Revealing documentary takes a hard, unflinching look at pink ribbon culture
PINK RIBBONS, INC. (Léa Pool, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Opens Friday, June 1
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
firstrunfeatures.com/pinkribbonsinc
“What’s going on here? What is it with all these pink ribbons everywhere?” activist and writer Barbara Ehrenreich says at the beginning of Canadian director Léa Pool’s revelatory documentary, Pink Ribbons, Inc. “I think the effect of the whole pink ribbon culture was to drain and deflect the kind of militancy we had as women who were appalled to have a disease that is epidemic and yet that we don’t know the cause of.” Inspired by Samantha King’s 2006 book Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy, Pool’s film explores the breast cancer culture that celebrates survivorship through feel-good cause-marketing events while tens of thousands of American women continue to die from the disease every year. Pool speaks with such experts as King, Judy Brady of Greenaction, Barbara A. Brenner of Breast Cancer Action, Dr. Marion Kavanaugh-Lynch of the California Breast Cancer Research Program, Dr. Susan Love of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, and Dr. Olufunmilayo L. Olopade of the University of Chicago Medical Center, who discuss how despite all the money raised by running, walking, jumping, and racing for the cure, breast cancer is still a deadly disease that should be taken a lot more seriously and dealt with more honestly. Pool also talks to Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder Nancy G. Brinker (who recently found herself immersed in a battle over Planned Parenthood funding), “the mother of cause marketing” Carol Cone of Edelman Purpose, Dr. Marc Hurlbert of the Avon Foundation for Women and the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, Breast Cancer Research Foundation founder Evelyn H. Lauder of the Estée Lauder Companies, Kim McInerney of Ford Motor Company, and others who sponsor products and events that raise money and awareness — even though some arguably participate in pink-washing, manufacturing and selling items that might be linked to causing cancer. Pool visits the Revlon Run/Walk for Women in New York, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Washington, DC, the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in San Francisco, and the Pharmaprix Weekend to End Women’s Cancers in Montreal, where pink-clad women (and men) are vibrant and happy, but it’s the IV League of Austin, a group of women with stage four metastatic breast cancer, that might provide the most truthful assessment of the disease, explaining that succumbing to breast cancer “is not a failure. You can die in a perfectly healed state.” Pink Ribbons, Inc. is not afraid to look at the pervading, popular breast cancer culture and tackle it head-on in ways that are illuminating, educational, and, surprisingly, life-affirming.