ATTN: PRESS-WE HAVE PHOTOS AND SCREENERS, AND WE CAN CHECK ON GETTING INTERVIEW INFO WITH FILMMAKER. THIS FILM IS AN IMPORTANT ALTERNATIVE MESSAGE AS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH COMES IN OCTOBER!

+++

No Festival Required and First Run Features presents:

“Pink Ribbon, Inc.” a film by Lea Pool

Saturday September 22 2012 7pm-doors at 6:30

Third Street Theater at Phoenix Center for the Arts

1202 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix AZ

Admission $6.00 at the door

WEBSITE-http://www.nfb.ca/playlist/pink_ribbons_inc/

TRAILER-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QPZfcYTUaA

“We used to march in the streets; now we run for a cure.” Barbara Ehrenreich, author and social critic.
 
Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve?
 
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Léa Pool, and produced and executive produced by Ravida Din for the National Film Board of Canada, PINK RIBBONS, INC. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a "dream cause," has been hijacked by a shiny, pink story of success.

+++

SYNPOPSIS

The ubiquitous pink ribbons of breast cancer philanthropy - and the hand-in-hand marketing of brands and products associated with that philanthropy — permeates our culture, providing assurance that we are engaged in a successful battle against this insidious disease. But the campaign obscures the reality and facts of breast cancer – more and more women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and face the same treatment options they did 40 years ago. Yet women are also the most influential market group, buying 80 percent of consumer products and making most major household purchasing decisions. So then who really benefits from the pink ribbon campaigns — the cause or the company? And what if the very companies and products that profit from their association have actually contributed to the problem?

In showing the real story of breast cancer and the lives of those who fight it, Pink Ribbons, Inc. reveals the co-opting of what marketing experts have labeled a "dream cause."

+++++++++++++

FROM FILM DISTRIBUTOR

Who really benefits from the pink ribbon campaigns - the cause or the companies?

Directed by veteran filmmaker Lea Pool for the National Film Board of Canada, Pink Ribbons, Inc. examines the ubiquitous pink ribbon campaigns for breast cancer. The film looks at how the breast cancer movement has moved from activism to consumerism and challenges viewers to rethink their assumptions about the meaning of breast cancer in our society.

The film is inspired by the book Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy by Dr. Samantha King, who is interviewed in the film along with activists and medical experts like Barbara A. Brenner, Dr. Charlene Elliott, Barbara Ehrenreich and Dr. Susan Love. Also featured are candid personal discussions among women living with breast cancer, as well as interviews with the leading players in breast cancer fundraising, including the director of the recently embattled Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Nancy Goodman Brinker.

Pink Ribbons, Inc. reveals how breast cancer fundraising may boost corporate profits and brand awareness more than it benefits people with the disease. After all, despite the millions of dollars raised each year for the cause, breast cancer rates are rising, prevention is vastly underfunded and, over the decades, we've seen only incremental improvements in chemotherapy and surgery treatments. Even worse, the film suggests that some of same companies profiting from pink marketing campaigns may actually be contributing to the breast cancer epidemic by selling known carcinogens.

Director Léa Pool hopes the film will encourage people "to be more critical and more politically conscious about our actions and to stop thinking that by buying pink toilet paper we're doing what needs to be done." She adds, "I don't want to say that we absolutely shouldn't be raising money. We are just saying, 'Think before you pink.'"

Léa Pool's highly personal and emotional vision has singled her out as one Canada's great filmmakers. In 1979, Strass Café launched a career that was to bring us great productions such as La femme de l'hôtel, Anne Trister, À corps perdu, La demoiselle sauvage, and Mouvements du désir, which garnered eight Genie Award nominations. Emporte-moi won several awards including the Berlin Festival Ecumenical Jury Special Award; and Lost and Delirious was shown at many festivals. The Blue Butterfly (starring William Hurt) was Léa Pool's first foray into making a family movie. More recently she directed Maman est chez le coiffeur and La dernière fugue based on Gil Courtemanche’s novel. She has also directed several documentaries for television such as Gabrielle Roy, winner of a Gémaux award for best documentary. Léa Pool's impact on the seventh art can be measured by the many tributes and retrospectives of her work that have been held around the world since 1989. In 2006 she won the prestigious Albert-Tessier Award and in 1994 she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France.

+++++++

Reviews

"this intriguing doc [that] will have you talking long after the lights come up." - Linda Barnard, Toronto Star

"there are plenty of women who'll want to see it. And they'll be seeing red, not pink." - John Anderson, Variety

"...uncannily prescient and enduringly timely. Everyone needs to see Pink Ribbons, Inc." - The Washington Post

-- 
Steve Weiss
Executive Director, No Festival Required Independent Cinema
602-265-9524 http://www.nofestivalrequired.com
Since 2002, screening thoughtful and provocative moving pictures!