2009
Distributed by Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by The Kasia Project
Director n/a
DVD, color 61 min.
General Adult
Health Sciences
Reviewed by Kay Hogan Smith, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
Recommended
Date Entered: 4/13/2012
In her early forties Dr. Katherine (Kasia) Clark, received a diagnosis no woman wants to hear advanced ovarian cancer. This film project documenting her experiences over the ensuing nine years was undertaken as both a record of the journey to help others as well as a creative form of therapy. That the subject is tough is undeniably true, as demonstrated throughout her fierce struggle to live her life on her own terms, not just as a patient, and certainly not as a victim. She is very frank, however, about the challenges physical and emotional of dealing with this insidious and unpredictable cancer. Interspersed with footage of her commentary are interviews with family, friends, doctors and therapists. The fact that Clark is herself a family physician also adds an interesting twist, particularly in her embrace of complementary therapies as a patient. Ultimately this filmed journal plays like a battle between two dogged fighters Clark and cancer. Although the documentary ends inconclusively, the money is on Clark.
This would be a good film for ovarian cancer support groups or perhaps even gynecologic oncologists in training.