The film version of God Said "Ha!", Julia Sweeney's West Coast and Broadway autobiographical play about her battle with cancer, and concurrent family woes, is available on video.
The 1999 Miramax picture, an account of former "Saturday Night Live" actress Sweeney's monologue, runs 85 minutes.
*
The original stage rendition of God had a short run on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, November and December 1996. But Miramax Films soon acquired worldwide distribution rights for the film version, which is written and directed by Sweeney. Quentin Tarantino (Wait Until Dark) financed the film, which is produced by Rana Joy Glickman.
God Said `Ha!' has won Best Film in the 24th annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Some 40,000 public ballots were received in the category -- one of the largest in SIFF's history. "God Said `Ha!'" beat out "Children of Heaven," "Above Freezing" and "Smoke Signals" for the Golden Space Needle Award. The show, which originated at San Francisco's Magic Theatre in January 1996, deals with Sweeney's family, her brother's illness and her own bout with cervical cancer.
God Said `Ha!' is set in 1994, just after the completion of Sweeney's last season on "SNL," when she learns that her brother, Mike, has lymphoma.
Mike soon moves into her Hollywood bungalow. A few weeks later her parents, naturally distraught, arrive with ten suitcases. The problems escalate, as does the black comedy, until matters take on a surreal tone. As if that weren't enough, Sweeney herself was then diagnosed with cervical cancer.
