- Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we meet three people
dealing with the effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
or ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease,
in the film Matter of Mind: My ALS.
ALS is a neuromuscular disease
which affects the brain's ability to control muscles,
eventually rendering its victims with the inability to speak,
move, eat, and ultimately breathe.
Typical life expectancy after one acquires ALS
is less than 5 years.
Matter of Mind pulls no punches
as it shows the effects of this crippling illness
on its three subjects and the heartbreaking circumstances
in how they are affected.
Michele Stellato was just 32 when she was diagnosed.
Stellato is a communications director
and is using her talents to educate other ALS patients
on how to live a better life, despite their condition.
Charlie Wren was a mechanic until he contracted ALS.
He is now completely paralyzed,
with the exception of only his eyes.
The film's third subject is Phil Freelon,
a renowned African-American architect who discovered
he had ALS at the pinnacle of his career,
the night before he completed work on the
National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Matter of Mind: My ALS
is co-directed by Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin.
This is not the first time a collaboration by this duo
has appeared on Independent Lens.
They teamed up for the award-winning film
The Providers in 2019.
In a recent interview, the directors said
that the inspiration to make this film
came from their fascination
of how people cope and manage to forge a path
while dealing with a fatal illness
that progresses so rapidly.
Matter of Mind is actually the first
in a three-part series of documentaries
that Green and Moot-Levin are in the process of creating
that focus on neurodegenerative diseases.
Their next two installments will explore the effects
of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
In a recent interview,
the directors said they felt a calling
to ask the question, "What are our responsibilities
"as a society to those with diseases like Parkinson's,
"Alzheimer's, and ALS,
"and how can our health care system better support people
with incurable diseases?"
We'll get some answers very shortly.
Matter of Mind: My ALS starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.