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Indestructible

Indestructible

By Ben Byer

United States, Jamaica, China, Israel, Egypt, Greece 113 minutes 2008 English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tibetan, Greek
Genres
Keywords
Awards
  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (Winner) - 2008 Roving Eye Documentary Film Festival (Providence, RI)
  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (Winner) - 2007 Midwest Independent Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
  • BEST DIRECTOR (Winner) - 2007 Midwest Independent Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
  • BEST EDITING (Winner) - 2007 Midwest Independent Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
  • BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY (Winner) - 2008 Oxford International Film Festival (Oxford, OH)
  • BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY (Winner) - 2008 Lake County Film Festival (Vernon Hills, United States)
Festivals
  • Astoria InternationalFilm Festival 2008 (Astoria, OR)
  • Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series 2008 (Brooklyn, NY)
  • Byron Bay Film Festival 2008 (Byron Bay, AUSTRALIA)
  • Docupolis8 2008 (Barcelona, SPAIN)
  • Festivus 2008 (Denver, Colorado)
  • Kansas International Film Festival 2008 (Kansas City, United States)
  • Lake County Film Festival 2008 (Vernon Hills, United States)
  • New Orleans Film Festival 2008 (New Orleans, United States)
  • Oxford International Film Festival 2008 (Oxford, OH)
  • Raindance Film Festival 2008 (London, United Kingdom)

Synopsis

Diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, 31 year-old Ben Byer begins documenting his life on camera. What begins as a series of video diaries grows into a three-year journey as he searches for answers, and maybe even a cure.

Joined by his childhood friend Roko Belic (Academy Award™ nominee, Genghis Blues) as his cameraman, Ben takes the audience on a daring first-person ride through the world of ALS. As he meets with medical experts and other ALS sufferers, Ben reveals a hidden world in which people struggle to stand, to speak, and to remain alive as they await the breakthrough that might save them. In China, Ben meets the inventor of an herbal compound that may prolong his life, an All-American weightlifter with ALS trying to cure himself through Tai Chi and acupuncture, fortune-tellers, monks and many others. When he discovers a radical fetal-cell transplant procedure in Beijing, Ben must decide if the operation’s potential to restore his body outweighs its danger.

At once an impassioned cry for change and an artistic triumph from a filmmaker persevering against the odds, Indestructible delivers a universal message about the necessity of hope and the tragic joy of being alive.

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