Just Around the Corner

Co-directors Steve Caniff and Jim Justice's Just Around the Corner serves as a concert film, biographical profile, and work of healthcare activism, with the music performed to raise funds for Parkinson's research. The project was inspired by music industry veteran Bob Benjamin, who grew up in New Rochelle, NY, where he developed a lifelong love of softball, hockey, and rock and roll. Benjamin eventually went to college, worked at a record store, became a promoter, and started an independent label, but at the age of 38 found out he had Parkinson's disease, a chronic neurological disorder. Medical experts, along with individuals with Parkinson's, including Michael J. Fox, talk about the early-onset variant of this condition that primarily targets the elderly. Two years after being diagnosed, Benjamin began to raise funds, taking the name of his foundation, “Light of Day,” from Fox's 1987 movie of the same name, for which Bruce Springsteen penned the title track. Springsteen soon joined Benjamin's other friends and associates, including Jesse Malin, Live's Ed Kowalczyk, and The Sopranos' Vincent Pastore in hosting and playing an annual benefit on the Jersey Shore (Pastore lost his mother to Parkinson's). The fundraiser has since spread to Niagara Falls, Rome, and Toronto. An informative documentary that inspires (and all proceeds from DVD sales will go to the Light of Day foundation) but never sugarcoats the situation faced by Benjamin, Fox, and thousands of others, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)