Magnificent Burden

Filmmaker Rob Nelson profiles a most unlikely activist-crusader: California's Taylor Stein, who is described as a former Manhattan nightlife mainstay in the Paris Hilton mode—a spoiled, hard-drinking heiress and curvy fixture in the gossip pages. But the responsibilities of single parenthood with her daughter reportedly reformed her. When Stein then adopted a second child, a boy named Ren (who turned out to be a "black-market baby," cuing an entire sidebar), she discovered that he had ASM, a cruel, congenital degenerative spinal disease. In a narrative spanning several years, Stein becomes one of many frightened mothers and fathers hoping to qualify for clinical trials of possible drug treatments. She brings her larger-than-life personality to Washington D.C. to campaign for more urgency on behalf of the FDA, and she circulates among ASM parental support groups and events. An inspiring and often heartrending real-life drama, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)