Saturday Night Live’s Julia Sweeney brings to the screen the hit comedy-drama, one-woman show she wrote and performed on Broadway. Returning from New York, Julia buys a romantic bungalow in the Hollywood Hills in which she plans to have soirees, take bubble baths and rebuild her life post divorce and SNL. Shortly after she moves into her jewel box house, God laughs! Julia’s beloved brother, Mike, is diagnosed with cancer—its lymphoma, and its terminal. Instead of nesting deliciously in her home and the freedom of being single again, her brother moves in with her. Her parents follow suit. As her parents have always been a "source of comedy, or a reason to be in therapy”, Julia brings laughter to the chaos. She mixes that with the sadness of Mike’s declining condition, and the demands made by his daily chemotherapy.

Barely recovered from Mike’s death, God laughs again at Julia.  She learns with shock and horror that she has cervical cancer. But this comic genius finds a way to tell us her story and keep us laughing in the face of first sadness and now fear. She impresses us with the strength provided by a loving family, warts and all. She never loses us or depresses us. She knits humor and sorrow, understanding and exasperation. She is never maudlin or hopeless. She skillfully plays out the emotional current that has carried her through the terror, drawing the audience in with her humanity and hopefulness. This film is less about illness. It delves a more complex mystery: the heartstrings that bind parent and child, brother and sister. In God Said Ha!, Julia Sweeney combines insight, pathos and laughter to plumb family dynamics in the face of life-threatening illness.

Introduction

Toni Bernay PhD, Clinical Psychology, President, Porrath Cancer Patient Advocate

Discussion~Q&A

Panel Participants

Donald Stolar PhD, Clinical Psychology, Porrath Cancer Patient Advocate

David Wellisch PhD, Prof. Psychiatry/Psychology, UCLA/Semel Institute, UCLA, Porrath Cancer Patient Advocate

Thomas Kerrihard MD, Psychiatry, Pain Management, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute @ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Porrath Cancer Patient Advocate

Peter Pressman MD, Internal Medicine, Private Practice, Los Angeles

RSVP by Dec. 1st  Mary Sutherland 310.246.0828 ph,  310.271.9821 fax,  ms@porrathfoundation.org