Film on activist's cancer journey to touch patients' lives

07 August 2015 - 02:08 By Jerome Cornelius

When filmmaker Shelley Barry received a phone call from her friend Charlene Maslamoney, she was shocked at the reason for it. "Will you document my life," was the request from Maslamoney, a Cape Town poet and activist who had terminal stomach cancer."She said, 'bring your camera and come to hospice'. I was in complete disbelief. I couldn't wrap my head around the word terminal," said Barry.So began a three-month project that culminated with Maslomoney's death in March 2013.This weekend the documentary will be screened at the Artscape Women's Arts Festival in Cape Town, as part of Women's Month. The DVD I'm Not Done Yet!, as well as Maslomoney's last poetry book, I'm Not Done Yet - Allowing Possibilities, which she launched in September 2012, will be on sale to raise funds for vitamin C drips for cancer patients. The drip helps the body absorb iron.Barry said filming the documentary had been difficult. "On the one hand it felt like I was invading an intimate space, but on the other it was the most vulnerable space I've ever been in. "It was painful, beautiful, raw. It was completely unplanned and something I wouldn't choose to do. I did it because I was asked."So far, enough funds have been raised from previous screenings to provide three patients with the drip for one year...

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