Fw: Notice: MCS FILM SHOWING IN NYC FOR FIVE+ WEEKS STARTING 6/21/05

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-- [CO-CURE] Notice: MCS FILM SHOWING IN NYC FOR FIVE+ WEEKS STARTING 6/21/05

Moderator Note: Since Environmental Illness aka MCS has been proposed as

trigger for some with FMS/CFS this may be of interest to some of our readers.

Permission to distribute:

MCS FILM SHOWING IN NYC FOR FIVE+ WEEKS STARTING 6/21/05

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A new, breakthrough film, "Exposed," offers a personal, up-close glimpse of

what it is like to live with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Below are a synopsis and review excerpts on Heidrun Holzfeind's latest

film. Devoir, the MCS sufferer in "Exposed," collaborated with

Holzfeind on this forty minute video.

Some experts estimate that the percentage of the population with MCS will

grow to 60% by the year 2020. Studies say the current percentage is 15%

(approximately 4% to a disabling degree), 80% of whom are women.

Please join us at the American debut of "Exposed" in New York City. The

opening is on June 21st at Artists Space, Project Room 2, 38 Greene Street

on the 3rd floor (call 212-226-3970 for the time). Please try to attend

the opening free of fragrances. "Exposed" will run at Artists Space until

July 30th.

Keep an eye out for another film about environmental health issues called

"The Tomato Effect" by Faun Kime. Read more and see the poignant trailer

at: http://www.rabble-rouser.com/

Please forward this notice to NY-based friends, relatives, media contacts,

environmental organizations, government agencies, physicians, researchers,

and anyone who might have MCS.

MCS FILM SHOWING IN NYC FOR FIVE+ WEEKS STARTING 6/21/05

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Artists Space: Project Room 2 http://www.artistsspace.org/

Presents:

Heidrun Holzfeind: Exposed www.heidrunholzfeind.org/video.html

New York-based artist Heidrun Holzfeind often shows the circumstances of

individuals considered social outsiders, like the Romanian immigrants now

living in her grandparents' house in Austria or the homeless man who quit

his job to publish a book. In her most recent film "Exposed," Holzfeind

chronicles the life of , a 35-year old dancer who suffers from

MCS, a chronic environmental illness caused by synthetic chemicals. At

times painfully close, the film charts the restricted range of acceptable

spaces and social contact of , and tries to raise empathy for her

struggle. (2005; DVD, 40 min.)

Opening: June 21

Show runs from June 21 to July 30, 2005

Artists Space

38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10013

212-226-3970, fax 212-966-1434

Review excerpt (translated from German):

"Holzfeind creates a dense net of images and information, emotions and

reflections about this (still) enigmatic and controversial illness. She not

only creates a complex portrait of and her illness, but, due to

its high amount of reflection about the illness and its consequences, she

succeeds with her film 'Exposed' in a founded social critique." ­ Wilbirg

Brainin-Donnenberg

About Artists Space:

One of the first alternative spaces in New York, Artists Space was founded

in 1972 to support contemporary artists working in the visual arts,

including video, electronic media, performance, architecture and design.

The mission of Artists Space is to encourage experimentation, diversity and

dialogue in contemporary arts practice, provide an exhibition space for new

art and artists, and foster an appreciation for the vital role that artists

play in our community.

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Synopsis:

EXPOSED

A documentary film by Heidrun Holzfeind (USA/A, 2005, 40 min)

EXPOSED is a cinematic portray of Devoir, a 35 year old dancer

and writer who suffers from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a chronic

condition caused by exposure to synthetic chemicals in consumer products,

pesticides, building materials, exhaust, tobacco smoke, perfume, cleaning

agents, food additives and others. While skeptics, particularly in the

traditional medical field and the chemical industry, still question its

legitimacy, for it is a debilitating everyday reality, forcing

her to live outside of the norms of her society. Her personal story

functions as a catalyst to reflect on contemporary conditions of American

society, its values and desires, and the complex relation between

environment and health.

"…That day: everything was very different. I couldn't pretend another

minute that it was me, that it was psychological, that I can deal with

this. I was pushed way past the point that I could justify, rationalize or

use any one of the million rationalizations that this culture feeds in,

talks about and lives in every day. What I want to be true and what this

world tells me is true, has no bearing on reality. Reality is what it is;

it's a separate thing. I am chemically sensitive. There is nothing I can do

about it…" ( D.)

EXPOSED uses different cinematic materials to draw a complex portrait of

that captures her isolation and vulnerability in her struggle for

medical and financial help, as well as artistic recognition. While the

camera follows her daily routines - we see her sleeping, eating, preparing

her medications, shopping, dancing, visiting doctors and occasionally

friends - describes how she developed Chemical Sensitivity after

exposure to pesticides, toxic building materials and long-term natural gas

poisoning while living in the suburban environment of New York. She

discusses the restrictions of participating in her community in her new

home in rural Massachusetts and her vision of human and cultural

interrelations in a society dominated by profit and consumption.

These reflective and analytical interview passages are contrasted with

footage shot by herself during the past 10 years, which allows an

intimate insight into her precarious situation. First used as a tool to

monitor her dance exercises, the video recordings later became a medium for

autobiographic documentation of her illness. As she films herself in

psychological stress situations, during choking fits, while washing her

hair outside in wintertime, the camera is deliberately asked to be witness

to the illness and remains the only conversational partner, window to the

world. These emotionally charged, diary-like sequences (in which her

artistic role as a performer finds its continuation) reappear like a

framework throughout the film.

's case history is furthermore contextualized in a broader social

and political context through three found footage sequences quoting

scientific research and TV images: The film starts with a collage of

commercials from the fifties and sixties which glorify the invention of new

substances and materials, illustrating our society's blind trust in

progress. The second montage sequence (discussing the political contexts of

the release of mostly untested chemicals on the market and into our

environment) is an assemblage of advertising spots, excerpts from

documentary films and news footage about environmental pollution, and G.W.

Bush-statements about his environmental policies. The third montage deals

with the dangers of toxic chemicals in consumer and household products in

an interview with a toxicologist, whose research documents the spastic,

paralyzing and in one case deadly reaction of lab mice after exposure to

air-freshener, perfume and carpet.

Concept, script, camera, editing: Heidrun Holzfeind

Hi8 footage: Devoir

Additional footage: s, laboratories, Stelios Argiros

Music: ne Brokesch

Additional tracks & excerpts: AGF, atomheart, Bard, Bjork,

Celia, HP Zinker, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Nine Inch Nails, Fennesz remix by

Pulsinger, Radiohead, Soundgarden, Supersilent, Amon Tobin

Produced in collaboration with Devoir; Copyright Heidrun

Holzfeind 2005.

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