In my paper I want to discuss how medical cinematography as new visualisation technique since the end of the 19th century, opened new possibilities in documenting and applying medical methods and practices. Motivated by the rich archive material of knowledge-making medical film sources, I examine the production, application and impact of these film collections in the early 20th century Vienna and Brussels, and will discuss how the incorporation of the cinematograph in medical institutions and operation theatres altered medical methods and enhanced the scientific communication through the new media apparatus. The ambivalent relations between the diverging medical film sources and visual traditions and the academic exchange of medical training, provides optimal conditions to discuss the vehicles of intercultural scientific communication. The research in this field plays an important role between the medical cultures and traditions in both, for the medical-history relevant, German and French-speaking locations. The status and function of film in medical science is depending on the actor-network constellation between the production, distribution and communication and the inter-play of different professional and amateur key-players, such as medical clinics, film institutes, movie directors, medics, technicians, assistants, nurses, patients or unforeseen passers-by.

In the late 19th century, new technical innovations, such as the invention of cinematography, X-ray and the increased use of photography in medical journals and literature, established a new media culture in medicine. The cinematograph and the X-ray instruments displaced former surgical instruments, leading to non-invasive forms of looking. Scientific cinematography has often been seen as accurate evidence of research results, and has seemed to follow explicit visual strategies in medical science. International and intercultural research communities and research spheres have enhanced new opportunities by introducing scientific cinematography as a visual tool to the medical working field. The composite of techniques and representational conventions mark the exceptional position of the genre medical-factual film. The paper analyses medical practice, instruments, and knowledge transfer by investigating the cultural significance of this particular visual genre, the filmic source material allows new perspectives on the application of medical cinematography and possible new gazes in medical visual culture.