What They want for Christmas!!

Deborah Ogg and Leslie Bachant emailed me their Christmas wish this year and showed their support for the "All I want for Christmas" Fundraising Campaign.

"It is my Christmas wish for people to understand how powerful the mind can be, particulary when dealing with a life threatening illness. Carl Simonton , an adventurer in the area of psychoneuroimmunology, was a critical, imploring voice acting as a guide to many, including me, exploring the terrain and possibility in this area. It is imperative for the film about Carl's work to be finished because his brilliance would finally be honored. But even more important, there are millions of people who might be exposed to the possibility of the powerful intervention of the mind on the body, of the possibility of control rather than helplessness, of living well again.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for your dedication, love, and hard work. Where can we send the checks!!"

- Deborah Ogg

"Dr. Simonton's work is a rare, comprehensive approach (mind, body & spirit) to dealing with the challenges, and gifts, of a cancer diagnosis. This work taught me how to prioritize what's most important in my life; provided the tools and skills needed to live in peace and joy; and help me create dreams for a happy future. It's made a tremendous difference in the quality of my life, and that of my husband's, who was diagnosed with throat cancer as I was on my 2nd round of chemo. We are happier, healthier and enjoy a calm and peaceful life as a result of this work. My Christmas wish is that this vitally important documentary get finished so that others can experience the powerful benefits of this work and have hope for a fully present life in joy, despite cancer!"

Leslie Bachant
Metastatic Breast Cancer patient

Production is Complete!

Dear Friends,

I apologize for the lull in my blog activity, my last post was in June and it has been an action packed past 5 months, so let me update you. In June I began a documentary filmmaking class at UCLA that ran for 12 weeks, it was a wonderful experience and I met many talented documentarians. In July I got the much anticipated interview with David Spiegel up at Stanford. In August I flew to Montana for my third and final interview with Paul, one of the cancer patients I have been following since 2008. At the end of August I hopped on a plane to see Barbara Andersen at Ohio State to discuss her research with breast cancer patients. In September I spoke with Stephanie Matthews-Simonton at her home in Little Rock, Arkansas to capture the story of how the Simonton Cancer Center got started. At the end of September I flew up to San Francisco to interview Marty Rossman, as well as film my third and final interview with Leslie, another one of the patients I have been following for the past two and a half years. And somehow it is already November. With production seemingly finished I have been hard at work on post production, trying to organize, log and time-code all of the footage (we have about 80 hours). And unfortunately post-production is the most expensive part of this documentary so I am going to be starting a fundraising campaign in the next few weeks, and fight to the finish line!!

Thank you all for your interest and most of all for your support. I will be posting information on the fundraiser in the next few days so please keep checking in!

As I mentioned earlier we have about 80 hours of footage to create a 90 minute movie. That means the majority of this footage might never be seen, so I decided to broadcast little clips from interviews over the past 2 years. I am going to try and do this every week if possible. I am starting it off with Ed Gilbert's interview shot this past May in Texas. Enjoy.

We WON Members Choice for Citizens Alternative Media Proposal Contest!!!

We Won the Member's Choice Award!!!! I want to thank everyone who voted and showed their support. The prize for winning is $100 cash and a feature in their newsletter. It might not seem like a lot, but everything helps get us closer to our goal of completing the film and bringing it to as many people as we possibly can. Thank you for voting!!!

Summer Update

Happy first day of summer everyone! I thought today would be the perfect day for a summer update. So here is our status:
Production:
We are looking to finish all interviews by the beginning of fall 2010. Having the projected end so near is a very exciting thought since I have began work on this film in February of 2008. We have about 10 more interviews to get until we can call it a wrap.
Fundraising:
We are still trying to fundraiser, and we just applied to our first grant from CAMgrants - visit www.camgrants.org to check out our written proposal and a quick 2-minute teaser of the documentary. If any of you out there hear of exciting opportunities for grants or donations, please let us know.
Post Production:
Some more exciting news is that I just received my first little bit of "source footage" (footage taken of Dr. Simonton back in the day) from my Uncle Terry. It is an interview for the CBS morning show in 1992. It's pretty amazing and I am so thankful my Uncle retrieved it for me. If any of you out there following this blog have original footage of my Dad, or knows someone who might please contact me, this kind of footage will help this story come to life.

Well that is all for now, I hope you all have a wonderful summer!!!

Going back to where it all began

So I just got back from Texas where I was filming for two weeks. For those of you who might not know, Texas was the birthplace of the Simonton Cancer Center. I explored much of the giant state, visiting the very first retreat center in Fort Worth Texas, interviewing Dr. Simonton's very first colleagues and patients and discovering what a very special time this was for all involved in the work. Here are a few pictures from the trip, I hope you enjoy.

An old sign we saw on our drive from Dallas to Austin...

With Flint Sparks at his home in Austin

(Flint was one of the very first therapists ever trained by Dr. Simonton)

Chuck Holland in Justin, TX

With Jana Baird and Dottie Bishop

(Dottie has worked for the Simonton Cancer Center for about 40 years!)

From Left: Bill Swenson, Chuck Holland, Jane Hardwick

A big Shout Out to this amazing woman on my right, Jana Baird who dropped everything to make this trip possible, driving me all over Texas making sure I could make it to all of my interviews and opening up her home to me. Thank you JANA!!!! xoxox

All in All an extremely successful trip. About 70% of the way through production, hopefully we can wrap filming in the next 3-4 months!!!

Watch Our Most Recent Reel !!!!!

Watch some footage from the FUNDRAISER!!!