Baldies

Being a bald kid with cancer is weird. Toby knows this, because every time his friends video chat with him, they look at him like he was a ghost. Today, he has to go to the hospital again. But this time, he needs to stay for a few weeks. In the hospital, he meets kids going through the same treatment as him. Toby does not like how everyone from the outside world looks at his new friends in the hospital, especially the beautiful Ema. So he decides to create and post the ultimate video-diary on the internet to connect the kids in the hospital with the healthy kids outside. The only way to fight this stigma is to talk about it with as many people as possible!

Director’s statement
The matter of cancer is a global issue, which is significant regardless of gender, age, race, or religion. The author of the project, Eliška Podzimková, is a former cancer patient herself. She was diagnosed at sixteen and now, ten years after the treatment she is still actively taking part in projects related to the topic.
The aim of the Baldies project is to bust the myths about cancer and present a positive point of view and attitude, which is important for treatment. At the beginning of the treatment process, the whole family with the child find themselves in a completely different situation. “I remember the moment when my psychologist drew everything on a piece of paper and explained what was going on inside my body. It was important for me to understand at least a little bit about what was happening and why, for instance, why my hair falling is out and why can I not go out,” recalls the author of the project, Eliška Podzimková.