Review of Leave Them Laughing from UBC student newspaper

Carla Zilbersmith in Zaritsky’s Leave Them Laughing.

“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 filmmaking. ‘Musical comedy’ breaks all the rules.”

This man is John Zaritsky, an Academy award-winning Canadian director, and the ‘musical comedy’ that he is referring to is Leave Them Laughing, his latest documentary.

Leave Them Laughing is a hilarious, deeply moving and thought-provoking film about a woman coming to terms with her own mortality. It is based on a blog written by Carla Zilbersmith, a Canadian-Californian singer, actress and comedian who has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and given less than a year to live.

ALS is a fatal disease caused by the deterioration of the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement, causing the afflicted to suffer from muscle atrophy and weakness. Despite her condition and inevitable death, Carla continues to look for the funnier side of life, wanting to literally leave this world laughing.

“I have Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is also known as ALS,” Carla says in a scene in the beginning of the movie. “It’s a fatal and incurable illness, which means that global warming is your problem, bitches.”

Zaritsky discovered Carla after reading one of her quips about death in the “memorable quotes” section of the year-end edition of The Globe and Mail.

Fascinated by her attitude towards the fatal disease, Zaritsky found some clips of Carla’s skits on YouTube, read her blog (carlamuses.blogspot.com) and shortly after, called her up to suggest that they create a “funny, entertaining, yet still enlightening film about dying.”

Carla supported the idea, and arrangements to begin shooting the film were quickly made.

This redhead’s feisty personality and raunchy sense of humour is clearly depicted through her jokes about ALS, her international condom collection and her decision to abandon making a bucket list in favour of a “fuck-it list” of all the male celebrities she’d like to sleep with before she dies. Zaritsky hopes that the humour and music will draw the college crowd to the film.

“Young audiences love to laugh, they love good jokes, good humour, sharp humour, political humour, satire, impersonation, all of which Carla does in the film,” he explains.

However, the documentary does not shy away from depicting the very serious effects that ALS has on Carla’s life and on her family—specifically her teenage son Maclen and her father Jack. Leave Them Laughing features heart-breaking scenes where Carla describes her difficulty breathing, her struggle with losing her singing voice and her periodic depression. This depression also affects her son Maclen, driving home the stark realities of the illness.

All the same, Carla never fails to overcome whatever the disease throws into her path. Zaritsky says this was evident during the filming process, which was challenging to him as well due to the bond he forged with Carla. But as Zaritsky says, “She never failed to crack a joke and get us all laughing again, so that, even at the end of the worst days, she truly did, as the title of the film suggests, leave us laughing.”

Zaritsky has big ambitions for Leave Them Laughing. It is being entered into film festivals starting early next year, and is being given test screenings at colleges in BC and California. Zaritsky hopes younger generations will watch the film, not just for Carla’s outrageous antics, but for the inspiration and encouragement she gives.

“Carla provides us all with a model of how we can, at least, deal with some of the worst times of our lives, whether it’s dying or flunking out of college, or whatever it may be. She gives us some emotional perspective to deal with those things.”

The FilmSoc is having a test screening of Leave Them Laughing on Monday, November 23 at 6pm in the Norm Theatre. Director John Zaritsky will be present for Q&A after the showing.

Who is John Zaritsky?

Director John Zaritsky, born and educated in Ontario, came to BC in 2001 to make a documentary titled Ski Bums and decided to stay. For four years he taught a course in the UBC Film Production program in return for access to classes and activities on campus to shoot the 2004 reality series College Days, College Nights.

“That was the quid pro quo,” Zaritsky laughed, “I got access, and they wanted something in return.”

Zaritsky proudly points out that two former students of his have gone on to achieve success with 65_RedRoses, a documentary about a 23-year-old woman’s struggle with cystic fibrosis, which won three awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was recently featured on CBC Newsworld.

“My own dreams of teaching students who go on to produce great documentaries have been realized at last with these guys,” Zaritsky said.