A documentary on former Saints player Steve Gleason’s life with Lou Gehrig’s disease debuts this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
“GLEASON” is a revealing look at life with ALS and includes home videos Gleason began making when he was still able to speak for his son, Rivers. A camera crew followed Gleason for about four years and documented his struggles and journey; he uses a motorized wheelchair and relies on a system of surgically attached tubes to eat and breathe.
Gleason’s wife, Michel, told the Associated Press the film offers “a good picture of how brutal the disease is and how difficult it is for the person who has the disease and also the people all around.
“At the same time, there’s lots of beauty in it and lots of friendship, family, love, laughter, happiness.”
Steve Gleason uses eye-tracking technology to type words spoken by a computer. In an interview, he said he won’t “ever be completely comfortable with some of these intimate and raw moments being public. At the same time, I believe that our greatest strength as humans is to share our weakness and vulnerability with each other.”
Gleason won the George Halas Award from the Professional Football Writer’s Association last year.