No Longer Painting By Numbers
Commissioned by the Union for International Cancer Control to mark the launch of their World Cancer Day 2025, which takes place on the 4th of February, Casual films continue to prove their prowess in harnessing emotive filmmaking to land a simple message. This time, they need only a minute to do so.
There are vanishingly few who are inexperienced at looking into the unwelcome and sadly all too familiar face of Cancer, and UICC’s work spreads wide across 170 countries. Whether we encounter it first hand, vicariously through the ordeals of those close to us, or perhaps in a professional capacity, there are also fewer still places to turn where its presence has not been felt. These are the ripples that continue moving outward long after the stone has passed the event horizon. It seems increasingly clear that, one day, Cancer and our vivid experiences of it, will rightly be marked as the blight of our times.
With such a unique emotional and societal juggernaut, there is a gravity that comes with it which often slows our inclination to approach and confront it. This is ironically at a time when doing so would be most advantageous to us as a collective: when the sun is shining, and all is well. But the times of burying heads in sand and turning away in the hope that the hand of Cancer, if we’re lucky, may not extend so far as to reach us, is thankfully a stigma that is passing away. By refocussing public perception of the disease away from the number of sufferers globally towards the names, mannerisms, aspirations, vocal tones and hopes of those behind the numbers, moving pieces like the one above are the welcome oil lubricating engines of both change and conversation. We should no longer accept the stories of sufferers to hang passively on the screen before us, where they are robbed of all agency and humanity to be simply acted upon.
Through a deft blend of intimate photography and handheld footage (that could be mistaken for the cinematic handywork of Sofia Coppola or Malick), Casual lends its creative talent to the wider cause of remounting The Sufferer’s Portrait. It is truly affecting.
At a time where our attentions are increasingly compromised, compressed, and tend to sag under the weight of overabundant content, this piece works to realign them via the human stories behind the numbers. And it is a crucial adjustment since there can be no doubt that our collective and very public confrontation of the topic is needed for us to make the greater strides towards true progress in both the medical research and community. Casual are using their palette to full effect here, and the colours used are vivid.
