Director: Marie Mandy

Region: Belgium

Year of Production: 2010

Running Time: 90min

China premiere

Synopsis:

When director Marie Mandy was diagnosed with breast cancer, her life changed overnight. Initially overcome by a sense of her own mortality and feeling of powerlessness, Mandy decided to make a film about her road to recovery. The resulting work from this director-turned-patient exposes the radical lack of information most people have about the forms of treatment available to them, including the alternative therapies that can be combined with drugs and surgery. In documenting the decision-making processes related to breast cancer treatment, Mandy’s film explores the fraught relationship many women have between body image and self-identity. We are also shown how it often takes a personal experience to jolt us into thinking about broader issues and the concerns of others.

Filmmaker and photographer Marie Mandy was born Louvain, Belgium in 1961 and spent her childhood in Africa and the United States. First attaining a degree in Philosophy from the University of Louvain in 1985, Mandy went on to the London International Film School in 1987 to study cinema with the support of scholarships from the Fondation Belge de la Vocation and the Rotary International Foundation respectively.

In 1989, Mandy founded production company Amazone Films in Brussels, producing her first full-length film, Pardon Cupidon, a co-production with Canal+ and RTL. From 1993 to 1995, Mandy was president of ARPF (Belgian Association of Film Directors-Producers), and she was vice-president of the Belgian Committee of the SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) from 1996 to 2000. Mandy was member of the Films Selection Commission of the Ministry of French Community (Belgium CNC) from 1997 to 2000, and has served as member of the Television Commission of SCAM (Civil Society of Multimedia Authors) since 2005.

As a photographer, Mandy has worked for various magazines as a portrait photographer, with hundreds of her photographic works published. Amongst other projects, Mandy made a series of photo reports about the life of handicapped people in Europe from 1995 to 1997.

Mandy has made numerous documentaries and is currently in the process of making another full-length film. She lives and works in Brussels and Marseilles.