TREVOR'S REVIEW

Film Title: Pink Ribbons, Inc.
Director:  Léa Poole

Studio/Distributor:  National Film Board of Canada

Running Time:  98 minutes  

Release Date: February 3^rd 2012

Reviewed By: Trevor Alberts

The NFB feature documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a great example of how documentaries can challenge traditional, or populist thinking.  As its title suggests, this movie tells the story of how the Pink Ribbon has turned into a big business. 

For those readers who have been living on an Antarctic ice flow for the past twenty years, the Pink Ribbon has become a symbol of breast cancer awareness.  Many millions of dollars have been raised all over the world, thanks to Pink Ribbon campaigns.  But as this documentary points out, many corporations are also making millions by associating their products and brands with the “fight against breast cancer.”

The film shows us how consumers obviously feel good when they think they’re contributing to a good cause; feelings that allow us to be manipulated into buying pink-coloured products from greedy corporations that may or may not care about finding a cure for breast cancer.

It’s a cynical concept, for sure, but certainly demonstrable.  One especially troubling story paints a grotesque picture of a company that simultaneously rides the Pink Ribbon bandwagon, while selling cancer treatment drugs as well as a chemical product that is a known carcinogen.

Moving beyond the ethics of profiting from the public’s desire to find a cure for such an unfortunately common problem, Pink Ribbons Inc. also explores the culture, or community, that has formed around the cause.  This is perhaps even more cynical; interviews of individuals who have breast cancer, and others who work in the field, offer a bleak outlook on finding an actual cure, and question the “tyranny of cheerfulness” that comes from unending messages of hope and cooperation.  These interviews can be challenging for viewers, the tone gets oppressively angry.  In fact, the interviewees solicit viewers to get angry about Breast Cancer, as a more effective form of therapy or motivation for finding a cure. 

Pink Ribbons Inc. covers a lot of ground, as this isn’t a simplistic discussion.  However, that makes for a long movie, which gets difficult to watch when you find yourself becoming depressed by the subject matter.  So my biggest criticism is that I would have liked to hear a little more from cancer patients who feel these breast cancer campaigns and events have social value for many cancer patients, survivors and their families.  After all, hope can be more powerful than anger when you want to organize a movement.  And it’s hope that convinces us to donate time and money for the cause – not our love of the colour pink.  No matter how much we’ve been manipulated, or how much money big business makes from pink products.

Kudos to the people behind Pink Ribbons Inc. for having the guts to cover this topic.  I appreciate the many ideas and warnings raised by this film, and I think it’s important for all of society to ask many questions about the industry of fundraising for a cure. 

KINDAH'S REVIEW

Film Title: Pink Ribbons, Inc.
Director:  Léa Poole

Studio/Distributor:  National Film Board of Canada

Running Time:  98 minutes 

Release Date: February 3^rd 2012

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey

Rarely does such a compelling Canadian documentary have the reach of being screened in thirty theatres across Canada, but so volatile and relevant is the subject matter of Pink Ribbons Inc. that it reaches audiences on a grand scale. I found this an unequivocally heroic effort by author Dr. Samantha King for her ability to discuss openly what was relegated to back door conversations. Her book Pink Ribbons Inc - Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy seems to have set off a revolution and the first part of that is a film Directed by Lea Pool that will draw the attention of millions of men and women (yep, men get it too) who have been undermined by a Cheshire Cat.

After all, how can the pink ribbons campaign to support Breast Cancer be harmful? Isn’t that another boundary line of cruelty to attacking people afflicted with this? Well, that may be the initial reaction, but Barbara Ehrenreich makes a powerful statement, one of the interviewees of the film and a published social critic, she speaks of her experience of having breast cancer and holding a teddy bear in a store that was marketed for the pink ribbon campaign and feeling infuriated at the condescension; it offended her sense of dignity. That is palatable in Pink Ribbons Inc. How would any of us like any life-threatening illness to be defined by pink ribbons, teddy bears and anything else passive aggressive? AIDS is represented by red ribbons – blood red – a more assertive statement decared against the illness.  

Pink Ribbons Inc. is designed to make us think outside of our comfort zone, or what we already know to be true. It not only analyzes but also has a great sense of empathy as to why the pink ribbons campaign is so popular. Often as a facilitator for families who feel attacked and helpless as bystanders, or women who feel that a walk would show their strength are commendable attributes of the pink ribbons campaign but as a measure of balance, Pool looks into where the funding actually goes. Enormous amounts of money goes into funding research and as one interviewee declared that they have still not come up with a better way to fight breast cancer then “slash, burn and poison”. Pool’s investigative nature even went so far as to follow the money from multiple fronts and often found a web of unanswered questions.

From a cinematic perspective the documentary isn’t perhaps as visually stunning as Sharkwater, another great Canadian documentary, Pink Ribbons Inc. is made up mostly of interviews, footage of walks and some clips, but definitely the content of this film rang true for me.

Pink Ribbons Inc. presents an interesting dichotomy that is pitted against what we have been told, what we know, and what we assume about the pink ribbon campaigns. It is great to feel you are helping a cause when you buy a pink tool set but we aren’t asking enough questions after that fact. This is a one-sided documentary but it did seem to reflect a muted voice that has finally found the opportunity to speak up, so it was refreshing to see so many unique perspectives from breast cancer patients and intellects who brought such noteworthy opinions to this film. Pink Ribbons Inc. is a fierce and unflinching look at how society can still be undermined by spin-doctors who are “capitalizing on hope”.

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Kindah