PRESS RELEASE: Fixing My Brain
The inspirational story of how one woman fixed her own brain.
Premieres Tuesday, November 18 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBC News: The Lens
(For Immediate Release – October 27, 2008) TORONTO - On Tuesday, November 18th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT CBC Newsworld presents FIXING MY BRAIN, a one-hour documentary that tells the dramatic story of Barbara Arrowsmith, a woman who fixed her own brain, and the journey of three learning-disabled boys who spent a year at her “brain bootcamp” in an effort to improve their brain function. FIXING MY BRAIN explores the question: Are we stuck with the brain that we’re born with, or is the brain a highly intelligent muscle, able to change itself through specific exercises?
Barbara Arrowsmith was born with a “broken brain”. Although her brilliant memory had propelled her through a graduate degree, she still couldn’t read a clock, tell right from left, or understand conversations in real time. Exhausted by the stress of hiding her weaknesses, she contemplated suicide. But she was ferociously determined to discover why her brain was “broken”.
With extraordinary diligence, Barbara Arrowsmith fused several different strands of brain science and by using herself as a guinea pig – she fixed her own brain. Putting herself through a “brain boot camp” for twelve hours a day over many months, she used her self-created exercises to stimulate the weak areas of her brain and achieved extraordinary results. FIXING MY BRAIN also follows the courageous journey of three learning-disabled boys as they face the challenges of re-wiring their brains.
“FIXING MY BRAIN challenges our preconceptions of who we are, how we learn and how we teach our children. It examines the exhilarating possibility that we truly can change our destiny by learning how to change the pathways of our brain,“ says award-winning writer and director Christina Pochmursky.
Barbara Arrowsmith’s training system is still the only one of its kind in the world and her role as a visionary leader in education is only now being acknowledged.
FIXING MY BRAIN was produced by Matter of Fact Media in association with CBC Newsworld and with the financial participation of The Canadian Television Fund, The Rogers Documentary Fund, CIFVF, Canadian tax credit programs and Knowledge Network.
Matter of Fact Media is a Toronto-based production company specializing in HD documentary and factual programming. Launched in 2006 by producer Vanessa Dylyn and Christina Pochmursky, an award-winning journalist and the former Commissioning Editor of The Documentary Channel, they are responsible for an impressive slate of documentaries and series that have aired on PBS, Discovery Channel, History Channel and Canal+ in Europe and upcoming films for CBC, CTV and National Geographic International. Matter of Fact Media is currently producing a documentary about the brain’s love affair with music, and features extensive interviews and brain scans with recording artist Sting.
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