So Much So Fast

The Remarkable Story of
the Heywood Brothers
Has Captured National Attention.

When asked what he would do differently in the five years since his ALS diagnosis, Stephen Heywood replied, "Have more sex on film." What would you do if you were 29 and found you may only have a few years to live? The film is about the remarkable events set in motion when Stephen Heywood discovered he had the paralyzing neural disorder ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Made over five years, So Much So Fast tracks one family's ferocious response to an orphan disease: the kind of disease drug companies ignore because not there's not enough profit in curing it. In reaction, and with no medical background, Stephen's brother Jamie creates a guerrilla-science research group and in two years builds it from three people in a basement to a multi-million dollar ALS mouse facility, the largest anywhere. Finding a drug in time becomes Jamie's all-consuming obsession. Stephen's position is you can't live every day like it's your last (since you'd be hung over every morning). Instead, he gets married, has a son and rebuilds two houses. He and his wife Wendy's laser-like observations of the world and their predicament go to the heart of the fragility of being alive.

Year: 2006, Length: 87 min., Origin: Massachusetts, USA
Producer/Director,Writer: Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan, Cinematographer: Steven Ascher, Composer: Sheldon Mirowitz, Editor: Jeanne Jordan