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 [...]]]>

“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 to do was revisit the terror and trauma of those days. I didn’t want to watch, against a backdrop of impersonal hospital wings, as somebody slowly disintegrated from both their own life and the lives of those around them.

Didn’t want to do it.

And my fears were not even remotely assuaged when my friend told me the movie was “hilarious.” No, in fact, this amplified my dread. I imagined a needy and unknown comic, somebody who never quite made it, now determined to exploit her own demise in a final spasm toward fame. I saw this person in my mind’s eye—up on stage, conspicuous and slightly demented, using the pity garnered from the audience, as the final, much needed and validating ego boost she’d sought her entire career.

Not. For. Me.

I saw the film anyway, and let me tell you, all of those preconceived anxieties of mine were completely blown away.

Leave Them Laughing is a touching, portrait of Carla Zilbersmith, who guides us into her final stages of the fatal disease ALS. Told with wisdom and humour. It’s an admirably restrained document, one that never begs for the love or sympathy of the audience, or descends into cloying sentimentality.

Much of the credit for this must be given to the Academy Award winning director, John Zaritsky. After reading about Zilbersmith in the Globe and Mail, Zaritsky visited her Blog, watched some of her performance pieces on YouTube and then called her to discuss the possibilities of making a movie. Almost immediately, as time was of the essence, they began to shoot the film. (listen to explanation in John’s own words at Hot Docs screening Q&A)

Zilbersmith, who lives in Berkeley, California, is a 46 year-old performer of ballads, comedy and self-parody, and somebody who much more than the rest of us, is completely capable of telling her own story, which she does with surprising wisdom and intelligence.

What I found so refreshing and unexpected about this film is that although the circumstance of her illness is the launching point, its not where we end up. The movie is about her. She’s a mother and a daughter, a singer and a comedienne, a sexually frustrated hedonist who’s pissed-off at her ex-husband, and a billion different other things, and although many of these things are influenced by ALS, they’re not defined by it.

There’s sunlight and joy in this movie, and although it’s a stretch to call it hilarious, it is funny and alive, and watching it feels more like spending time with somebody you wished was one of your good friends, than guiltily absorbing the misery of a stranger.

Maclean, Carla’s son and the love of her life, have an incredible chemistry . Between them exists a darkly jubilant interplay, and it’s touching and inspiring to watch as Carla tries to help her 16 year-old son grow up, and he, in turn, tries, in his way, to help her to leave hers. (insert mac’s audio)

The movie, which is stitched together with videos of Carla’s singing performances, comedic observations, interviews and snippets of her life and imagination, eventually forms a cohesive tapestry. We watch as Carla sings in jazz clubs, fully aware that with her diminishing strength, each time could be her last. We see her with her son, releasing helium balloons off the balcony, watching the “brilliant pins of colour vanishing into the sky,” We see the Out Of Order tattoos she got on each one of her feet, and we share in the astonishment of Zilbersmith, as she, so ironic and sophisticated, is touched by the simplest things.

In one such moment, she goes to Holy Land, a Christian theme park, where she plans to give a Valentine’s Day gift to the character that plays Jesus in the park’s daily flogging reenactment. It’s clear that she’s doing this as a satirist, intending to reveal the commercial artifice of the place in the face of her very real suffering. But nothing of the sort happens. As she gives her gifts to a girl clad in a period costume (who will pass it on to the Jesus actor), Carla adds that she’s dying of ALS, as a sort of comedic rim shot. Instead of awkward shock and discomfort, the girl exhibits grace, and with sincere tears trickling down her face, blesses Carla, reassuring her that she would soon be with Jesus. Carla had been expecting to find herself in control of this exchange, but in the face of the authenticity and profound empathy of the moment, found herself also in tears, immensely, profoundly moved by this simple, heartfelt and unexpected compassion.

The entire movie manages to confound expectations throughout. Just when we think we’ve found a safe distance from Carla’s reality, a feeling she might in fact be sharing, we experience her, and our, fleeting humanity with redoubled intensity.

After watching the movie I went to Carla’s Blog with the intention of, well, seeing if she was still alive, and if so, leaving a message to let her know how much I liked the movie. Quickly scanning the site, I saw that her last post was May 1st, and feeling confident that there would be future posts, hurried off to a meeting, thinking I would write her later.

Later, the director John Zaritsky told me that what I had seen was her final post, (listen to son, Mac, give reason for final post at Hot Docs screening Q&A) and that her health was so poor that her death was expected anytime, perhaps even before the premiere of her movie.

I don’t’ know, I don’t want to be too corny about this– as neither Carla nor the director ever got too melodramatic about her circumstance—but this struck me as acutely poignant, serving to remind me how urgent the world and our lives really are, and how essential it is to be present in the lives of those we love, and those who love us. (listen to son, Mac, tell us what Carla thinks of the film at Hot Docs screening Q&A)

http://www.filmbutton.com/mainpage/?p=1272

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 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 two unique films that were in the top ten audience favourites at the festival: Waste Land and Leave Them Laughing. The latter also won the Special Jury prize for Canadian Feature. Poignant and courageous these two films focus on the smaller everyday battles we wage against the hand that life has dealt us. 

Leave Them Laughing: Oscar award winning Canadian documentary director John Zaritsky takes us on a 90-minute journey into the life and oncoming death of Carla Zilbersmith. Once a vibrant performer, Carla has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and given two years left to live, however she is determined to suck every last drop of pleasure from life before she has to go. “‘Dead is the new alive.’ Now I know what you’re thinking: I was just being trendy. But trust me, it won’t be long before all of you start to follow my lead.” If you like dark comedy (as I do), then this is your film, it doesn’t get any darker than this. Created from interviews, footage from her final defiant travels to Mexico, the US and Britain, and flashbacks to her healthier days as a singer and comedian, the film centers around her and her son’s capacity for humour in the face of overwhelming tragedy. Just a year after the diagnosis, Carla’s body has noticeably deteriorated and so she has “Out of Order” tattooed onto her feet. This film isn’t as crushingly depressing as it sounds, nor does Carla pretend that dying is a laugh, instead the film eloquently points out when to cry and when to take things lightly, all the while reminding us to treasure the special days that come our way. Full of moments that are laugh out loud funny as well as those that will have you reaching for the tissue, it is a film that will most likely leave you reeling emotionally, not knowing what to do with yourself afterward. The answer is: live. Leaving behind this glorious film as a memento mori, Carla is currently teaching her parrot, who will outlive her, to say “This woman is dead.”

http://to411daily.com/2010/05/14/hot-docs-wrap-act-3-against-the-odds/

May 6 9:15pm – World Premiere – Isabel Bader Theatre 93 Charles St. W.

11:00pm – reception following screening Cafe 7 West – 7 Charles St. [...]]]>

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
9:15pm – World Premiere – Isabel Bader Theatre
93 Charles St. W.

11:00pm – reception following screening
Cafe 7 West – 7 Charles St. West – (main floor)

May 8th
3:15pm – Second Screening – Bloor Cinema
506 Bloor St. W.

5:00pm – reception following screening
Insomnia – 563 Bloor St., West – (back of room)

Tickets to attend screening available at www.hotdocs.ca. Only a few tickets remaining so get yours today!

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 – [...]]]>

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 – this comic-cum-singer does it like you’ve never seen before.

Her son Maclen (she divorced just after being diagnosed) supports her in inspiring ways, as does her team of girlfriends. The insurance companies – surprise – do not.

An emotional roller coaster of fabulous proportions.

NOW | April 29-May 6, 2010 | VOL 29 NO 35

Source URL: http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=174720

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 [...]]]>

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 this extraordinary woman is an entirely different issue. And there’s no time to do it like the present.

I first became familiar with Carla Zilbersmith and her music more than a year and a half ago. My initial contact was with her CD, Extraordinary Renditions. I thought it was one of the most impressive vocal jazz recordings of the year and reviewed it favorably.

A month later, in October 2008, I met Carla, when she gave a live performance in Los Angeles. This, too, was an utterly engaging effort from a singer and songwriter who brought musical insight, intelligence and interpretive believability to everything she sang.

It was also one of her Carla’s last performances. In December of 2007, she had been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) – also known as “Lou Gherig’s disease.” Which, she said, “sucks, because I hate baseball.”

“I’d really rather have been diagnosed with a basketball disease,” she told an audience shortly after receiving the diagnosis. “Maybe with Wilt Chamberlain Disease. That’s the one where you have sex 20,000 times and then you die.”

That kind of dark humor has characterized the way Carla, who is a writer, teacher and comedian as well as a singer — has dealt with the ALS over the past year and a half. Her blog, Carla Muses, has included a series of remarkable posts, filled with sardonic wit as well as explicit descriptions of the progress of the disease. Each post has been a stunning combination of sheer courage, outrageous humor and a passionate desire to let everyone know she was here. Late last year she was instrumental in creating a 2010 calendar titled “Always Looking Sexy” which featured sexy photos (including one of Carla ) of models with ALS, ranging in age from 23 to 69 – all of them enticing. Her latest blog entry is a pitch to sell more calendars (even though it’s April) via a film clip, created by Richard Ross, in which Hitler rants about the importance of the Calendar. It’s one more example of Carla’s extraordinary bravery under fire.

I urge every one to log on to her blog and read a collection of material that will amaze you and, hopefully, find its way into book form. http://carlamuses.blogspot.com/

Yesterday an email arrived from Carla’s friend, Kathy Sprague. “Carla’s energy level has continued to decrease,” she wrote. “She finds she’s better off when she spends most of her time in bed. In anticipation of her spending more time in her bedroom, her fabulous caregivers have strung up lights there and are decorating it with butterflies. The hospice nurse is most concerned with Carla’s diminishing ability to swallow and told us that she believes Carla has weeks as opposed to months. Carla wanted me to point out to everyone that she has beaten the odds before.”

I hope she does it again. The world is a much better place when a person like Carla is a part of it. But ALS has its inevitability. When asked how her friends would be informed of her passing, when it happened, she jokingly told Kathy Sprague that “she would put it out on her Facebook.” The real plan will be an email distribution to her friends which will include her own obituary, no doubt filled with her typical gallows humor.

When I received my first email from Carla, she described herself as the “jazz singer with ALS.” I wrote back, scolding her, saying her singing and her music stood on its own. We both were right, of course. The ALS was inescapable, and its progress soon made any further music-making impossible. But the singing she recorded while her skills were still in fine form is still available. And it should be heard by all who value pure talent. The title, again, is Extraordinary Renditions, and it’s available, along with others of her recordings, at CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon. A ninety minute documentary about Carla — Leave Them Laughing by John Zaritsky – will have its world premiere at Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto on May 6 and 8.

Two years ago, Manchester resident Jason Smith’s 45-year-old sister – jazz singer, actor, comedian, and mother Carla Zilbersmith – was diagnosed with ALS, a fatal and incurable disease that is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was told she had only a few [...]]]>

Saturday, April 10 at 8pm
Manchester Community Center, 40 Harbor’s Point, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.

Two years ago, Manchester resident Jason Smith’s 45-year-old sister – jazz singer, actor, comedian, and mother Carla Zilbersmith – was diagnosed with ALS, a fatal and incurable disease that is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was told she had only a few years to live, and that ALS would slowly rob her of the use of her arms and legs and the ability to sing, speak and breathe.  Her brilliant and creative mind, however, remains completely intact.

Here’s what our colorful Carla had to say about that:

“Having Lou Gehrig’s Disease sucks, because I hate baseball.
I’d much rather have been diagnosed with a basketball disease.
Maybe Wilt Chamberlain Disease.
That’s the one where you have sex 20,000 times and then you die.”

“Leave Them Laughing” follows Carla as she fights a war against ALS she cannot win. She holds on to life’s pleasures as long as possible, traveling in her final months of mobility to England and The Holy Land (not the Middle East, but a theme park in Central Florida), and to Mexico to swim with dolphins. When she can no longer walk, she has “Out of Order” tattooed on both feet.

At the heart of “Leave Them Laughing” are Carla’s compelling blog entries, read in her own faltering voice:

“I don’t want to live beyond a time
when I can’t breathe my own oxygen,
eat my own food and speak my own words.
I don’t want to dig my fingernails into this life,
clutching until I draw blood.
I DO want to go gentle into that good night.
Does that make me a coward or brave?”
 
“Leave Them Laughing” will be making its world premiere at Toronto’s HOT DOCS festival on May 6, 2010. HOT DOCS sent 3 films to the Oscars this year, including the winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary, “The Cove.” So Carla’s film is in great company.

We’re bringing “Leave Them Laughing” to our friends in the hopes that you can help complete the film for HOT DOCS. Increasing the resolution of the film to HD for wide release, securing music and image clearances, hiring a publicist…these outstanding tasks will cost about $30,000, and funds are needed.

Please join us on April 10 at 8pm for an inspiring evening about living life to its fullest. You will laugh. You will cry. You will be touched, and you may be even changed by this remarkable film.

As one viewer　of a recent fundraising screening remarked: “’Leave Them Laughing’ is a triumph of the spirit — a cold-turkey cure for self-pity and debilitating trivialities. And, with proper distribution and the enthusiastic reception it deserves, will increase awareness of ALS and those who so bravely live with it. And hopefully hasten a cure.”

Suggested donation: $20.

Donations are tax-deductible, by personal check or credit card at the screening.

Some final details: The film is 90 minutes long. Carla’s brother Jason will do a brief Q&A after the film. And popcorn will be served!

The Manchester Community Center seats 80 people, so RSVP at moirsmith@verizon.net today to reserve your seat.

Thanks to these organizations for getting the word about this fundraiser out:

ALS Family Charitable Foundation www.alsfamily.org

ALS Therapy Development Institute www.als.net

Can’t attend on April 10, but still want to help?

Make a tax-deductible contribution via PayPal or credit card to the film here: http://www.leavethemlaughingfilm.com/blog/donate/

Or send a check to the IDA (with “Leave Them Laughing’ in the subject line):

International Documentary Association
Attention: Fiscal Sponsorship Program
1201 West 5th Street, Suite M270
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Your contribution (no amount is too small!) towards reaching our $30,000 goal to finish “Leave Them Laughing,” is greatly appreciated.

Please forward this notice to all of your friends, and hopefully we’ll see you on April 10! For more information, please contact Allison at: moirsmith@verizon.net

Carla Zilbersmith in Zaritsky’s Leave Them Laughing.

by Gavin Fisher contributor

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

“My whole intention as a documentary filmmaker,” says the man sitting across from me, “was to do something totally unconventional, totally against all the classic kind of rules and traditional formats of documentary [...]]]>

John Zaritsky explores the lighter side of death

by Gavin Fisher
contributor

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009