In the Family is a documentary film about predicting breast and ovarian cancer, the consequences of knowing, and the women who live with the risk. Beginning with her story of testing positive for the familial breast cancer mutation (BRCA), Filmmaker Joanna Rudnick chronicles the lives of several women currently undergoing the process of genetic testing – following them from their decision to seek testing, through the testing process, and in the aftermath when they are coming to terms with the information they receive. These stories of the first generation of women to live with the knowledge that they are predisposed to a life-threatening disease will teach us what it means to survive a diagnosis of high risk without being consumed or defined by it. They will help us to understand the psychological, legal, ethical, cultural and social complexities of genetic testing for a mutation, which affects the entire family, for which there is no cure, and wherein the only treatments currently available involve enormous quality-of-life sacrifices. Visit official site
83 minutes
"A very different picture of the Middle East and of disability"
March 12, 2010
Kartemquin's Joanna Rudnick is filming in Qatar for her current production, On Beauty. We wanted to share her latest dispatch from the Middle East:
Friday, March 12, 2010
In the early morning sunshine, our cameraman Chris Booker jumped on a skateboard and chased the seven-year-old Ghanem, who is missing much of his back bone and has no use of his undeveloped legs , as he skated on his own board whizzing past onlookers in awe. This was followed up by a group of medical students at Weil Cornell Medical College in Doha all riding bikes, skateboards, and little makeshift "cars" in front of the medical school building as Ghanem (which translates to "the winner" in Arabic) and his twin brother Achmed raced each other in the middle. Ghanem's mother even got into a dune buggy and sped off in her abaya and hijab with Chris behind her in motion. A very different picture of the Middle East and of "disability."
Joanna Rudnick's previous film as director, In the Family, screens at Northwestern University-Qatar on March 16th. Get more information.
"If the measure of a good film is that you're still thinking about it days later, then In the Family is the best movie I've seen all year."
—Sommer Mathis, DCist.com
Emmy Awards – Nominee - Outstanding Informational Long Form Programming, 2009
Silver Docs Film Festival – Nominee: WGA West Best Documentary Screenplay, 2008
Silverdocs Film Festival – In Competition, 2008
Midwest Independent Film Festival – Best Editing, 2008