film further into the public eye. He sent a DVD copy to the organizers of the Maine International Film Festival. A month ago, they announced that they would air his film as a part of their “Images of Maine” showcase, which features made-in-Maine films.

A week later, Lounsbury received another call in which he was told that his film would be shown for a second time. Lounsbury said that he was told his film would be the “opening act” to the festival’s advanced presentation of “Keeping Mum,” a film by Maine director Richard Russo, author of “Empire Falls.”

For Lounsbury, the film festival showing and the Internet posting is just part of the public service. “I’ve taken care of thousands of people, but I don’t want to be remembered as the otolaryngologist from Lewiston. … I want to change the way the world coughs and sneezes.”

The Maine International Film Festival is a good start.

Lounsbury’s film will be shown at 3:30 this afternoon at the Waterville Opera House. There will be another showing at 7 p.m. Sunday, again at the Waterville Opera House. The movie can be seen online at www.coughsafe.com.

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