Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 13/03) - Newfoundland filmmaker and breast cancer survivor Gerry Rogers was in Iqaluit last week to help lead a cancer retreat for women, and present the documentary film My Left Breast -- Rogers' award-winning film about her battle with breast cancer.

"It was awesome," said student Cheryl Akoak, after watching the heart-wrenching film Rogers and her companion Peggy Norman started shooting in Newfoundland as soon as her hair started falling out from chemotherapy treatments.

"It really touched my feelings," Akoak said. "I never thought of breast cancer that way."

Rogers never thought she'd make a film about losing her breast to cancer, and then go on to inspire women all over Canada with her story.

Iqaluit's retreat last weekend brought 20 women together with the assistance of the Status of Women council.

Rogers was moved to be part of it.

She never could have imagined being such a role model when she was living life as an accomplished filmmaker in Montreal and St. John's. With Norman she even started a bed and breakfast in Carbonear, Nfld. in the late 1990s.

Rogers was devastated when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42. Her mother and sister have since battled breast cancer as well, prompting Rogers to joke she is thinking about a family film next: The Young and the Breastless. But rather than hide away, Rogers became an inspiration to others. It all started when she turned her beloved camera towards herself and made the film.

About 60 hours of film was edited to just one hour by Oscar winning filmmaker Terre Nash, who later gave Rogers her Oscar award following the world premiere of My Left Breast in St. John's in 2000.

The film worked because Rogers and Norman brought the camera everywhere during shooting -- from the hospital to their bedroom -- to illustrate what having cancer treatment is really like.

The result is a story that is about much more than cancer. It is about true love, relationships, family, and how one artist chose to live through her illness rather than succumb to it. "If you were a painter, you'd paint it," Norman says, "If you were a writer, you'd write about it."

Allison Brewer of Iqaluit had seen My Left Breast before, but said the experience was even more powerful with Rogers and Norman in the room.

"It's poignant. It's touching," Brewer said of the film.