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Wed 17th Mar 2010
	21:30	Divorce Iranian Style
	23:00	Your Sport
	23:15	Justicia Now!
	23:50	Girl Stars
Thu 18th Mar 2010
	00:00	Girl Stars

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Disability Week

Ruth

when is this on?

This isn't scheduled anytime soon.

This film is a conversation between film maker Michael Frantzis and Ruth a woman who has had Parkinson’s disease for 12 years.

Ruth has had a pioneering treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) a surgical treatment in which a brain pacemaker is implanted and sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain.

DBS directly changes brain activity in a controlled manner but its effects are also reversible. It enables Ruth to gain some control over her body. Control which disappears when she turns the electrodes off.

Ruth in conversation

Ruth's life has changed dramatically as a result of this technology. She says she has 12 years she needs to "catch up on". The conversation is open and reflective, as Ruth discusses the isolating illness that has progressively transformed her body into a prison.

Filming Ruth offered Frantzis “an intriguing way of looking at how much of our personalities are rooted in the essentially physical matter that is the brain”.

The result had a much greater impact than the filmmaker anticipated. “The humanity that came through Ruth in the film and the profound impact that DBS had on that humanity was striking”.

Frantzis pays tribute to the character of Ruth who bravely agreed to go before the camera in this fashion and to the clinicians and surgeons at the Sobell Institute whose work and research allowed her to tell her story.

To find out more, contact Ruth's blog about DBS and her situation, and director Michael Frantzis through his blog.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 September 2008 )

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Ruth

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