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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 20 . . . . June 9, 2000
Joseph Viszmeg is the director, writer and editor of My Healing Journey: Seven Years with
Cancer, a follow-up to his film of 1995, My Own Time: Diary of a Cancer Patient. When he
was first diagnosed with the rare form of adrenal cancer in 1991, Joe Viszmeg, a graduate of
Ryerson University, could not believe it. But, after a serious operation in southern California, he
was told he would have about a year to live. Determined to fight his foe, he completed his first
documentary in 1995. Amazingly, after more operations and chemotherapy, he produced this
second video in 1998. It is blended with his first one, an idea which those viewers who like linear
history will find confusing as Viszmeg is shown as an older man, completely bald as a result of
chemotherapy, and then as a slim young man with lots of black hair. This intertwining of time
periods happens over and over, and so it is difficult to track when a certain operation took place
in relation to other treatments such as chemotherapy.
As a single parent to Stella, his little daughter, Viszmeg had good motivation to fight the disease,
but he gained even more determination when he married Rachel (who proposed to him), and they
eventually added little Joe to their family. Family scenes, shots of Stella and little Joe are further
clues to the passage of time.
During the years after 1991, Joe Viszmeg tried anything that promised hope for curing his cancer:
a smoking ceremony with a Sioux Indian, Yoga, transcendental meditation, eating shark cartilage.
He willingly drank terrible tasting medicine, took a drug called Mitotane to give him a few more
months of life, had four spots removed from his left lung, and had his spleen removed. When his
doctor refused to operate any more, Viszmeg decided to try chemotherapy. After several
treatments, a CAT scan showed that his tumors had shrunk by half, and so he continued on
with the chemo.
The video ends with Joe and Rachel watching Stella starting out on a bicycle race, little Joe with
them and now old enough to enjoy being out with his dad, and more importantly old enough to
remember his father if he should die. The scenery is of glorious autumn colours, trees with leaves
of gold. Joe expresses appreciation of the love he has received which has kept him alive, and he
beseeches viewers to find love and give it back, whether it be to parents, children, friends, or
lovers.
There the video ends, with Joe's final advice. Not long after, he was vanquished by his old foe,
cancer. However his films will give other cancer patients hope that they, too, can hold the enemy
at bay using determination and love of life as their allies.
A thoughtful, sensitive video bringing understanding and hope to cancer patients and their
families.
Highly Recommended.
Joan Payzant is a former teacher-librarian of Dartmouth, NS.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - June 9, 2000.
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