Brain Injury Film Festival

Fraser Health’s Acquired Brain Injury Program and Douglas College are partnering to present an innovative film festival to raise awareness of acquired brain injuries. An invisible epidemic

Brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in people under the age of 45. The majority of deaths and disabilities linked to traumatic brain injuries are caused by car accidents, but sports such as snowboarding and skateboarding also contribute a significant number.

Not surprisingly, young men, who often view themselves as invincible, are hit the hardest. Recovery from an acquired bran injury is often a long and very difficult process and in many cases full recovery is not achievable.

Film festival event

Four films will highlight some of the remarkable struggles that many brain-injured people face in order to live meaningful lives.

• Dates: Four consecutive Monday nights beginning June 6, 2011
• Cost: Free event, on a first-come, first-served basis
• Location: Lecture Room 2201, Douglas College, 700 Royal Avenue, New Westminster
• Time: All films start at 7 p.m.
• An expert in the field of brain injury and mental health will introduce each film and a question-and-answer session will follow.

Documentary Feature: Director Jeff Malmberg

After being beaten literally to death and revived by paramedics, Mark Hogancamp was brain damaged and unable to afford therapy.  He decided to create his own and built a 1/6-scale World War II-era town in his backyard.  He populated it with dolls representing his friends, family and even his attackers.  After a few years Mark started documenting the miniature dramas with his camera.  When his stunningly realistic photos were discovered and published, his homemade therapy was suddenly “art” and Mark was forced to make a choice between the safety of his fictional town and the real world he had avoided since his attack. 

Marwencol will be moderated by John Higenbottam, a clinical psychologist and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Douglas College, as well as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC.  Higenbottam has been involved in executive capacities with numerous local and national health care- and rehabilitation-oriented organizations.  His major clinical and research interests are in developing, implementing and evaluating effective recovery-oriented mental health systems and services.

June 13, 2011- Shameless: The Art of DisabilityNational Film Board
Documentary Feature:  Director, Bonnie Sherr Klein

Shameless: The Art of Disability is a provocative film that challenges the stereotype of disability as a tragedy.  It also questions what “community” means to people with disabilities.  Shameless examines the lives of five successful artists – poet and writer, and human rights activist Catherine Frazee, humourist David Roche, dancer and choreographer Geoff McMurchy, writer and artist Persimmon Blackbridge, and the filmmaker herself, Bonnie Sherr Klein.

Director Sherr Klein is one of the National Film Board’s most popular and prolific directors and producers.  She made over 80 films, including the NFB’s most successful film, the anti-pornography documentary Not a Love Story.  In 1987 she survived two catastrophic brain-stem strokes which left her initially locked in – unable to communicate in any way.  After years of intensive therapy, Sherr Klein remains quadriplegic and scooter-dependant but a vibrant force for change.  She co-founded the Society for Disability Arts and Culture, which produced Canada’s landmark KickstART Festival for Disability Art and Culture. She also co-authored with Persimmon Blackbridge the moving account of her own recovery, Slow Dance:  A Story of Stroke, Love and Disability. 

Shameless will be moderated by Dr. Robert Stowe, a film buff and behavioural neurologist with Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health and UBC Neuropsychiatry Program. Stowe has extensive experience running neuropsychiatry units, including the acute unit at Riverview, and is the consultant to the Acquired Brain Injury Program.

June 20, 2011- Wipeout!Knowledge Network/NFB
Documentary Feature:  Director Lionel Goddard

Extreme sports are more popular than ever, and part of the allure, especially for young men, is the danger.  Wipeout! profiles three BC men who have had their lives profoundly changed by traumatic head injuries suffered while amped on adrenaline.  Mixed with graphic sports injury footage, are exceptional insights into the effects of brain injuries on the lives of these young men as they bravely, and even defiantly, struggle to regain what they have lost. 

Wipeout! will be moderated by occupational therapist Heather MacNeill, who runs Fraser Health’s Concussion Clinic, and physiotherapist Anne Tulloch of Fraser Health’s Acquired Brain Injury Services.  MacNeill and Tulloch will talk about the rehabilitation process as well as safety and compensatory strategies.
 
June 27, 2011- The LookoutMiramax Feature Film: Writer/Director, Scott Frank

The Lookout has it all – Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the best performance of his career as Chris Pratt, the brain-injured former risk taker and high school stud; Matthew Goode as a convincingly manipulative crook; and Isla Fisher as his disarmingly sexy accomplice.  The writing is brilliant and absorbing, providing a genuinely accurate picture of someone struggling to relearn life skills after a tragic car accident.  At the same time it’s a heist flick with a generous dollop of humour, provided by Jeff Daniels in his role as Chris’s blind older roommate.  Chris yearns for greater independence and power over his own life, which makes him the perfect patsy for a ruthless gang intent on robbing the bank where he is the night janitor. 

The Lookout will be moderated by Mitch Loreth, a long-time friend and advocate for people with disabilities and their families.  Loreth works as a social service program consultant and evaluator.  His most recent role is as the project lead for the Pacific Coast Brain Injury Conference Society’s new online education and social networking site www.Brainstreams.ca