Chicago filmmaker: Ben Byer, 'Indestructible'

This review appeared in my blog, www.myspace.com/tpmlastblog, after I saw it at the Midwest Independent Film Festival last October…

Because of my passion for film art, the universe often clicks by 24 frames at a time. And within the interaction with the projected image, there are times when a film maker’s soul touches mine, and can create new thoughts and energy for my own life. I was privileged to view a documentary film called Indestructible, and experienced through that screening a new definition for hope.

Director and Writer Ben Byers was 31 years old when he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, AKA Lou Gehrig’s Disease), the perplexing condition of neurological destruction that for now is a slow, painful path toward mortality. He began at that point to document his life on camera, and in the next three years he shows, through his body and mind, how the disease progresses. At the same time he interviews fellow ALS sufferers for their perspective, seeks the experts/healers/gurus to modify the symptoms and finally projects his own pure spirituality to illustrate all that is gained even when all seems lost.

It is a journey that takes him around the country, around the world and through the landscape of his own being. A woman with the disease in an overseas land wonders about his sadness. Doctors in China tout new therapies, which originates new expectations and opens new conflicts (both within himself and his family). He shines a light on a religion he thought he’d lost, and found necessary guidance.

Towards the end of the film, there is a stunning switch to a pre-ALS Ben, speaking into a video camera about his future. He has the cocky, self assurance of vibrant youth and power. But there are some cracks in the facade, a frustration as to why nothing had happened to him up to that time. The counterpoint of the intervening years strangely answers his frustrations, albeit in a way his younger self could never anticipate, but as poignant and profound as the gift of life can be.

It would have been easy for Ben to fade away within the disease, but he chose to be a true artist and fight for his perspective to be shared. I learned a lesson not only in his courage and honesty in living with ALS, but also a lesson in his humanity, the meaning of being essentially alive every moment. Disease may alter Ben’s individual physicality, but his life force has a spiritual power that will alter us all.

Hank’s in a band! www.myspace.com/thetelepaths