I finally watched Joanna Rudnick’s documentary about being BRCA+, In the Family (2008). It is, obviously, required viewing for anyone with a BRCA mutation, but it’s hard to watch. I started to cry while the title credits began tracing out the cancers in Rudnick’s family and I didn’t stop until I had watched every bonus feature on the DVD.
The film begins with Rudnick’s horror at the idea of prophylactic surgery. She’s young and single; she wants to keep her breasts and ovaries until she can marry and have kids. As she begins to interview women with breast cancer, families with BRCA mutations, doctors, scientists, and various BRCA advocates, she seems to slowly realize that she ought to have a prophylactic mastectomy and oopherectomy. Still, as the film ends, she drags her feet.
I wanted to know what happened to Rudnick in the five years after the film’s premiere in 2008. After some quick googling, I found that she found a supportive partner, married, and had two daughters. Watching her film, it became clear to me what an important voice she is for the BRCA+ community. In it, Mary-Claire King tells two young women that they each have a BRCA mutation and she repeats several times that everything is going to be okay, that these women will not get breast cancer. Rudnick’s happiness–her supportive partner and chubby cheeked girls–gives me hope that King is indeed correct: that BRCA+ women are not doomed to repeat their foremothers’ experiences. Rudnick, it seems, has beaten the odds and so can we.
So I was disheartened to find that Rudnick was recently diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39. On a post over at the PBS blog, she writes: “The worst part about being diagnosed with breast cancer is knowing that I had the knowledge to prevent it.” After treatment, she had a double mastectomy. As she was recovering, Angelina Jolie’s NYT article was published.
In the Family captures the horrors of preventative surgery, but also provides strong arguments for the necessity of it. Rudnick interviews women with breast cancer who swear that if they could go back in time to have the prophylactic mastectomies and oopherectomies that they would in a heartbeat. But Rudnick herself is evidence that hindsight is 20/20: surgery provides the best protection for BRCA+ women, but many women don’t want to do it or can’t bring themselves to pull the trigger. And who can blame them?
I hope Rudnick is doing well. In making her film and speaking out about her experiences, she has done an incredible service for other BRCA+ women. She has sacrificed her own privacy to provide us with a glimpse into the everyday life of a BRCA mutation carrier. I am grateful to her.
the risky body 