ON A ROLL: Family, Disability and The American Dream
A JOANNE CAPUTO FILM
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Joanne Caputo
Sept. 1, 2004
E-mail: beanyhead@woh.rr.com

Disability Film Production Halted by Director's Breast Cancer

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio - When filmmaker Joanne Caputo began shooting a documentary about disabilities, she had no idea she would receive firsthand experience through amputation of a breast. Six months into production of "On A Roll," 45-year-old Caputo was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and offered a near-cure with a mastectomy. Film production came to a halt while Caputo underwent surgery in December 2000 and spent several months recovering at home with her husband and young sons, aged 10 and 12. During that time, she kept in close contact with her film subject, Greg Smith, a severely disabled radio talk show host who uses a power wheelchair.

"Greg and I knew a breast amputation would not physically disable me," said Caputo. "But it forced me (and continues to force me) to deal with the emotional issue of being different, just like a disability." Accentuating the difference is the fact that Caputo never sees other women with one breast. "Despite the high number of mastectomies," Caputo surmises, "there's great social pressure to hide it."

Caputo was given a temporary prothetic breast by her surgeon at a follow-up exam, which she put in her husband's pocket and took home to store for more than a year. In the meantime, she worked on loving her body the way it was, seeing it as "a beautiful part of the natural diversity of life" -a phrase often quoted by Greg Smith. In summer 2002, however, she decided to try the prosthesis in a bathing suit. "I had a very appearance-conscious teenager at the time, and he seemed much more relaxed when I had two breasts in public." Despite concerns about the prosthesis moving out of place or popping out, Caputo enjoyed blending in with her double-breasted peers. "It's a confusing mix of feelings at times, very real and powerful, and I'll probably deal with it the rest of my life. But at minimum," Caputo affirms, "I have even more compassion for people with disabilities."

Surviving cancer prompted Caputo to quit a comfortable job as a corporate writer/director, in order to do "only the things I loved" - making films and writing books. Quitting her job reduced her family budget in half, so she cut their fringe expenses like cable TV, music lessons, restaurant food, vacations, and cell phones, and shopped carefully for groceries. Most of the family's clothing has come from thrift shops they consider to be "recyling stores," and when interest rates lowered, she and her husband (a college art instructor) refinanced their mortgage. More important than cutting expenses, however, was Caputo's new trust that "the Universe will support me."

It's been four years since the start of the disability film project and the subsequent life-changing experience with breast cancer. With a national broadcast planned for February, 2005 on PBS Independent Lens, and a body free of cancer, filmmaker Joanne Caputo is happier than ever.

"On A Roll" is the first of Caputo's five films in production, and she has completed two book manuscripts about American slave mother, Margaret Garner, an historical research project of ten years. Caputo is also the creator of "Ballerina, Ballerina!," a 1994 children's video recommended by Sesame St. Magazine and others.