A Woman Like Me | |
---|---|
Directed by | Elizabeth Giamatti, Alex Sichel |
Written by | Alex Sichel, Melissa James Gibson |
Produced by | Elizabeth Giamatti, Alex Sichel, Christine Vachon |
Starring | Lili Taylor, Jonathan Cake, Maeve McGarth, Lynn Cohen, Clea Lewis, Frank Wood |
Edited by | Pola Rapaport, Ramsey Fendall |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
A Woman Like Me is a 2015 documentary directed by Elizabeth Giamatti and Alex Sichel. It runs parallel to the real-life story of Sichel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2011. The fictional story of Anna Seashell, played by Lili Taylor, is of a woman who is given the same diagnosis. The documentary follows Alex as she uses narrative film to show her journey through terminal illness as it surrounds her and her families life.
A Woman Like Me is a documentary about co-director Alex Sichel's navigation through having terminal breast cancer and how it has inspired her to try and embrace death as mentioned in Buddhist philosophy. The film is composed of home videos, one on one sit downs with Alex's family; husband, parents, sisters, doctors, and healers. Although a documentary, half of the movie shows Alex's current film project about Anna, a woman with the same diagnosis as Alex except she looks at the glass as half full. The film within the film recounts private conversations between Alex and her husband, Alex's dreams, and the alter-self, Anna, who is moving forward to face her fear of death. Sichel believes that making a movie about herself living with breast cancer can help her heal and accept what is happening to her.
The documentary side of the film shows Alex's doctor visits, the types of medications she is taking, and the alternative medicine healing practices she does with healers and shamans. Alex's family, although glad Alex is taking medicine from the "real" doctors, believe healers and the Buddhist philosophy of "going joyfully towards death" are not helpful and is just "magical thinking". Alex later learns that the tumor has grown larger so, she takes the opportunity to go to Greece and learn more about her family's history. The last scene of the film shows that Alex has lived another winter and is once again at the Buddhist silent retreat that she attends yearly. She mentions how her daughter's birthday is coming up so she needs to look forward with positive thoughts. [2] [3]
SXSW's Special Jury Prize for Directing [4]
Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian. She was one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980. In her routines on SNL, she specialized in parodies of television stereotypes, such as advice specialists and news anchors. In 1978, Radner won an Emmy Award for her performances on the show. She also portrayed those characters in her highly successful one-woman show on Broadway in 1979. Radner's SNL work established her as an iconic figure in the history of American comedy.
Marcia Lynne "Marcheline" Bertrand was an American actress who was the former wife of actor Jon Voight and the mother of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven.
Marsha Hunt is an American actress, novelist, singer and former model, who has lived mostly in Britain and Ireland. She achieved national fame when she appeared in London as Dionne in the long-running rock musical Hair. She enjoyed close relationships with Marc Bolan and Mick Jagger, who is the father of her only child, Karis Jagger.
Danielle Spencer is an American former actress and child star best known for her role as Dee Thomas on the ABC sitcom What's Happening!!, which ran from 1976 until 1979. She would later reprise the role on the series' sequel, What's Happening Now!!
American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy drama film written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. The film, which chronicles the life of comic book writer Harvey Pekar, is a hybrid production featuring live actors, documentary, and animation. It is based on the 1976–2008 comic book series of the same name written by Pekar and the 1994 graphic novel Our Cancer Year written by Pekar and Joyce Brabner. The film stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as Brabner. It also features appearances from Pekar and Brabner themselves, who discuss their lives, the comic books, and how it feels to be depicted onscreen by actors.
Barbara Ann Loden was an American actress and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes".
Marnie Schulenburg was an American actress who was known for her role as Alison Stewart on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns (2007–2010).
Crazy Sexy Cancer is a documentary film created by actress/photographer Kris Carr. The film premiered on March 11, 2007, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, and had its US television premiere on August 29, 2007, on TLC. The film was edited by Pagan Harleman and Brian Fassett. The music was composed by Matthew Puckett.
Merle Hoffman is an American journalist and activist.
Brittany Lauren Maynard was an American activist with terminal cancer who decided that she would end her own life "when the time seemed right." She was an advocate for the legalization of assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
Angela Denise Trimbur is an American actress, writer, dancer, choreographer, and former reality television participant.
Kristin Hallenga was a West German-born British columnist and philanthropist. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, when she was 23, she became an activist for raising awareness about the disease among young people and founded the charity CoppaFeel!.
Paulette Leaphart is an American woman who gained national attention through her self-advocacy as a breast cancer survivor and 1,000 mile walk for awareness.
Emily Ting is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She was born in Taipei, but later moved to Los Angeles with her family. Ting graduated from the film/TV program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her first feature-length film, Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, was released in 2015.
Unrest is a 2017 documentary film produced and directed by Jennifer Brea. The film tells the story of how Jennifer and her new husband faced an illness that struck Jennifer just before they married. Initially dismissed by doctors, she starts filming herself to document her illness and connects with others who are home- or bedbound with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME).
Teva Harrison was a Canadian-American writer and graphic artist. She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at age 37, and began to document her experiences with the terminal illness using illustrations and essays. Her works were compiled into a graphic memoir called In-Between Days. The book was a finalist for the 2016 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction, and put Harrison on the list of 16 Torontonians to Watch. Harrison won the 2016 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and was a finalist for the 2017 Joe Shuster Award for Cartoonist/Auteur.
End Game is a 2018 American short documentary film by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman about terminally ill patients in a San Francisco hospital meeting medical practitioners seeking to change the perception around life and death. The film was executive produced by Steven Ungerleider and Shoshana R. Ungerleider. It was released by Netflix.
Mary Rosanne Katzke is an American filmmaker, writer, and photographer known for Alaska-based documentaries bringing attention to various social and healthcare issues, including sexual assault, domestic violence, mental illness, homelessness, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and breast cancer. Since 1982, she has produced four dozen grant-funded documentaries through her nonprofit production company Affinityfilms.
ALion in the House is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert that explores the impact of childhood cancer on five different families throughout the span of six years in Ohio. The 225-minute long documentary, which took eight years to complete, follows the lives of cancer patients Justin Ashcraft, Al Fields, Alexandra Lougheed, Jen Moones, and Timothy Woods as they are treated at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Michele Lenore Frazier Baldwin, also known as Lady Ganga, was an American who set a world record in standup paddleboarding by paddling 700 miles (1,100 km) down the Ganges in India after being diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 2011. Her goal was to raise money and awareness for cervical cancer, human papillomavirus infection, and the HPV vaccine.