When I Walk

At the age of 25, New York filmmaker Jason DaSilva found out he had multiple sclerosis. Accustomed to traveling the world to make documentaries, he turned the camera on himself to record the next seven years. Although a positive thinker by nature, DaSilva is also a realist. As he puts it, MS “isn't fatal and it isn't contagious, but there's no cure or even treatment.” DaSilva's mother worries that the focused filming will make him feel worse about his life, but he insists that he finds it helpful. Their clear-eyed conversations represent a key aspect of When I Walk, which also features photographs and home movies depicting DaSilva expressing his creativity through music, dance, and visual art (he's a particularly talented cartoonist). During the production, DaSilva travels to India to work on another project, but vision problems lead him to abandon it. Later, he travels to Lourdes on the advice of his Catholic grandmother, but finds no benefit (and none from an experimental procedure). DaSilva's social life also suffers as he moves from a cane to a walker to a motorized scooter. At a support group, he meets Alice, whose mother has MS. The pair hit it off, but when he asks her what she'll do when he can no longer feed himself, she doesn't know how to respond. In time, however, they do decide to marry and the remainder of the film reflects their joys and challenges as newlyweds (Alice even helps Jason complete this film). An upbeat but also honest story of one man's struggles with a debilitating disease, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)