Alan Blassberg, director and producer, shares the male perspective on BRCA and breast cancer

We’re excited to talk to Alan Blassberg who directed and produced the documentary: “Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer.”

In 2004, Alan launched his own production company, First Prize Productions. Pink & Blue is his first documentary directorial debut. Pink and Blue shines a light on the BRCA mutations and the experience of women and men making decisions to keep themselves healthy. In this documentary, Alan also tells his own story of being a BRCA2 positive male to highlight the experience of those who are at risk of male breast cancer.

You can rent or buy Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer on iTunes or Google Play.

We’ve posted complete transcript of the podcast below. You can subscribe to Sequenced on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play.

Dr. Kiki: Welcome to “Sequenced,” where we talk to healthcare influencers, investors, and advocates about the changing world of healthcare. This podcast is brought to you by Color, a health service company. And I’m your host, Dr. Kiki.

On this episode, our guest is Alan Blassberg. He is the director and producer of “Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer.” In 2004, Alan launched his own production company, First Prize Productions. And Pink & Blue is his first documentary directorial debut. The film is an emotional journey that take viewers through the lives of women and men who are dealing with BRCA mutations and hereditary cancer. Alan, welcome to the podcast.

Alan: Well, thank you for having me on the show.

Dr. Kiki: You’re welcome. So, just to jump in to things, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your career in film production and directing.

Alan: Sure. My name is Alan Blassberg, producer and director, originally from Connecticut. I couldn’t take the winters anymore so I moved to West and I’ve been here for about 18 years. I started off as a videographer, worked my way up to producing and directing.

I’ve been very fortunate to have an eclectic career from shows ranging from the world’s most dangerous jobs up in the Bering Sea with king crab fishermen that turned out to be the “Deadliest Catch” for Discovery Channel, produced comedies for NBC, more salacious shows back about 20 years ago, “Temptation Island,” which kinda helped light the reality fuse. But I try to focus a career and concentrate more on the documentary side of reality, with shows like “Police Women of Broward County,” Maricopa County, and programming like that.

Dr. Kiki: What inspired you to jump into a feature documentary and specifically one about the BRCA mutation?

Alan: Well, unfortunately, we had to learn the hard way and that entailed getting information through a sick relative. My mother’s great grandmother died of uterine cancer. My grandmother Irma, on my maternal side, passed two weeks before I was born from breast cancer. My aunt Carol passed from ovarian cancer. My sister passed in 2011. She was BRCA2 and triple negative. And my other sister tested positive to mutation and had preventative surgeries.

That was kind of my lead into learning about hereditary cancers and the mutation BRCA2, which is what our family has. That’s really what kicked things into high gear as far as putting a documentary together. It was a whole set of events, but it really had to do with my sister Sammy being sick from 2009 to 2011.

Dr. Kiki: In thinking about your own experiences and your family’s experiences, obviously, you’ve been impacted significantly, you and your loved ones. So, as you were going through your film career and building up, at what point did you really realize, “I should get tested for this myself”?

Alan: Well, through my sister Lisa. Lisa is the one who had preventative surgeries. Her oncological surgeon said to me a couple of times, “Hey, Alan, you should get tested for BRCA, for B-R-C-A.” And I kind of just pooh-poohed it. She said, “Listen, men can carry this and you could have a higher percentage of some cancers down the road.” And she said it a couple of times.

With everything that was going on in my life at that time, with my fiancée’s cancer came back. There was a lot of on the plate. And I heard it, but she brought it up three or four more times. And I think the “Jewish guilt” finally got to me. It took about a year.

I was a little slow, but I had the information. I saw what it did to my sister and my family, and I knew what was going on, and I was learning about this mutation and hereditary cancers, and I had the information. I told myself, if I don’t do something with the information, I’m just being stupid. I’m not looking out for my relationship or my family, just being careless.

So, that’s what I did. I went and got tested. When they said, “Hey, why don’t you come down to the doctor’s office.” I knew I tested positive. And then I took it one step at time from there.

Dr. Kiki: Was the next step to get counseling of some kind?

Alan: Well, in hindsight, I did not go to a genetic counselor at that time. I had been going with my fiancée through her procedures. She had a double mastectomy and like I said, her cancer came back. I befriended her oncological surgeon, Dr. Giuliano. And Dr. Giuliano a was gentleman who actually wrote a book on sentinel node biopsies. We developed a friendship in the room. I said to Stephanie, “Hey, maybe I’ll come to one of your appointments.” And she said, “Fine.” And it was a little less intimidating that way for me, I think.

And I was in the waiting room waiting for Stephanie or I was waiting for my sister or whoever it may be. But this time, it was different. I think it was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and everything was pink and they gave me the forms to fill out. I had a lot of trouble filling up the forms because everything was “When was your last pregnancy? How many kids do you have?” I’m very sarcastic and Stephanie is as well, so we were joking around. But I couldn’t really fill too many things out.

I handed it back in. And they called my name and they brought me back into a changing area. I changed into a white robe with a big pink ribbon, and they brought me to the examination room, and this is a whole different, now, experience for me. I’ve seen everything else, but now this is my personal experience.

I’m sitting on the examination table and the curtains were drawn. And a physician assistant comes back and opens it up halfway and says, “Oh, Mrs. Blassberg.” And it hit me right there that, well, I was mad. I was sad. I felt emasculated. If I hadn’t had the time I had in the hospital with my sister or family, I would’ve walked out. But I kind of processed it there and I said to myself, “Wait a second, other men and other people have to be going through this. Let me talk to Dr. Giuliano, see if I can interview him first and then take it from there.”

It wasn’t really, “Hey, let’s do this film,” to start with. It was a one piece to start with and then everything kind of fell into line. I’m a universal-energy-type person. From that first interview, we then did a Kickstarter campaign. From there, it was successful. And in 23 days, I picked up an executive producer who’s an advocate, Amy Byer Shainman, who’s the BRCA responder. And things moved from there. We started meeting the right people.

Dr. Kiki: Looking at a Google search for the words pink and blue and breast cancer, your documentary comes up predominantly. Can you tell me the story of the title of the documentary? Also, was it really one of the first major media efforts to get out this idea that men and women are affected by breast cancer and we need to be talking about it?

Alan: That’s what I learned through this whole journey of mine, making this film. Not only were they the heartfelt emotions of losing people, but the information I would gather. I would learn things like there’s a higher percentage of men dying from breast cancer than women. Things like that just blew me away.

I didn’t want it to be just solely in that realm of sad. I wanted there to be laughs. And there are throughout the film. And I wanted people to tell their stories. And I wanted them to have that freedom to do that and make their own decisions. And through that I would learn these tidbits of what my percentages were for be it breast cancer or whatever it may be.

As I saw all the pink in that first experience in the oncology office, I said to myself, it’s not just about… It’s not one color or the other color. It’s all the colors. You know, it’s not pink, it’s not blue, it’s not teal. And, you know, it should be a combination of all of them. So, I wanted it to be pronounced. I wanted it to be, you know, I had the image of the poster in my head with a gentleman and his hand over his mastectomy scar. And, you know, a female and a male holding hands. And so, people would kinda look at that and pay a little more attention and think a little more about it.

Obviously, we follow the Pink & Blue with the Colors of Hereditary Cancer so you’d know what you are getting. But I definitely wanted both sides of the spectrum on this. That’s for sure.

Dr. Kiki: What was it like to film your documentary? How did you approach it?

Alan: Well, the first interview with Dr. Giuliano was the first piece of the film. From there, we did the Kickstarter. And from there, we started meeting people. I met our executive producer Amy Byer Shainman, who’s a BRCA responder. That opened up to the Basser Center, and interviewing Jon and Mindy Gray, Susan Domchek, and Dr. Ashworth, up at UCSF, and talking to both Angelina Jolie’s surgeons.

It kind of just morphed into the next one. The next indicated step that came up, I would take. We would look at it and I would say, “Okay. Where do we want to go from here? What are the stories I’m looking to tell?” There were certain aspects in the realm that I wanted to tell, nothing specific. I didn’t want to show, female mastectomy scars. I didn’t want to dissuade anybody from making their own decision.
I wanted to just put as much information out there as possible, in a very simple fashion too. If people walked away from the film and knew what BRCA was, and knew what the definition was, and that maybe they should go talk to a certified genetic counselor, I was happy at the end of it. I really was. I didn’t want our professionals to talk down to people. And none of them did. They were great. I couldn’t have been more pleased and happy with the people we had in the film. I’m a universal-energy person and it worked the way it was supposed to work from beginning to end.

Dr. Kiki: You took a very personal perspective with this film. And there are some scenes in which you’re talking to the camera in your car, you talk with your own family members. But then there’s also the outside perspectives of other cancer survivors, of people with the BRCA gene mutation, scientists. How did you balance the various aspects of your story in the final film?

Alan: I’ve wrote a script with another person. And not a feature-length script but just of ideas and stories. It’s the most personal story I’ll ever tell. There’s no question about that. I really thought hard about putting myself in this film. Based on carrying the mutation and the loss, I just thought it was the right thing to do. And I said to myself, get over it. If you can help one person, if you can get a mammogram. It was embarrassing. Did I want to take my shirt off and go through a mammogram? No, I didn’t. But, again no one sees this. Maybe if I had seen this, it would’ve made it easier for me.

That was the whole point of just throwing ego away and humbling myself and just being honest with all the pain and all the loss. Everybody who’s gone through this, we all have an attachment to cancer somewhere and everybody’s story is different and I just thought bringing my story and pain and happiness to other people, maybe it could help.

Dr. Kiki: Do you think that it has helped? Have you had responses and has the film connected you with the breast cancer community?

Alan: It’s the best part of all this. The two years that I was not on the map and bury myself all the shoots, basically. And travel across the country, the best thing in the world is when somebody says, “You know, somebody in the family got tested. We saw the film and, you know, we’re gonna talk to a genetic counselor now.” And it’s happened over and over. And people have said, “You know, you might have saved our family’s lives.” And you hear things like that and they just… It’s beyond humbling. I mean, it blows us away.

And it’s a team effort. It wasn’t just me, obviously, putting this film together. It’s a lot of great people. And we were all able to hear that at different times. And you just…you cry, I mean, the tears come out and, you know, you give somebody a hug, whomever it may be, somebody in Florida, or somebody in London. I mean, we’ve had such great opportunities with education all over the world, throughout the country. And that’s a beautiful part.

This is not my retirement film. That’s for sure. This is about paying it forward and working with good people. There’s just so many good organizations out there that we’ve been really privy to and built relationships with. I’m just really blessed to be able to have put this film together.

Dr. Kiki: How do you feel about the educational component of the film in terms of people understanding that there’s this preventative aspect that if they get tested or even go beyond that and make the decision to have a mastectomy that that can affect their risk levels for their future?

Alan: Well I wanted to make certain in the education was that having the mutation was not having cancer. It doesn’t mean you’re going to have cancer. And I think we say that, a couple of times without saying it too many times. We lay out the risks for BRCA1 that the chances of breast cancer can go up to the 81%, the chances of ovarian cancer can go up to 54 by age 80. We chart it without being too technical. We keep things simple. We do the risks for women with BRCA1 and 2. We do the risk for men with BRCA1 and 2. We also talk about what you might want to look at and take care of preventatively.

But I had never been familiar with it. I saw it through my sister Lisa, who chose to have the preventative surgeries based on the information that she gathered. She did a lot of research. It took her about a year to decide to do that. She’s incredible. People that chose to do that are just unbelievable people.

We wanted it to be that introduction and the first couple of steps. And we didn’t want people to fear this and fear what this is all about because cancer is scary in any aspect and especially when you’re dealing with, you know, entire families. It becomes a whole different ball game. Cancer is horrendous by itself. But then you factor in entire families, it becomes something else. Communication between families then becomes something else, and dynamics become different as well.

It’s truly incredible, people that chose to have preventive surgeries. And people that don’t as well. And they want to do surveillance. It’s up to the individual. It’s up to that individual, what they feel comfortable with.

Dr. Kiki: I wonder if your film is helping men and women get more comfortable with the idea of the mammogram as a preventative test. You mentioned in an earlier answer that as you’re getting a mammogram, it’s uncomfortable and it’s a little bit weird. But it’s one of the possible preventative steps you can take.

Alan: I feel badly for not asking my two sisters and my mom for years upon years upon years how they were feeling after they had their mammograms because I never knew what it entail. They’re not fun. They’re lonely. They’re painful. They’re scary. But that’s what you do if you want to get to the bottom of things and see what’s going on, and take care of yourself.

Do you go to the dermatologist because my chances of having melanoma are increased? Do I go have my colonoscopies? Look at the pancreas. Get my breast checked. I go more times than my fiancée each year. I go get a mammogram every six months and then MRI. But these are the things based on my testing positive for this mutation that I want to do to stay alive and that’s what it boils down to. If I can head anything off at the pass, that’s what I want to do.

Dr. Kiki: For you, personally, has it gotten any easier with time to go into those tests?

Alan: No. It’s a quick no. Honestly, I can sit here and say, “Oh, yeah.” It’s not. It’s not set up for men. The forms, the centers, the questions, the dialog in our society. Forty years ago, people used to talk about breast cancer and it was a hush-hush and people wouldn’t talk about it. And now, you can talk about breast cancer anywhere. We could go to a restaurant and you and I could be loud and talk about breast cancer.

I think if we were to say male breast cancer, I that the heads would turn. I really do. Every six months that I go, the two weeks prior to, I start getting nervous and the anxiety and things like that. And it’s kind of re-upping every six months. I’m blessed because I’m able to have this information. It’s unfortunate because I had to lose my sister in order to get this information.

In a lot of families, unfortunately, have to lose people to get this information. And that’s part of it. Anything I can do to get the word out i, in the smallest degree as far as information and what this entails, I want to do it because you might get to that one person. You never know. And having this information, you just feel propelled to tell somebody and you wanna tell other people and explain. And maybe, they pass it on to the right person too.

Dr. Kiki: Do you think there are things that healthcare providers and caregivers…I mean, you’ve mentioned these forms that are very female oriented. And other than maybe having different entry forms into the insurance and healthcare system, what things can be done to make it easier for men to seek treatment? What would make it less embarrassing for you, personally, or less lonely?

Alan: I think if we didn’t talk about it as a female disease and we talked about it as a people disease, I think that helps. I think that could be a start with how we talk about things and what the conversation entails. The forms at Basser have changed. They were great. They changed some of their wording and Cedars has as well.

So, those are little things. But these centers aren’t set up for men. And I’m not saying it should be 50/50. I know there’s a huge difference. There’s a big difference in who’s coming in the doors and who’s not. But I think some things that can change are conversation, form, colors, you know, even group meetings, and invite men and women to talk together.

There are so many misconceptions still out there that need to go away. And that’s part of the conversation. I hear all the time that a lot of people still think you can only carry this mutation from the maternal side and that’s not the case. It’s 50% of men out there, and 50% of the women. Men can carry the mutation. Women can. It’s not just pink. It’s all the colors and that’s what it’s gonna take.

I think those conversations, and its organizations, its color with the information. It is things like the FORCE conference. And films like Pink & Blue. It’s films like “In the Family,” you know. We need more of it, though. We really need more of it and there’s a lot of misconceptions. The misconceptions really fall a lot on the male side. There’s so many people that don’t even think men can get breast cancer. It boggled my mind.

Every male in “Pink & Blue,” in this film, went into their doctor and their doctor said, “Don’t worry, it’s just a cyst.” All of them had breast cancer in the and if they had waited longer, they would’ve been at stage 4 and before you know it, they would have passed on.

It’s things like that make me extremely passionate to get this information out and do what I can and travel the country and do whatever it takes from big cities to small cities. It’s finding that one person and getting that information out there is what it’s all about.

Dr. Kiki: Have you found through your own investigations whether or not when men are diagnosed with breast cancer, what it is that potentially leads to them more likely to die? Is it the way that treatment and care is set up with the female perspective, or is it greater aggressiveness of cancer in men, or do you know?

Alan: Men don’t go get the lumps and bumps looked at. You know, that’s a big part of the problem. “Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. You know, I’ll get it checked another time.” I think that’s part of it. I think that coupled with the, “Hey, it could be a cyst. Don’t worry about it.” And next time you come in, it’s the size of a golf ball and it’s painful. I think there’s mix between the two. I don’t think, you know, doctors look at that side hard enough as far as a male breast cancer and as far as a mutation, as far as being mutation carriers.

I’ve heard doctors before, they weren’t on tape, unfortunately and fortunately, but I had been privy to, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Let’s just talk about the maternal side.” Look, if I could help one other family get the information so they don’t lose their sister or brother or mom or dad, that’s what it’s about.

Unfortunately, our family had to lose people and my sister, to get that information. Now we just need to clarify and we need to go further and move that conversation to different places, and the right information. I’m not saying it’s all wrong, but there definitely on the male side is misinformation. There aren’t studies about male breast. There just aren’t. They’re too expensive and there’s not enough men at this point.

And it’s tough. It’s tough talking to these gentlemen. It’s their families. It’s a whole different world. We can’t shy away from it. It can’t be a hidden-type thing. We need to talk about. We talk about everything else in this society. Let’s just talk about male breast cancer. It happens. And let’s help men get tested and let’s get the information in the right hands. And I think we’ll be doing better.

In the last couple of years, there’s so many great organizations and information out there. I think things are changing. Eventually, it’ll get to where it needs to be. And that’s why we’re in a pre-production of “Pink & Blue 2” right now.

Dr. Kiki: Oh, wow. So, is that what’s next for you in your journey for BRCA advocacy and men’s health? Is there more?

Alan: It’s funny, I thought I would be able to just move on to the next project, but this passion project is just so deep. I’m so deeply attached to it based on everything, family, myself, everything, that I think I’ll always be part of it. I needed a break from it for a little while because of how intense it is emotionally. And seeing, the other families and my family, but it is something that I would like to continue and take the next step as far as the education is concerned. We have some really great stories that weren’t told, but that are fascinating.

We talked about preventive surgeries and things like that. We talked about men having preventive surgeries. It’s going to happen at some point. We have different people and stories. Congresswoman Schultz, the Grays, and a lot of other people that we weren’t able to put into “Pink & Blue 1” that they’re so special we wanted a place for them. And that’s really, you know, I’m happy to be part of it and put it together.

Dr. Kiki: Where can people find “Pink & Blue 1: the Hereditary Cancer?”

Alan: On iTunes and Google Play right now. And, look, if anybody has a question, they can email me directly, you know, and I’ll put them in touch with the person that can get them the answer. It is not just about the sale of the film, but any question they might have based on this, or if they just want to talk off the record, but I can help them get the answer they need. I most certainly don’t have the answer, but the organizations that I’ve dealt with, somebody has the answer. And we can get that to them.

And sometimes, it’s embarrassing, or they want to keep it quiet. So, you know, people can reach out to me. It’s alan@pinkandbluemovie.com. I’ll answer anything. I get back to everybody and that’s what it’s about. Somebody did that for me and took their time and answered the questions and helped me get educated. I think that what’s it takes to pay it forward. We’re all one big team working together to help others and get that information out there.

Dr. Kiki: Yeah, it’s the conversation and talking about it, being open about it, and sharing it as much as possible, for sure.

Alan: Exactly.

Dr. Kiki: Is there anything else that you want to say to people who might be coming up for the first time against this issue of male breast cancer and the BRCA mutation?

Alan: I know it’s cliché, but it is the one step at a time. It can be overwhelming. So, get the first answer. Is it, do you need to know what the definition of BRCA is? Do you want to go talk to a certified genetic counselor? One step at a time and you can get there. It’s not so overbearing that you can’t get the information or you can’t get the information to your family and disseminate it that way as well. Lot of great organizations out there that have information on websites. There are also male breast cancer advocacy organizations. It took me a couple of weeks, but I found two groups that were, you know, solely based advocacy groups for men with male breast cancer. From the BRCA brotherhood, some of the men have breast cancer in there to check your pecks. Everybody who I’ve come in contact with wants to help somebody else or just get them the information, it is very personal, all of this, with families in cancer.

And I think the people I’ve come in contact with or how it goes is, you know, just that one answer can just keep people moving in the right direction. And like you said, it’s that conversation. You keep that conversation going. And I think we’re gonna be in a good place. And I really think we’re moving down the right path, especially with the new mutations that are coming out there as well, you know.

Dr. Kiki: Yeah, detection is the first line of defense. And thank you so much for joining me today, for telling your story, for making your documentary. Thank you.

Alan: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.