From
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record and Cambridge Reporter:
SummerLife,
2002
Friday,
June 21, 2002 – Print Edition, Page 8
Tonight's
lead documentary is riveting. It's about Tourette's Syndrome, a condition
that makes people like Duncan McKinlay bark, whistle, or twitch in
public, especially when they're stressed, which tends to be most of
the time. But Duncan is a match for Tourette's, and then some. He's
earned himself a PhD on the subject and has become an authority on
his own tics. He has helped himself get better and calmer by giving
into the tics, and has channeled his energy into a positive force
of public education.
In
Life's A Twitch, director Cindy Bisaillon and producer Tina Hahn have
crafted a fine profile of the PhD recipient. Their film has already
garnered much praise: it was recently nominated for Best Educational/Instructional
Film at the Yorkton Golden Sheaf Awards; the Tourette Syndrome Foundation
of Canada has asked the filmmakers to produce a series of PSAs for
an upcoming awareness campaign; and Duncan McKinlay was recently a
guest of The Montel
Williams Show on CFMT.
From
The Globe and Mail:
The
Short List
By
HENRIETTA WALMARK
Saturday,
June 22, 2002 – Print Edition, Page 3
"The
View From Here", The Al Waxman Calling Card Program, TVO, 10 p.m.
Here's another opportunity to catch the work of emerging Canadian filmmakers
as three short films, Life's A Twitch, I Spy and Blind Spot, premiere
tonight on The View From Here. Tourette's syndrome is what makes life
a twitch for Duncan McKinlay. The PhD student's lifelong project has
been to understand his condition and to educate others about Tourette's.
As the camera follows him during the days leading up to his dissertation,
McKinlay keeps his cacophony of ticks under control by not resisting
them and with his sense of humour. Director Cindy Bisaillon does a good
job of letting McKinlay shine.
From
Starweek:
Short
Subjects
By
GEOFF PEVERE
Saturday,
June 22, 2002 – Page 59
The
three short documentaries on tonight's "The View From Here"
are the products of insitutional largesse. Submitted to TVO's Al
Waxman Calling Card Program for emerging documentary filmmakers,
these films were licensed by the network following a juried selection
of the most promising projects.
In
this context, the films reveal more than the emerging talents of their
filmmakers. They also reveal TVO's idea of worthy documentary projects
and worthy emerging documentary filmmakers. Watching the program --
which tends toward conventional TV subject and style -- you might want
to bear this in mind.
- Life's
A Twitch: This portrait of Duncan McKinlay,
who is both an affably witty expert on Tourette's syndrome and a sufferer
of it, is a sure-fire slice of non-fiction inspirational feelgood.
Following
the socially fearless McKinlay -- who has learned to make public
sport of his various tics, snorts and twitches -- as he prepares
for his Ph.D. defense (on Tourette's) and as he recalls his painful
small-town childhood, Cindy Bisaillon's
film is a particularly successful example of the inspirational disability
documentary because the subject himself is so unguardedly captivating.
With McKinlay, it can't lose.
