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Filmmaker Takes on Cancer Taboos as well as the Disease by Jay Randy Gordon
Allison W. Gryphon at the 4th Napa Valley Film Festival which featured four showings of her provocative cancer documentary. photo: Jackrabbit Digital Studio
BACK IN APRIL 2011, ALLISON W.
Gryphon was happily attending to her life—at that point pitching “The Witching Eclipse”, the second book in her trilogy about an ancient coven of witches in modern London.
In addition to supernatural storytelling, Ms Gryphon was doing freelance postproduction and writing screenplays, notably “La Cucina”, an art house rom-com released on Showtime in 2010.
Then her life changed drastically.
Within a week of discovering a lump on her breast, she received the ominous diagnosis: “Stage 3A breast cancer.” Although her medical team was excellent—she was living in Los Angeles, she needed more information and began desperately searching the Web and various libraries.
Overwhelmed by the volume of verbiage and absence of coherence, Ms Gryphon decided she had to make sense of things, for others as well as herself, through film.
To make “What the F@#- Is Cancer And Why Does Everybody Have It?” (see trailer), her directorial debut, she would sacrifice her anonymity and vulnerability to show other “cancer fighters” what they could expect.
Indeed, she is still fighting "The Big C" with heart, grit, friends and film.
“This is the film I wanted to see when I was diagnosed with cancer,” she says, right on the film poster, adding to me in our interview, “it's about learning what it means to fight cancer day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and minute-to minute.”
“For many, cancer is a cell under a microscope,” she continued. “For others, it is a symbolic ribbon, a local fundraiser, a jar calling for help in the checkout line. Cancer is different to each individual.”
“Most importantly,” she emphasized, “cancer is about people. It's about really hearing their voices… in a way that will allow the viewer to walk away with inspiration, questions, knowledge and, hopefully, a desire to understand more and make things happen.”
Except for the brave boxer symbolism in the beginning, this is not a film about an entitled filmmaker or a hero. Indeed, it soon waxes rather prosaic with a variety of cancer survivors, doctors, friends and family, talking about the little steps and big pitfalls of their ordeal.
Ms Gryphon getting treated—in a hospital hallway, one of the many little degradations that can add up to a tsunami of hopelessness. photo: courtesy A. Gryphon
Featuring great original music, the film also follows Ms Gryphon, bald from chemo, into doctor’s meetings, chemotherapy and the tattoo studio where a top LA inker etched an angel’s wing on her afflicted breast.
“What the F@#- Is Cancer” has already become a minor hit, screening at Disney and San Rafael's 32TEN Studios as well as a number of festivals, including the Napa Valley Film Festival (NVFF), in mid-November, where she was an artist-in-residence.
"The passion that Allison brought to the project is apparent in every frame," said Herb Stratford, Program Director of the rapidly expanding NVFF, who gave it four screenings. "The film is a compelling look at the subject from a new, fresh perspective."
"Everyone has been touched by cancer; my mother, my aunt, stepmother, many of my friends," added NVFF's Brenda Lhormer. "Allison's inspirational film should give us all more energy to be aware and to fight."
“I’m a filmmaker with many hopes, dreams and visions that I’m hell bent on bringing to life,” Ms Gryphon told me, "but this project is the most important thing I will ever do."
"This movie was made on in-kind donations and was truly a labor of love. I’ve never been more honored to be part of the Hollywood community.”
Ms Gryphon's first produced script, “La Cucina” (2007), featured Christina Hendricks, Leisha Hailey, Rachel Hunter and Joaquim de Almeida and won Best Picture at both the Beloit International and the Los Angeles Backlot film festivals, while taking Best Screenplay at Portugal's Bragacine Cinema Festival in 2008.
She is also a versatile freelancer, working primarily at Disney as a post-production coordinator on such films as “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” (2011), “TRON: Legacy,” (2010) and “The Sorcerer's Apprentice”.
Ms Gryphon's movie features many peripherals, from 'Fighter's Bags' to health products. photo: Jackrabbit Digital Studio
Ms Gryphon's intention was always to make the film accessible to anyone with, or who has friends or family with, cancer. Hence, it is already available on iTunes, for as little as $.99.
Indeed, “What the F@#- Is Cancer" is not just a film but a “help desk,” considering the recently-launched companion web series: “The What? Series” produced by Ms Gryphon's Why? Foundation.
Another Why? Foundation innovation is the Fighter Bag which can be requested for anyone with or related to someone with cancer (to do so go here). Depending on what's available, it includes anything from DVDs and slippers to gift cards and non-toxic creams from EO Products.
“Allison has become a huge advocate for healthy personal care products, not only for their use during cancer treatment, but also by raising awareness for the role [they] can play in cancer prevention,” Susan Griffin-Black, the co-founder of EO Products of San Rafael, which supports “What the F@#- Is Cancer” and contributes to the Fighter Bags.
Although she lives in Southern California, Ms Gryphon has long been coming north. Even before her four stellar showings at NVFF, “What the F@#- Is Cancer" was featured at Jessup Cellars' Good Life Collective in Yountville, on October 16th.
"Her webisode series is critically important to sharing real life information with other fighters and caregivers through social media 24/7," noted Joel Quigley, VP of Marketing at Jessup Cellars, which does a lot of art and fundraising events, like for the relief after the recent Napa earthquake.
On stage at the 4th annual Napa Valley Film Festival. photo: Tony Flores.
“For the majority of 'fighters' I speak with,” explained Rayellen Jordan, founder of Sisters Crush Breast Cancer, which also contributed to the film, “the film and the series ignite a flood of emotions and express many of their personal conflicts.”
“I spent 23 years in ancillary medical services,” Ms Jordan continued, “My tumor registry and oncology billing positions gave me personal access to fighters and to their loved ones. This film is what I needed for them.”
Some filmmakers simply transcend their chosen profession, by shedding critical light on big but untapped subjects. Due to Gryphon's belief in the film, as well as help from everyone in the filmmaking community who joined Team Allison, the film delivers.
"The way the Bay Area and Napa Valley have received this movie, The What? Series and the ‘Fighter T [shirt]’ is incredible,” Ms Gryphon told me.
“I'm honored to have been welcomed with open arms into a community that is so supportive and so determined to take the fear out of cancer and fight it as a community with everything they've got."
From poster to final frame, a very personal and revealing film. photo: courtesy A. Gryphon.
To take the film global, the film was released in a Spanish language translation in October and will be translated into French and German next year.
Having fully recovered, Ms Gryphon will soon be starting principal photography on “Hong Kong Cafe,” a feature rockumentary about the notorious LA punk rock music club.
And she's back at work on “The Witching Eclipse", "which I was on the brink of publishing when I was diagnosed," she told me. "It is a trilogy, a spin-off book series and, of course, a feature film franchise."
“I am forever dedicated to cancer education and support through 'The What? Series' and the film... but there is so much more to myself and my dreams. After cancer I feel like I can do anything.”
In conclusion, just remember: "Fighters Fight!" If you think you have a shot at beating cancer, then take a stand and “KCA” (Kick Cancer's Ass), a dedication and determination that also applies to movie making.