Vicky @ HotDocs - Director Sasha King
b'In 2018 on the steps of The High Court, Vicky Phelan gave a now infamous address where she exposed one of the worst women\'s health scandals in Irish history, the cervical cancer debacle. "Vicky" is an exclusive and intimate journey into not only her fight to expose the truth of what happened for all women but also her own personal fight to stay alive. Sasha King directed and produced feature film AKRON with partner Brian O\'Donnell, shot in Ohio and Florida 2014. Since 2003 Sasha has won and acquired multiple funding awards and budgets for her programs from State Funders & Broadcasters primarily including The Irish Film Board, RTE TV, TG4 TV, Northern Ireland Film Commission, Filmbase, Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and International Funders including Atlantic Records, Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema. In 2005 Sasha was the unprecedented producer of two funded Irish Film Board films in the \'shortcuts\' scheme that fund only 5 per year. Her short film "Nostradamus and Me" with DOP Tim Fleming (Once) won the Galway Festival Best Short Award and awards at Kerry and Tribeca Film Festivals. In 2011, Vicky Phelan, a 37-year-old mother of two, went for a routine pap smear as part of Ireland\\u2019s national CervicalCheck campaign. She was given the all-clear, but three years later, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. By 2018, it was terminal. Phelan requested her medical file, and what she found would expose one of the largest women\\u2019s health care scandals in Irish history: the labs made errors, the administrators knew, but no one told the women. Refusing gag orders in exchange for financial settlements and quick legal resolutions, Phelan forced a paternalized whole-system failure into the light. Cameras reveal a plain-speaking titan for public justice, but also share the lesser-known stories of Phelan\\u2019s private battle to access experimental therapy and the plight of the nearly 220 other women abused by the state. Enraging and awe-inspiring, Vicky illuminates the unflinching courage of one woman who refused to go quietly. Myrocia Watamaniuk'