Coming to theatres this Friday, June 1: PINK RIBBONS, INC
Léa Pool’s exposé of the breast cancer industry premiered in Toronto last year. It has been screening at numerous festivals since, including Sarasota and Nashville, leading up to its release this week, and expanding through July.
Early in Pool’s film, a commentator notes: “We used to march in the street; now we run for a cure.” This observation succinctly encapsulates the film’s basic thesis – the industry and culture that has been developed around breast cancer has served to redirect anger and outrage that once fed into direct activism into an at times simplistic, pink-colored, positive-spin campaign that is in many ways a profit-driven corporate endeavor. Among the surprises here for viewers who may not be up on their breast cancer history is the fact that the ubiquitous pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness actually started out as more of an orange ribbon, changing hue via focus group test marketing only after its originator refused to have her symbol co-opted by corporate interests; or that breast cancer awareness month was developed by a pharmaceutical company that directly benefits from increased diagnoses of the disease. To her credit, Pool gives space in her film not only to those convincingly arguing against the disturbing marriage of philanthropy, corporate interests, and “cause marketing,” but to representatives from a wide range of breast cancer industry foundations, organizations, and corporations, including the Susan G Komen Foundation, most recently at the center of a huge controversy around their relationship to Planned Parenthood. While the film is certainly not impartial – nor does it need to be – it neither paints these pink ribbon-waving groups as pure villains; while big questions loom over their practices and priorities – working with corporations whose products and policies likely contribute to the spread of cancerous agents, focusing on pharmaceutical treatments rather than prevention – it’s clear that many of the speakers believe in their missions. While that may be the case, Pool’s film offers powerful voices of dissent that should encourage critical thinking in a culture that too easily embraces quick-fixes and feel-good symbols.
what (not) to doc 