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Local filmmaker's 'Bubble Girl' offers hope to kids with cancer

North Park Theatre

Movies about hope have been around since the image started moving on a screen. Now there is a new local film about hope and children undergoing major medical treatment.

           

"Bubble Girl" isn't Peter McGennis' first film. He's had others like "Queen City" and "Buffalo Bushido" and says his latest movie follows those other locally-based films.

"'Bubble Girl' is really the third installment of a seemingly unrelated trilogy of films about Buffalo, seeing Buffalo from different sides, and it's a love letter of its own," he said.

McGennis said he could make this movie because the local technical and staffing base for making films has gradually developed.

Working with local performers, including his daughter Claire and patients from Roswell Park, the director put "Bubble Girl" together over five years. He has also worked with the Courage of Carly Fund children.

McGennis said truth was important to the movie.

"We have Carly's Kids in the film and it was very important to align and respect and really see this experience through the eyes of a child," McGennis said.

McGennis said his goal is getting this message of hope into the hands of families going through problems like cancer. That is why he spent years working with Roswell Park putting together the film.

"It's a vehicle for conversation, for event sponsorship," he said. "The ultimate destination is to get this film into the hands of families going through an ordeal so it sparks the imagination and get's them through a difficult patch."

McGennis is showing his new film at the North Park Theatre. He screened it Sunday and is holding another screening at 7 p.m. Monday at the Hertel Avenue landmark. After the screening, McGennis will be on hand for a question and answer session.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.