- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
"Having ALS is like watching yourself get hit by a bus
"in excruciatingly slow motion-- only the head is spared--
"until all you have left
is your brain attached to a lifeless ragdoll body."
These are the words of the leading lady in tonight's film,
Eat Your Catfish .
ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
It is a debilitating, painful disease.
Once a person is diagnosed with ALS,
their life expectancy is two to five years.
Having said that, there are exceptions.
Stephen Hawking lived more than 50 years
after he was diagnosed with ALS.
In tonight's film, we meet main character Kathryn Arjomand,
who's been living with the disease for years
and needs 24-hour care.
Like Hawking, Kathryn's mind is completely intact.
In addition to her own struggles with this terrible illness,
Kathryn sees those around her struggle
as her condition has wreaked havoc on her entire family.
Kathryn confesses at one point
that she felt like ending it all.
but she is hanging on to watch her daughter get married.
This might be the absolute perfect documentary
to air on POV.
Eat Your Catfish is shot
almost entirely from Kathryn's point of view,
a decision made by one of the film's three directors,
her son Noah Arjomand.
Noah mounted a camera on Kathryn's wheelchair
so he could capture his mother's perspective.
He also has his mother narrate most of the film
through a speech generating device;
innovative but risky tactics for a first-time director
that obviously paid off
as the film has been accepted into several festivals
and makes its national TV Premiere tonight.
in addition to Noah Arjomand, Eat Your Catfish was also helmed
by Adam Isenberg and Senem Tüzen.
Arjomand shot the film, compiling 930 hours of footage.
His co-directors helped him sift through it,
ultimately whittling it down to feature film length.
in a recent interview, Noah Arjomand calls his film
"very personal."
From all accounts, that is an understatement,
as throughout filming,
Arjomand provides care for the person he loves the most,
keeps up with his studies,
and is caught in the middle
of his parents' crumbling marriage.
Somehow, through all that,
he managed to make a remarkably poignant film
and even found ways to work in humor,
while revealing his family's struggles
and financial hardships to the world.
In the words of Kathryn Arjomand,
"Love makes life totally compelling."
Kathryn's life and struggles
have made a magnificently compelling film.
Eat Your Catfish starts now
on PBS Wisconsin, your home for independent film.