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 disease that draws us in rather than making us turn away. The subject is someone approaching death, but the film is about how to live. We admire it most for bringing us into an intimate relationship between a mother and son without feeling voyeuristic or manipulative.” Sponsored by the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation, the award features a $10,000 prize courtesy of the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation.
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My son, husband, and I watched the documentary movie, Leave Them Laughing, on Saturday May 8th, at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. All three of us felt that the poignant story of Carla is told in a manner, that captures the essence of what Carla would have wanted the audience to be left with, at the end of the movie and beyond.
The enormous sadness and struggle Carla and her son, her father, and her friends have to endure, faced with Carla’s losing battle with ALS, is devastating. There is no reason or rhyme, or fairness in life–no one is immune from unfair and undeserving tragedy. Yet, Carla deals with her fate focusing on the positive, and sharing her positive energy and sense of humor with her loved ones. Her relationship with her son is so endearing, rich and strong. This positive energy and sense of humor that never seem to end, are what protect the audience from sinking into deep sadness.
One criticism we have is the auditory quality of the movie; all through the movie, we strained our hearing due to lack of vocal clarity in the movie; we missed a significant proportion of the jokes and humor, which is a shame since Carla’s take on her life expressed by her jokes was a big part of the movie we were looking forward to listen to.
Thank you for reading my comment.
Jean – thank you so much for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the film! Your criticism of the sound is absolutely justified. The poor sound quality is due the fact that we’ve not had the funds to pay for sound lab work. The film still needs to be processed in a proper sound lab but that comes at a pricetag of $12,000 and it is money we simply don’t have available. The film also needs color correction to eliminate the ‘green halo’ Mac was joking about as well as various other things. LEAVE THEM LAUGHING has been accepted by the International Documentary Association for fiscal sponsorship which means that all donations quafily as a tax-deductible, charitable contributions (in the US). For details: http://www.leavethemlaughingfilm.com/blog/donate/ We are most grateful to all of our sponsors who have helped us to get this far. Hope you’ll consider making a donation to the film. Thanks!