About Her

We are currently in the process of turning About Her, our short film that debuted at last year’s Breast Fest, into a feature length documentary. Phyllis Ellis is the director of both films.

A shot from the About Her Trailer at the 2009
Breast Fest Film Festival

About Her began as a short film project commissioned by Rethink Breast Cancer. The original concept was to interview several young women who were experiencing breast cancer. When I began this project, I knew very little about breast cancer, but it had touched my life through friends and family over the years. I thought there was one type of breast cancer that affected women and some men. If your mother had it, you should get a mammogram annually and examine your breasts regularly. Not that I did, but I understood that I should.

After my experience over a period of months with these young women whose lives had been completely altered by this aggressive cancer, I learned many things. There are many different kinds of breast cancer, and in many of the diagnosis there is no link to genetics. In every case, mammograms did not identify the tumor. I learned that young women just starting their lives and families can get aggressive breast cancer.

As a filmmaker, aside from the journey into the medical world – from discovery through diagnosis, treatment, and (with hope) complete recovery – I was witness not only to the trauma and fear but to the remarkable resilience and fight of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

The original intention was to spend days in their lives and ‘document’ in real time their experiences. The initial interview with Lisa Rendal, a woman who has been living with metastatic breast cancer for 9 years, altered the course of the film and sent my creative approach in a completely new direction. Through Lisa, I realized the power of a simply told story, without reams of coverage and b roll. I saw through the lens, her eyes, her body and her feelings and as I sat for hours on end, was riveted simply by her words, the emotion that flowed freely and the intimacy of our conversation. I decided then to keep the visuals limited to these interviews, to the moments of break through and the stories these women tell often for the first time.

And this is how I discovered the connection, the through line story, one story, nine lives. One of the most amazing moments in each interview is when the subjects tell me they have never spoken about their feelings in this way, it inspires me and I feel honoured to know these women.

Phyllis Ellis,
Director, About HerClick here to watch the short film