Cancer Film Festival Call for True Stories About Cancer

Reel Lives The Cancer Chronicles Film Festival

Call for entries. Deadline: May 1, 2008.

The festival is an opportunity for people who have been touched by cancer to tell their story through the medium of film and to have their voices heard. It seeks to shatter the taboos and myths surrounding cancer, educate and enlighten, bridge cultural divides, and help unite the global cancer community.

Reel Lives: The Cancer Chronicles Film Festival will be held on 28-30 August 2008,during the World Cancer Congress in Geneva , Switzerland , culminating in an awards ceremony. The awards will celebrate films that are thought-provoking, educational and inspirational.

Winners will also be acknowledged at the closing ceremony of the congress on 31 August 2008.

Who can take part?

The competition is open to cancer non-profit associations; patient groups and advocacy organizations; cancer, research and medical centres; amateur and professional filmmakers; and film school students.

Deadline for entries: 1 May 2008

For more information visit http://www.reellives.org

Mental Health Art Exhibition, Framing the Phoenix, Call for Artists, London, Ontario

(click for larger poster and full information) Framing the Phoenix

Call for Artists

This from the CMHA London-Middlesex;

This annual event in London, Ontario is very exciting and inspiring to those of us who are impacted by mental health and addictions. It is a deeply moving and often joyful event that takes many months of preparation. Now, it's time for you to highlight your gifts by preparing or putting those final touches on a submission for this annual art show.

Please see the poster above (click for enlarged version) for guidelines and note that the DROP OFF DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS APRIL 30, 2008 from 2 to 5 pm at RMHC, London.

Spread the word! We welcome submissions from anyone who has been touched by mental health issues, mental illness and addictions. This includes those of us who have experienced or continue to have these experiences, as well as family, friends and professionals. We know that we have all been touched by this in so many different ways and this is an opportunity to highlight this experience during Mental Health Week.

Trix VanEgmond
Team Leader, Public Education
CMHA, London-Middlesex
http://www.london.cmha.ca/

The Mental Health Public Education and Bereavement Program for Survivors of Suicide is funded by the United Way of London and Middlesex.

See "Emerging Into Light" a place to share original stories, art, fiction or poetry, life stories or stories from someone who has touched your life in a significant way.

Breast Cancer Activism, Filmmaker, Researcher Seeks Images

Announcement from filmmaker Patricia Kearns On Behalf Of BC Centre of Excellence (WHC)

Searching for images 
of breast cancer activism

I am currently researching a film about the history of the breast
cancer movement for the NFB (National Film Board)  and am looking for images. 
... photos or videotapes of meetings, demonstrations, conferences...
I am especially looking for anything from the first World Breast Cancer
Conference held in Kingston in 1997 and the subsequent ones
in Victoria, Ottawa and Halifax.  The search for this material has proven to
be quite difficult but it is an important story to tell.  I am in touch with both
 the Second Wave Archival Project and the Canadian Women's Movement Archives.

(An independent filmmaker living in Montreal, Patricia Kearns brings a strong sense of community and a wide range of interests to her work. Through her own company  Pack Productions, she has directed such acclaimed experimental documentaries as "If the Family Fits", a thoughtful deconstruction of the family-values agenda, and "Choir Girls",  a celebratory portrait of a women's choir. "XS STRESS: Teens Take Control" is the second  film she has directed for the National Film Board, following "Democracy à la Maude",  a profile of Canadian social activist Maude Barlow. She also was producer of the NFB's acclaimed website, Citizenshift that hosts media for social change. )

 Contact:   kearnspatricia@hotmail.com 

Digital Storytelling and New Media, Event Explores Power of Digital Technology in Hands of Young Mothers in Need

We heard today from CCAHTE subscriber, Catherine Moravac, Clinical Research Co-ordinator at Women's Health Care Centre, St. Michael's Hospital Toronto. Catherine contacted us to share news about the Hand-Held conference in Toronto and film and new media projects making a difference for young mothers experiencing homelessness. CM

You are invited to a unique one day event...HAND-HELD is an [un]conference that explores how digital storytelling and new media can be harnessed to improve health care when the tools of creation are placed in the hands of citizens. For one day, HAND-HELD brings together health-care professionals, academics, media-makers, politicians, advocates, decision-makers,and young parents who have experienced homelessness.

March 20th MaRS Centre 101 College Street, Toronto

HAND-HELD will showcase the remarkable results of I WAS HERE, a photoblogging project that puts digital cameras into the hands of young mothers who have experienced homelessness to document their lives through their own eyes. Their work will be the starting point for discussions throughout the day:

• How can we improve the health of young pregnant or parenting youth who are homeless?

• How can the I WAS HERE media workshop model inspire innovation elsewhere in health-care?

Confirmed participants include The Honourable Deb Matthews (Ontario Minister for Youth and Child Services), Tonya Lee Williams, (an actor best known for her role on The Young and the Restless, and a tireless advocate for a strong Canadian Media Industry) and Dr. Michael Evans (Director of the Health Media Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital).

The day-long event is the culmination of a three-year experiment in socially-engaged media-making, the National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker-in-Residence project at St. Michael's Hospital.

Presented by the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital and the National Film Board of Canada

More conference info at the website: http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/handheld/

See video clips:
http://www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence/

Frida Kahlo in Art, Poetry and Music at King's University College

King's Centre for Creativity
presents

FRIDA KAHLO
art poetry music
Artists: G. Alvernaz Mulcahy, P. Kemp, D. Sneppova,

M. Riley

A. Caxaj, O. Whitehead, N. Ramirez

100th CELEBRATION
With keynote speaker: Dr. M. Lennon, Art Historian, University of Western Ontario

February 8, 2008
Bessie Labatt Hall, King's University College
7:30pm

Medical Illustrator Crosses Borders Between Fine Arts and Sciences

Cheryl McLean

I recently had an opportunity to connect with Dr. Tim Fedak a medical illustrator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tim Fedak has a Ph.D. (Biology) from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor Fine Art from NSCAD. His academic publication work also includes vertebrate palaeontology research. Tim produces custom medical illustrations and animations for academic and patient education publications. Here is a profession that crosses borders between the fine arts and sciences where the artist creates with scientific accuracy highly detailed yet engaging illustrations visually explaining complex medical concepts.

This image created by Tim Fedak represents a unique oblique view of the pharynx showing the anaesthetic nerve block in the piriform sinus.

Truly art in action and practice such work communicates well beyond words effectively representing medical treatments and procedures.

Tim sees his work as a medical illustrator as rewarding and challenging, an ongoing learning process.

"I do enjoy the challenges of my work as a medical artist - it combines my academic knowledge of biology and medicine with my skills and experience as an artist. My international clients are experts in their respective fields and it's a pleasure to serve them and learn from their experience.... the work is incredibly interesting"

You can see Dr. Tim Fedak's work and visit the site at http://www.medical-illustrations.ca/ and blog -"Medical Illustration Studio Blog".
In a recent post Tim explores issues in the medical illustrations field and Open Access publishing.

"I’ve previously discussed the impact of open access publications on the activity and role of a medical illustrator. Another aspect of the open access publishing trend will be the need to consider implications of the wider audience base for the development of suitable visuals to accompany medical publications and educational programs. The issue of cultural diversity, audience, and visual communication is also relevant to the consideration of medical illustrations in open access medical journals. The idea that one of the benefits provided by open access is its unrestricted distribution and ability to reach a more diverse audience base brings the issue of audience and visual conventions to the forefront. "

This quote from the Medical Illustration Studio Blog