Seventeen Short Films About Breasts

In the first four of these 17 short films by Cathryn Robertson, a small-breasted exotic dancer talks about her “working breasts”; six moms discuss breastfeeding and sexuality; a half dozen elderly women pause during a golf game to recall being young mothers and offer “insights” about breasts, sexuality, and nursing; and a woman poses alone, then in a man's embrace, as music plays and the camera pans slowly across her face and breasts. After these quick takes on healthy breasts, the remaining segments turn to women who have—or have had—breast cancer, focusing on treatment and its impact on self-image. Nine cancer survivors talk about biopsies, chemotherapy and hair loss, mastectomies, breast reconstruction, prostheses, and sexuality after surgery, and are shown receiving chemotherapy, tattooed nipples on reconstructed breasts, mammograms, and radiation treatments. Several speak while perched topless on a stool against a white background to display their rebuilt breasts, mastectomy scars, or how various types of prostheses work. The last two segments quickly intercut all nine women's speculative comments on possible causes of cancer and how they try to prevent recurrences. For anyone dealing with breast cancer, the film offers survivors' frank, poignant, and often humorous observations and a rare opportunity to watch procedures and witness the physical effects of surgery (several medical procedures involving needles are captured in cringe-inducing close-ups). Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)