Jason DaSilva Moves Others to "Move It" With His Documentaries
The documentary filmmaker, writer and producer Jason DaSilva is spreading awareness of the MS movement by combining his personal experiences and his passion for film.
Jason’s films have been featured in dozens of festivals, including the Latin American Film Festival, Sundance, and the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam. His short documentary First Steps was in the 2009 Tribeca Film Fetival, and his film Olivia’s Puzzle received an Oscar qualification and was broadcast on HBO and PBS.
Jason first started to notice symptoms of MS in 2003 when he felt a weakness in his leg while walking down a subway staircase in New York. In 2005, at 26, he was diagnosed with primary-progressive MS. Slowly both his ability to walk and his vision started to decline.
Even holding a camera grew difficult. He coped by asking others to help him steady the camera and other equipment that every filmmaker must learn to control. “So even though it was hard, it wasn’t impossible,” he said.
Jason did not allow the challenges of MS to stop him, and decided to move to Canada to pursue a graduate degree in film. After receiving his diploma, he moved back to New York to further his career.
At this point Jason’s MS and his career aspirations bumped into each other. He’d had excellent insurance before moving to Canada and during his stay there. Upon moving back to the U.S., he was classified as having a pre-existing condition and suddenly became virtually uninsurable.
“I was astonished at the amount of difficulty I was having at finding insurance,” Jason recalled. “After hearing about my difficulties one of my friends suggested I do a short film for the Obama campaign so people could hear my story.”
He called the film Change Means: Universal Health Care. In it he argued for universal health coverage by demonstrating his own daily struggles — like relying on personal trainers at the local gym because he couldn’t afford physical therapy. He also discussed being unable to afford medication due to lack of insurance.
Change Means: Universal Health Care was shown at the National MS Society’s National Conference in Chicago in November 2008. View it on YouTube.
Currently, Jason is in the process of filming When I Walk, a documentary about his personal experience of being a filmmaker with MS, as well as the experiences of others living with MS. The documentary, which provides a first look at the challenges a person has to overcome once being diagnosed with this neurological disorder, is slated to be shown on PBS.
Learn more about When I Walk, which discusses the complexity of MS, options in medication and support systems, and insight into what it is to live with a chronicle illness. Most importantly, Jason wants viewers to see that being diagnosed with MS does not stop a person from living a happy and fulfilling life.
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Interviewer Iwona Kzrysiak, whose father lives with MS, is the Society’s Mike Dugan Scholar for 2008-09, and attends the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.