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“ABSOLUTELY
SAFE offers women of all ages a unique set of perspectives
about the true risks and benefits of silicone gel implants. We listen
to women tell their stories, we hear from plastic surgeons with
opposing views about the safety of these devices, and we witness
illuminating footage from several public hearings conducted by the
Food and Drug Administration. It is the perfect antidote to ads
and TV shows that now routinely mislead women into thinking that
these devices have been proven to be safe.”
– Judy Norsigian, Co-Author and Executive Director, Our
Bodies Ourselves
“This moving and disturbing film follows the journeys of two
women, one seeking to have her leaking implants removed, the other
seeking to have breast augmentation. Interspersed with these tales
we meet plastic surgeons both for and against the surgery; women
who have suffered mightily due to their silicone implants, including
the filmmaker’s mother; and members of the FDA committee who
decide whether or not to allow silicone back on the market. All
along the viewer feels powerfully the impact pressures to be beautiful
have and have had on American women. Breast implants clearly “solve”
the problem while introducing myriad new ones. ABSOLUTELY
SAFE should be mandatory viewing for every woman considering
surgery. Watching the brutal extraction of failed implants from
a patient’s chest wall should be enough to give anyone pause.
And the young mother who decided to get implants shares with us
her loss of breast sensation. A sense of sadness lingers over the
scene. This film makes starkly clear that the female sense of inadequacy
is not an individual phenomenon. Institutionalized sexism affects
all of us. Destroying our health seems to be an acceptable solution.
ABSOLUTELY SAFE bravely
challenges the status quo.”
– Diana York Blaine, Ph.D., University of Southern California
,
The Writing and Gender Studies Program
“Harrowing, human, and persuasive, ABSOLUTELY
SAFE is an important and beautifully made piece that explores
the sometimes deadly and disfiguring consequences of breast implants.
Full of nuanced observations, the film chronicles the experience
of women who are in various stages of either choosing to get breast
implants, or to have them removed. ABSOLUTELY
SAFE is a story that must be told and absolutely must be
seen.”
– Rob Moss, Director of Secrecy and The Same River Twice“
We were interested in this film as breast implants have become the
most popular elective surgery in Israel in the last few years. It
has also become affordable to almost everyone. We believe in educating
our viewers as to all aspects of these types of surgeries and this
film sheds a light on the possible dangers that are involved in
these surgeries.”
– Daphna Israeli, YES Network, Israel“
A compassionate and compelling look at the debate over the safety
of breast implants, Carol Ciancutti-Leyva, in her directorial debut,
begins from the personal (for nearly thirty years Ciancutti-Leyva's
own mother. Audrey Ciancutti, has suffered from illnesses related
to her ruptured silicone breast implants). Ciancutti-Leyva documents
both sides of the debate; on the one side is Deneé Dimiceli,
a healthy vibrant young woman from Houston, Texas, who has made
the decision to have breast implants after years of insecurities
over her breast size, and on the other side is Wendy Myers, a woman
who was once healthy and energetic before having silicone breast
implants in the 1980s. Myers believes that her health problems (dizziness,
fatigue, joint pain, hair loss and nipple discharge) were caused
when her breast implants ruptured in a car accident. Also on either
side of the debate are Dr. Franklin Rose, a respected and experienced
board-certified plastic surgeon in the United States who believes
that breast implants, both silicone and saline, are safe products,
while Dr. Edward Melmed, a unique board-certified plastic surgeon
in the United States because he is one of the few plastic surgeons
who is willing to remove breast implants without replacing them,
believes that breast implants are making women sick. Ciancutti-Leyva
gently guides the viewer through the double-speak of the world of
cosmetic surgery to expose a deeper mourning that evolves from the
realization that women's bodies are still the sites of violation
with impunity. As Dr. Melmed even implies during one interview,
breast implants would have never been approved had they been for
men's bodies. A must-see!”
– Carolyn Shimmin, Information Centre Coordinator, Canadian
Women’s Health Network |
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