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“An upfront exploration
of the emotional discoveries of women with breast cancer”,
this bravely and valuably documents a subject most people
would rather avoid. But as with her previous WAR STORIES,
dir. Preston coaxes the kinds of touching and sympathetic
testimonies that make the troubling journey worthwhile.
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"I think the most
terrible thing about breast cancer is that
you can have this life threatening disease
and not feel sick! And you think, how can I?
How can I have something so seriously wrong
with me and not be ill?
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" So they give you this big x-ray to see whether it's lurking anywhere else.
And I just knew 'cos I'm a fagger, God, I've got lung cancer."
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"And I thought, do I really want to say goodbye now or am I going to fight
this? And I thought, I'm not saying goodbye. This isn't going to beat me.
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" I was sort of having a little cry. He said to me "What's the matter?" And
I said to him "I'm so scared of your reaction when I haven't got a breast
and I'm scarred, how you'd react, 'cos I want you to love me and I know you do,
but, not scarred."
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"I think the praying did make a difference. I think the energy is relevant.
The energy of praying, the energy of care of love and concern. I don't think
there's anything more powerful than love ..."
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My annual mammogram last week showed another small area of calcification
which has appeared since last time, a year ago. I was pretty shattered
and grateful to have dear Aimee's company.
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AN up-front documentary by award-winning
writer / director Gaylene Preston ("War Stories
Our Mother Never Told Us", "Punitive Damage"),
that looks at coping with the utterly destabilising nature
of life-threatening illness as she prompts a range of
women to to tell how they managed - and not managed.
New
Zeland women say:
"The film was excellent -
courageous, empowering , inspiring scary, thought-provoking"
"A deeply moving experience.
The ability of all the women to find friendship and
address devastating fear and loss with such honesty
and humour was inspirational. "
"Marvellous! A great mixture
of poetry and pragmatism. "
" Listening to their stories,
it's impossible not to be struck by how vitally necessary
such discourse is for theill nad howit is denied like contagion by
the well and the wannabe well. "
- Bill Gosden, Director NZ International
Film Festival
© Gaylene
Preston Productions
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