Rachel's Daughters: Searching for the causes of breast cancer
A film by Allie Light and Irving Saraf
Colour, 1997, 106 minutes
Distributed by Women Make Movies, New York City

This film begins with the familiar voice of Sandra Steingraber: "We are the generation who ... came of adult age during the most toxic and environmentally unregulated age ever known ...". In the background, we see a funeral and the young women who mourn. The funeral is for Jennifer, a 32-year-old victim of breast cancer.

Nancy Evans of the California Breast Cancer Fund gathered together a group of women who, like her, have experienced breast cancer. The project is the title of the film, the search for the causes. The suspects include but are not limited to radiation, electromagnetic fields and pesticides. The task is to interview a number of experts — among them, Devra Lee Davis, Susan Love, John Hofman, Sandra Steingraber — and to put together a film of the results.

The board of BCAM came together to watch this film and to decide if it was appropriate for a special meeting for BCAM members. The consensus was that it was too long and too depressing to occupy centre stage, but that it should be kept in our office for private viewing for those members who express an interest.

If you know someone who is interested in the idea of environmental effects on breast cancer, but who is unable or unwilling to slog through the printed material that demonstrates the link (as, for instance, the Breast Cancer Fund's State of the Evidence) then this is the video for you.

Gather a few friends together, put it into your video recorder, and let it play.
 

Reviewed by Janine O'Leary Cobb