Community News

FILM ON ENDOMETRIOSIS SCREENING AT PAC

'BELOW THE BELT' AT THE FILM HOUSE AT THE FIRSTONTARIO PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE MARCH 30 AND 31

ABBY GREEN agreen@metroland.com

Jessica Plenzick and April Hamm said when they saw the film "Below the Belt", she knew she had to bring it to St. Catharines.

They both suffer from a health condition called endometriosis.

Endometriosis is defined by the World Health Organization as a chronic disease in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus grows outside your uterus.

The disease is often extremely painful, and affects one in ten women.

The film "Below the Belt" follows four stories of women struggling with endometriosis and trying to overcome it.

"We went to a screening in Toronto," explained Plenzick. "Same sort of event, and we wanted to bring it here to the Niagara region."

The film will be screened twice at the Film House at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre: once on Thursday, March 30, and again on Friday, March 31.

Following the Friday screening will be a panel consisting of a fertility specialist, a social worker, a naturopath who focuses on women's health, a physiotherapist, and St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens.

Plenzick said she wanted to bring the show to Niagara because she feels women's health is still treated as a taboo subject.

"(As) a community member that has lived here her whole life, I found that for one I have a passion for it because it directly affects me. And two, I don't find we talk about this enough, endometriosis or women's health in Niagara," she said. " I feel like now is like the best time to start talking about this stuff because of the lack of funding, the lack of awareness, and education, this needs to be talked about."

The purpose of the panel after the movie, Plenzick said, is so people can tune into questions and answers about the disease from the selected professionals.

"If we can educate people of the community, even, you know, women that are in high school, we wish we knew the information that we know now," she said. "These are the types of questions that we would be asking to advocate for ourselves."

The film will show at 7 p.m. on both nights. Tickets cost $9.50, and are available through firstontariopac.ca

Though the panel is only after the Friday showing of the movie, Plenzick said this isn't the last time we'll hear from her.

"This is not going to stop after this event," Plenzick said. "We're already kind of working on things post this event and then we're hoping this could possibly turn into an annual event, maybe not the film, but bringing in key stakeholders into our community to talk about these things."

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2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281736978698979

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