| Breast Cancer Diaries, The |
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Linda  Pattillo77 minutes For ten years, Ann Murray Paige covered the news--but for the biggest story of her life she turned the camera on herself. When Murray-Paige, a former local news reporter and anchor, is diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 38, she sets up a diary camera in her bedroom. Ann’s video diaries—raw and true—offer an intimate chronicle of a young mother’s nine month journey with breast cancer, punctuated with humor, poignancy and romance. Along the way Ann—with characteristic wit-- challenges everything from drive-through mastectomies to how American society all too often defines a woman by her breasts. She ultimately decides against reconstructive surgery, despite her work as a newscaster in the appearance-obsessed field of local television news. The Breast Cancer Diaries is a chronicle of illness met with attitude, symbolized by the “Cancer Sucks” button that Ann pins on her shirt. Throughout it all there is humor: from a hospital flashing scene, to a young son’s attempt to heal his mother with a whoopee cushion. With video diaries and verite footage woven together, The Diaries is a real-time portrayal of the unique issues and juggling act that face the 1 in 7 women in the world who are diagnosed with breast cancer. Director Linda Pattillo, herself an award-winning former network news correspondent (ABC NEWS and CNN), spent 15 years covering wars across the globe. In The Diaries, she covers a far more intimate and personal battle—that of a young woman and mother facing a life threatening illness. The resulting documentary is an unfettered, unvarnished memoir of the year that changed one woman’s life. www.thebreastcancerdiaries.com Discovery Health Blog featuring Ann Murray Paige |
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