The trailer for Leave Them Laughing which will make its Premiere at the 2010 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
“When life fucks you up the ass, employ the lube of laughter.” These are words Carla Zilbersmith lives by. They are also words she’s dying by. Diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) four years ago, this 46-year-old writer, singer, performer, and wickedly funny smart-ass is determined to suck every molecule of pleasure from the one or two years she might have left. Academy Award-winning director John Zaritsky combines Carla’s blog, interviews, and skits to create a profound and hilarious pre-mortem. Carla survives her gruelling reality with loving friends and family, especially her gifted 16-year-old son Maclen, who shares her dark sense of humour. Throughout her Kafkaesque battles for medical insurance and the agony of her shrinking independence as her body slowly shuts down, she never loses her blistering ability to tell it like it is. She smashes all barriers of discomfort and politesse, connecting us to the core of our naked, fragile humanity.