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We are pleased to announce that LEAVE THEM LAUGHING will be screening at the Calgary International Film Festival on Sunday, September 26 at 12:30PM at the ‘Eau Claire Market – Cineplex Odeon – #2. Attend if you can. Otherwise, tell all your friends and please help us spread the word! http://www.calgaryfilm.com/2010/schedule/film/1432/ “Leave Them Laughing. It’s a documentary about a stand-up comic who’s dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease.” I think I sighed. “But it’s supposed to be absolutely hilarious!” he quickly added. This, I knew, was a movie I absolutely did not want to see. Like a lot of people, I’ve had some medical miseries, and the last thing I wanted [...]
The 2010 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival ended with a weekend full of awards presentations to the top films and film makers this year. Many of these awards come with cash prizes that help both seasoned and emerging filmmakers continue to create the work that moves us. Among the films honoured this year were [...] The Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature was presented to Vancouver-based Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Zaritsky for LEAVE THEM LAUGHING (P: Montana Berg, Canada/USA), which follows mother, performer, and darkly funny smart-ass Carla Zilbersmith in her battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Jury statement: “The Special Jury Prize goes to a film about an unimaginably horrifying [...] Please join us for the World Premiere of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING in Toronto at Hot Docs (North America’s biggest international documentary film festival) followed by a reception (cash bar). Everyone is welcome! May 6 11:00pm – reception following screening This is one of those films that sounds like a drag but winds up being poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. Carla Zilbersmith has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and is determined to make the most of the few years she has left. She also simply will not stop laughing about it. Talk about dark humour – [...] “We’re here for a good time (not a long time)” is the awesome Trooper song that accompanies one of the most vibrant scenes of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING – and how appropriate it is! Grand Prizes: Here, There & Everywhere: Carla Zilbersmith April 6, 2010 http://irom.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/here-there-everywhere-carla-zilbersmith/ I’ve written dozens of obituaries for the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, some for close friends. No one, however, will write a better obituary for Carla Zilbersmith, who is experiencing the advanced stages of ALS, than she will do for herself. But an appreciation of the work of [...] I believe that many of the negative stereotypes of the disabled come from what the general public sees on their TV sets and in the movies. Often, news reports about someone with a disability paint them as either helpless and needy or as courageous and heroic. And the most unfortunate part is that these stereotypes [...] |
   Once a nationally-known performer of ballads, skits and self-parody, now fated by Lou Gehrig’s Disease to perish within months, the remarkable Carla Zilbersmith was diagnosed in 2007 and given less than four years to live. She will leave a teen-aged son, a few fans and students who adore her, and this 90-minute pre-mortem retrospective of a life lived fully, but far too fast. »More about "Leave Them Laughing"
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