Interview with Director John Zaritsky

To learn more about the background of LEAVE THEM LAUGING, take a look at an interview from the Whistler Film Festival:

http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=3129

Review by Hilde Krogenes who attended the screening at Bergen International Film Festival in Norway

 

It was great! I guess there were about 50 people in the audience, but the film was screened in one of the smaller theatres, so it felt quite crowded. Most people there were young, looked like students… and then a few mature women like me… and some couples. So I was a little worried that [...]

Leave Them Laughing in Globe & Mail top 10 to watch at Vancouver International Film Festival

Some very good news:

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, has selected Leave Them Laughing as one of 10 films its readers should see at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Considering there are about 375 films screening at the festival, it’s quite an honour to be in the top 10.

Review of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING by Michael Murray for FILMbutton.com

“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 [...]

TO411 documentary review of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING by staff writer Daisy Maclean

 

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 [...]

Endoresement of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING by ALS Society of Ontario

The magic of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING is not only in the story itself but in the way it is told. Living with ALS is often times a topic mainstream media hesitate to touch – it’s too depressing is the common reply. Usually that statement is true, unless you find those with a spirit to outshine [...]

Leave them Laughing wins Special Jury Award at Hot Docs (North America’s biggest International Documentary Film Festival)

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 [...]

Latest Review of LEAVE THEM LAUGHING by Susan G. Cole (NOW – Toronto)

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 – [...]

Leave Them Laughing features lots of Carla’s beautiful music. Reviewed by Don Heckman, The International Review of Music

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 [...]

Why Leave Them Laughing is important to the disabled community (by Jim LeBrecht, Berkeley Sound Artists)

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 [...]