Helen Webster: Cancer and Self-Discovery1981

"Few independents are courageous enough to let their subjects come across in the simple, direct way that was once video's hallmark. That's why it was so refreshing to discover "HELEN WEBSTER: CANCER AND SELF-DISCOVERY"], amid all the "televisionese" evident in this festival. Shot in black-and-white on half-inch portapak, Rosenthal has let a marvelously articulate woman speak to us without embarrassment, with considerable laughter and occasional perplexity, about what it is like to live 15 years with cancer–'half-bald, with one breast, and a bag strapped to one side of my abdomen.' With poems she's written and thoughts organized not to waste the viewer's time, Helen Webster is funny, moving and irresistible as she talks about sex, her fear of death, and thoughts about suicide." –Deirdre Boyle Sightlines. Award-winner when premiered at Global Village Documentary Festival, NYC, 1983.