Breathtaking: A personal investigation into the present-day use of asbestos
Oct 25, 2011, 12:30pm-2pm
Breathtaking, produced and directed by Toronto filmmaker Kathleen Mullen, takes on the asbestos industry through a moving and personal investigation into her father’s death from an asbestos-related disease and the current use of asbestos in Canada and internationally.
Valued since the beginning of time and commercially mined since the Industrial Revolution, asbestos was coined the "magic mineral" for its extraordinary capacity to protect against fire and was used in everything from brake pads to oven mitts.
Discovered to be carcinogenic, asbestos was banned in many countries and the use of it limited in others. Canada, along with Russia and several other countries, still mines asbestos and exports it for use in developing nations.
With moving clips of her dying father’s legal testimony, family photos and Super 8 home movies as a narrative springboard, Mullen takes the audience on a journey from her family’s home in British Columbia to Quebec, India and Detroit, painting a global, yet still personal picture of the many lives affected by the continued use of asbestos.
“As I began Breathtaking, everyone to whom I mentioned I was making the film responded with a personal story of their own,” Mullen says. “I soon realized that this story was a lot bigger than just my own family’s grief.”
Kathleen Mullen is currently the director of programming at Planet in Focus, which holds an annual film festival with a focus on the environment.
| Location: | 140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building |
| Sponsor: | Faculty of Environmental Studies |
| Posted by: | Liette Gilbert |
| Web Site | www.yorku.ca/fes |
 |
