FILMMAKER
- GERRY ROGERS
Pleasant
Street is
Gerry Roger's second
film about cancer.
Her first, My
Left Breast documents
her own, very personal,
struggle with breast
cancer.
When she was diagnosed
in 1999 she looked
for a film about cancer
that would speak to
her own experience. "I
was afraid and ambivalent
about treatment,"
she says, "but
none of the films
I saw reflected that." So
Rogers set out to
create her own.
"Cancer
is the anti-thesis
of life," she
reflects. For her
the film was as an
act of defiance and
an opportunity to gain
some control over her
life. "I
filmed everything,
even myself at my weakest
and I was stripped
bare during the experience." She
learned that her vulnerability
was her greatest strength.
The result is a moving
film that has touched
many people deeply. My
Left Breast has
won over 20 awards
including two Geminis.
Rosie O'Donnell saw
it and invited Rogers
to be a guest on her
show. O'Donnell then
purchased one hundred
copies to distribute
among her friends. "Afterwards
I learned that the
world is a lovely place,
there are so many people
who want to connect," says
Rogers.
Listen
to an interview with
Shelagh Rogers with
Gerry Rogers, after
the release of My
Left Breast.  (20
min)
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Rogers
was in hospital undergoing
her second mastectomy
when she met Leida
Finlayson and Ken Hickey
who also
both lived on Pleasant
Street in St. John's
Newfoundland. "I
never intended to
make a second film
about cancer, we
just started filming
and the project grew
from there."
Rogers spent nearly
sixty hours filming
with Ken Hickey and
Leida Finlayson. "They
just kept giving
and giving, it was
a relationship that
was built on trust." The
films follows Ken
and Leida's journey
with cancer.
Unfortunately Leida
Finlayson
grew sicker and sicker
in front of the cameras
and died
in July 2003. "I
was not prepared for
that,"
says Rogers. "She
didn't want to die.
But she faced her death
and talked about it."
The most difficult
moment came when
she screened the
completed film with
Leida's parents.
"It
was so hard, everybody
was crying. But they
were proud of her and
they knew she would
have loved it."
GERRY ROGERS FILMOGRAPHY
Gerry Rogers began her film career
in 1982 at the National
Film Board's Studio
D in Montreal. In
1992 she returned
to her native Newfoundland
and founded Augusta
Productions.
Among
the many films she
has produced include
the internationally
award-winning To
a Safer Place.
Her directorial credits
include the NFB/CBC
co-production After
The Montreal Massacre,
the internationally
award winning Vienna
Tribunal, and Kathleen
Shannon: on film,
feminism, and other
dreams.
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