Inside the filmmaker’s studio with Jason DaSilva on his new film When I Walk - facebook prikbord

Inside the filmmaker’s studio with Jason DaSilva on his new film When I Walk about living with multiple sclerosis

Through the shaky hand-held camcorder, it looks like a beautiful day on Maho Beach. Located on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, jets fly in low over the cerulean bay to clear the short runway. The lens points up to the sky; the sun bleaches the atmosphere and a wave of gas shimmers off a wing as the plane descends over the beach.

The sun blisters, and a family on vacation has come to swim and capture the spectacle for home video posterity. Shooting the afternoon was the filmmaker Jason DaSilva’s idea, but he has fallen down and handed the camera over to this younger brother Leigh while he tries to stand up. But Leigh turns the camera on his brother. Jason lies prostrate on the beach. He’s in his mid 20s, wearing baggy cargo shorts with a sliver of white boxers peeking out, contrasting against his tan athletic torso, a tattoo winding around his right bicep. When he tries to stand up, he makes his way to his knees and he pushes down on the earth, gathering the momentum to pull his full body weight to his feet. After a few shaky attempts, Leigh hands the camera off to one of the many cousins on the beach, and comes over to help his older brother. Grabbing a forearm, Jason almost makes it this time, but falls backward again. Beginning the process once more, huddled on his hands and knees, Jason looks into the camera for a split second. He flashes a quick smile, as if it were just another home movie memory. But in his black eyes, squinting into the sun, there’s panic.

Wind whooshes from propellers overhead, and Jason is finally on his feet, framed by Leigh and his mother Marianne, who looks away from the camera to the ground, her face twisting in concern. Smiling broadly and dusting the sand off his hands, Jason tries to laugh it off. “I am a wreck!” he says. The footage is from six years ago when Jason could still walk, before the cane, the walker and then the wheelchair. It’s a few months after he was first diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. It’s also the moment he began capturing his disease on film.

More plus video: http://thenewinquiry.com/post/9917343695/when-jason-walks