Crazy Sexy Cancer: Kris Carr thrives despite cancer

Cancer thriver Kris Carr makes Crazy Sexy Cancer an affirmation of her life and spirit. Kris directs this uplifting documentary about claiming your vitality. It’s now available at Netflix and the Crazy Sexy Life website.

Wellness warrior steps up

On Valentine’s Day of 2003, Kris is diagnosed with Stage 4 of a rare, untreatable cancer. Her liver and lungs reveal 24 tumors. She shows you the x-rays.

Doctors tell Kris to “watch and wait.” This type of cancer may lie dormant for years.

“Wait for what?” Kris exclaims. She decides to find a cure and live. Really live.

Cowgirl with attitude

Kris sells her possessions and takes to the road, becoming a healing junkie. She begins directing Crazy Sexy Cancer, enlisting the help of cameraman Brian Fassett.

As CEO of The Office of Healing, she proactively calls doctors and health centers. They are her consultants. Her mom helps run the company. She perseveres with humor and sass.

Kris goes to bookstores and health expos. She receives acupuncture, chakra cleansing, Reiki and Chinese herbs. She tries visualization, anger and dance therapies.

Finding her “tribe,” other cancer survivors who live fully, reminds Kris that everyone has challenges in life. She is not alone.

Cancer as teacher

A professional actor, Kris brings an optimism that can inspire anyone facing a disease. Despair and depression don’t last long.

Kris discovers that the vegetable market is her pharmacy. Since this film was made, she has written several books, including the New York Times bestseller Crazy Sexy Diet.

Raw foods turning point

Kris’ meeting with Dr. Robert Young, the author of Sick and Tired?, becomes a turning point. All sickness stems from over acidity in the body, he tells her. “You’re only as healthy as the fluids you’re bathed in.” She embarks on a 21-day raw foods diet.

There are dark days. Kris craves her old, “normal” diet. “I want to go do bad things with bad people.” Nothing looks very appetizing. She finds ways to appreciate a whole new level of “delicious.”

Healthy body, healthy mind

Nutrient-rich vegetable juices and a vegetable-based diet, along with a daily power walk, give her lots of stamina. Yoga and lifestyle changes help her reduce stress.

Health is “everything that you eat, drink and think,” she says. Her friend Bhagavan Das tells her, “your confrontation with death is your spiritual turning point.” Shed “stinking thinking,” he advises.

Fun and romance

Kris’ life is a whirlwind of meetings with cancer survivors and luminaries like Dr. Mehmet Oz. Her Crazy Sexy Wellness business is booming. Vegetable juices, she says, are “the medicine, the muse, the best frickin’ beauty regime going.”

The heroine’s story includes a romance and a wedding. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Crazy Sexy Cancer, you might enjoy:  50/50; Hungry for Change.

 

Crazy, Sexy Cancer  /   2007  /  NR  /  1 hour, 29 min

Cast Overview:  Aura Carr, Kenneth Carr, Kris Carr, Leslie Carr, Anna Maria Clement, Brian Clement, Bhagavan Das, George Demetri, Jackie Farry, Yogeswari, Oni Faida Lampley, Brian Fassett

Directors:  Kris Carr

Genres:  Documentary, Health, Healing

Wake Up: Jonas Elrod sees spirits, finds new life meaning

Jonas Elrod sees spirits in Wake Up. He’s not crazy. The Georgia native awoke one morning with a new “gift” that may never go away.

Jonas and Chloe Crespi direct as he struggles to discover what it all means. The DVD is now available at the film website.

A friend lost

Just weeks before his friend Rob died in a motorcycle crash, Jonas began to see angels, demons, auras and visions. He confided in Rob almost every day. Now he must confront death and the reality of an afterlife.

“Odd geometries” of energy, light and shape come and go. Rooms grow very cold before spirits arrive. They want Jonas to tell everyone about them.

Angels offer the most beautiful visions. They are huge and have wings just like storybook images.

He meets with psychiatrist Richard Friedman and receives an MRI. “I don’t want people to think I’m a freak,” he confesses. His ability scares people. Doctors find nothing wrong with him.

Seeking guidance

Healer and author Abdi Assadi tells him that this is an opportunity to examine what’s happening and to see life’s possibilities. Assadi advises Jonas to keep meditating and not to try figuring it out.

Jonas meets with psychic researchers, a neurologist and spiritual teachers. What’s the purpose of the journey? When he asks God for guidance and direction, there seems to be no answer.

“Weird, beautiful and interesting”

Jonas’ girlfriend Mara Evans struggles with his new ability. Will it ever go away? Do they have to live with this forever? The two face despair and resistance.

Jonas and Mara meet with Rob’s mother Nina Brese. Nina held her son during his final moments. She’s convinced that there is life after death. “It makes you not scared to die,” she says.

Suffering prompts us to travel a spiritual path, Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe advises. As world systems collapse, we have the opportunity to transform them. “It takes a lot of courage to live in the world today,” she tells the couple.

Like so many of us, Jonas realizes he must look for answers within. He travels to Washington for a sweat lodge, fasting and vision quest under the guidance of Skokomish Nation leader Mark Colson.

Pizzazz needed

Wake Up misses several opportunities. Jonas mentions that the spirits of Rob and Jonas’ grandmother visited him. Reenacting those visits would help us make more sense of the mystery, and strengthen the narrative.

Jonas is very low key. His exhaustion and resistance are evident. More watchable are skeptical Mara and an assortment of spiritual teachers.

It is good to meet Jonas and to witness his journey. Yet his deeply personal story needed professional acting to make it a more stirring film.

Wake Up tells a tremendous story. It deserves a remake. (3 out of 5 stars)

If you like Wake Up, you might enjoy:  The Lovely Bones; Hereafter.

 

Wake Up  /   2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 37 min

Cast Overview: Jonas Elrod, Abdi Assadi, Mara Evans, Joan Halifax, J.Z. Knight, Stephan Schwartz, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Directors:  Jonas Elrod, Chloe Crespi

Genres:  Documentary, Spirituality