Pink Ribbons, Inc.: The Movie

This film looks excellent. I am a documentary junkie and can't wait to see this.
Here is a link to a preview of the movie.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/pink_ribbons_inc_used_for_profit/

Sorry but I don't know how to get a hyperlink on here so you'll have to copy and paste it.

Cheers
Beth

(edited by Mods to make the link clickable)

...avoiding it like the plague. Can't bear to watch a doc about how f'd up the BC "industry" has become.

I saw it Saturday at DC FIlmfest followed by a Q&A with the producer

It's defintiely worth seeing. It's on the film festival route through the end of May.  It will start in theatres in New York and Los Angeles and start in other cities later.  Mostly in theaters that generally show documentries.  Here's a link to  the current play dates:

http://firstrunfeatures.com/pinkribbons_playdates.html 

PBS turned the documentary down.  

 I was suprised that it didn't show the percentages of where money went that collected by different events.  The producer said that they had tried for two years to get the  information and  didn't have the resulrces to uncover it and the  film's lawyers had issues with that direction.

What was interesting was that the main focus of the research is on treatment rather than prevention and that drug companies are the major sponsors.  The first breast cancer awareness week was sponsored by a pharmaceutical  firm.  

A stage four support from Austin Texas  spoke out in the film as well.  They are very forceful in bringing their experience  forward.

I know understand "pink washing"  -- it's firms having high profile breast cancer sponsorship while using  carcingens in their products or exposing their employees.  One bright note -- Yoplait stopped using milk for cows given human growth hormone after an email campaign form activists.

I'm  glad I saw it. 

Painterly,

There were definitely  men in the audience.  The guy sitting next me  was a stay at home dad whose mother and grandmother had breast cancer -- he's worried for his daughters and had signed up for the Komen 3-Day.  He wanted to know more about the diease and I told him about bco.

I'd say there were about 15% percent male audience if that helps any.  

I think he'll be glad he came with you. 

I saw the film on Tuesday, and it is a definite must-see.  As an activist and a filmmaker, I thought it was pretty well-done. I had a few issues with it here and there but certainly ride with its overall intention and core message. This is based on the book by the same name by Samantha King (who is in the film as those of you who saw it know) which I have on my list to read. Right now I'm reading PINK RIBBON BLUES by medical sociologist Gayle Sulik. Anyone else read either of these? 

CityFi: I'm reading "Pink Ribbons, Inc" in hardcover and "Pink Ribbon Blues" on my iPad right now. Both are great and I can't wait to see the film. Have you gone to Gayle Sulik's website and read through her blog? Very interesting!

I am having trouble finding a place to see it!  It was screened at the Sarasota Film Festival but I was out of town.  I have added it to my Netflix queue but the release date is currently still unavailable.

Megadotz... that link doesn't work for me - would you mind please resending.

Thanks

Thanks Mega - first one worked for me

I cannot find where it is playing locally either.  As it was out in 2011 I am going to see if I an find it in a video store (do the still exist??).

megadotz - thanks for the link.  I will be in DC to participate in a vaccine trial in the next couple of weeks so may be able to see it there, I believe it is there now.  Otherwise I will have to wait for it on DVD.  It was in FL in April, but I was in California.  I am wondering if PBS rejected it due to financial or international film rights issues, rather than content issues. 

The DVD has a release date of September 25th on Amazon. I can't wait to see it. The official trailer on YouTube looks great.

I thought the stage 4 group was powerful, the rest of the film I thought was weak.

The thesis is not my issue, but I thought the writing and shooting was kind of lazy. There was a lot of tell not show. They worked hard to make a walk look sinister.

I am not saying there are not BIG problems with pink ribbon marketing, but there was a lack of well crafted filmaking through much of it. The MBC  ladies were the exception.

Breast Cancer Action

The above is a link to a a simple form to fill out letting your own elected state officials know we want action.  This is Breast Cancer Actions statement:   After three decades of “awareness” campaigns and billions of dollars raised, breast cancer remains a public health crisis of epidemic proportions. It is time to demand that our elected officials take bold, meaningful action for breast cancer prevention and better breast cancer treatments through independent research and strong regulation. Take action today and ask your elected officials to publicly endorse the 2012 Breast Cancer Action Mandate for Government Action. 

TheDivineMrsM, in fairness to the filmmakers, my guess is that even though they have a definitive point of view, they had to give the people they're critiquing air time. When a documentary filmmaker doesn't do that, they get reemed for being propaganda, biased, etc.  I think they were hoping that by allowing the "opponents" a chance to have their say and be authentically who they are, the discerning viewer would see that there's not much there but publicist-crafted spin. In particular, Nancy Brinker and the spokesperson for Ford gave incredibly superficial responses in my book. I think with the inclusion of Samantha King, Susan Love, BCA and Barbara Ehenreich, the amount of time they're given and where they're placed in relation to the pink-ribbon stalwards, it was clear (to me at least) where the filmmakers actually stand even as they gave the opposing side a chance to respond... as they should have. They had to. If they didn't, they would lose credibility and be dismissed. 

I do wonder if they tried to get KFC and YoPlait to respond though since they were specifically called out. It wouldn't suprise me one bit if they tried and were ignored!