Tumor: It's In the System
by Sean Hill
There probably is not a person involved that has not been touched by cancer but the level of knowledge about the disease by some maybe limited. The documentary TUMOR: IT’S IN THE SYSTEM serves to educate those viewers that have a very limited knowledge about its subject. While effective for that purpose those that are more informed about it may find very limited value in the film.
The film is a “talking head” documentary wherein various people, in this case doctors, politicians, patients, family members of patients, etc. They are all there they give their experience or roles in the fight against cancer. The overriding theme of the film is that search to find a cure for cancer is more than a business than anything else. There are billions upon billions of dollars available for those that want to research and provide medication for, but it seems that the cure is still elusive. One interesting fact that the film points out is that the death rate for cancer has remained unchanged for years. Another fact is that the treatment, chemotherapy, is essential the same as it was about 30 years. One would think after all this time better advancements would have been made. The film seems to think that the drug companies do not want there to be advancements because of the money they make every year providing the medicine.
Co-directors Valerie McCaffrey & Cindy Pruitt do not make themselves the stars of their film and allow the participants to speak on their particular knowledge on the subject. A small criticism is that they never really give the disease a face so to speak and it would have been more powerful if they have followed one or two subjects so the audience can get a since of how the disease can affect someone. The film does a good job in presenting the facts and statistics about the disease and letting those things speak for themselves rather than editorializing them. Overall, this is an effective documentary but should be view by those who do not know anything about the disease.
