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
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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 [...] 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. “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 [...] 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 – [...] 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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