This Monday, two Oscar®-nominated documentaries that explore two very different stories regarding health will premiere on HBO: we’re happy to support DB Productions’ own Robin Honan who produced Mondays at Racine and John Pouliot, Production Manager and Assistant Editor on Open Heart.
Mondays at Racine (directed by Cynthia Wade) steps into a Long Island hair salon run by two bold sisters as they open their doors to women diagnosed with cancer for a day of beauty, healing, and community. For Robin, being involved in the film was very personal: “I lost my mother to breast cancer in 1983: she was 37 at the time, and I was 8. This was years – even decades – before pink ribbons appeared on yogurt lids. Breast cancer wasn’t talked about.”
Every third Monday of the month, the sisters at the salon offer hair services, facials, massages, manicures, and even yoga free of charge for women undergoing chemotherapy. They laugh and they cry, they face their fears and they discover true beauty. “Producing Mondays at Racine almost thirty years after my mother’s death was challenging in many of the ways all documentaries are,” Robin says, “but it was also incredibly inspiring, to see this community of women come together and support one another without secrecy or shame. And of course, walking the red carpet in February with my dad was a moment I will cherish forever. I like to think my mom was watching.”
Open Heart, (directed by Kief Davidson and produced by Cori Shepherd Stern) also premieres on Monday evening on HBO: the film follows eight Rwandan children who leave their families and their homes to undergo heart surgery. Working on the film was tense, as John recalls: “I remember sitting next to my computer for probably 24 hours straight the day the team was in Sudan filming the surgeries, just waiting for an email or Skype message from the director, Kief, that the kids had gotten out, that they were going to be okay. It’s distressing, too, knowing there are hundreds of thousands more kids who will never even get that far, but the film is helping bring a true awareness to the issue. And it highlights a real, on-the-ground solution.”
“Open Heart was the first project I worked on where I could see the good that the subjects were doing in real time – it was tangible,” John continues. He was honored to meet Dr. Emmanuel, the Rwandan doctor who diagnosed and accompanied the children, the day before the Oscars – and even get him fitted for a tuxedo. “It was surreal: he’s a totally normal guy, just doing his job in his home country, but he’s walking around Beverly Hills, looking amazing and getting recognized in the Four Seasons by adoring fans.”
The premiers begin at 9pm EDT on Monday, October 14, 2013 on HBO. Congratulations!
Robin Honan is a Producer/Director and John Pouliot is the Post-Production Coordinator at DB Productions.