No matter where you stand politically on the healthcare debate, there’s no denying that unavailability of coverage has impacted many people and families, often tragically. In this first spot ever from the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Action Network, we are introduced to Dan Brodrick, a Gainesboro, Tenn.-based truck driver for 27-plus years who fell and hurt his back, thus ending his career as a trucker.
Brodrick himself explains that once he lost his job, he lost health insurance for himself and his family. Dozens of plans denied them coverage. Last year, his wife Sharon died of cancer.
The camera pans across a photo of Sharon along with other keepsakes before returning to Dan who says simply yet emotionally that he thinks her death could have been prevented “if we had insurance. It’s just hard to swallow–to lose somebody like that.”
An end tag identifying the ACS Cancer Action Network as the spot’s sponsor appears, accompanied by the slogan, “If we wait, we all lose. Healthcare Reform. Now, not later.”
Further backstory is available on the ACS Cancer Action Network website (www.acscan.org). There visitors can learn that in 2007, Sharon was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the small intestine and underwent surgery. At that time, Dan called at the Health Insurance Assistance Service at the American Cancer Society’s National Cancer Information Center looking for insurance options. Although ACS does its best to help every caller, the unfortunate reality is that the Society is only able to assist one in nine callers who contacts the organization for this type of help. She was able to receive some of her treatment through a charity care program, but her medical bills rose to more than $80,000. Tragically, Sharon succumbed to the disease in April 2008, with her family’s life savings depleted and Dan left to pay down the debt for the rest of his life.
“The sobering reality is that tens of millions of families across the country are one cancer diagnosis away from financial catastrophe,” said Daniel E. Smith, president of ACS Cancer Action Network. “We need to reform the health system to improve the lives of those with cancer and other chronic diseases so that no one goes through what Dan Brodrick and his wife did before she lost her battle with cancer.”
The spot was created and produced in-house by agency GMMB, Washington, D.C. The core creative team consisted of creative director John Gundlach, writer/associate creative director Ben Hawkins, and executive producer Peter Hutchins. Hawkins directed the spot which was shot by DP Jeff Baker and edited by Adam Ferrari.
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More