{"id":172848,"date":"2025-12-07T20:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/172848\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:12:07","slug":"capturing-the-truth-and-humor-of-als","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/172848\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing The Truth And Humor Of ALS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe documentary short The Hemingway<\/a> captures co-director Patrick Sean O\u2019Brien<\/a>\u2019s life with ALS. O\u2019Brien reached out to longtime collaborator Evan Mathis<\/a> with a script asking for help bringing it to fruition. The pair spoke with Deadline\u2019s Matt Carey at Contenders Documentary<\/a> about their short, and Mathis explained how they acknowledged ALS\u2019 effect on bodily functions without showing graphic detail on screen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe hard challenge was to try and tell the story in all of its sort of brutal, veristic truth without making it disgusting,\u201d Mathis said. \u201cAs much of the subject matter in this film could be very easily turned dark and kind of disgusting, Patrick\u2019s sense of humor and his joy of life, I really wanted to make sure that that shined through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJ.R. Reed speaks as O\u2019Brien\u2019s voice in the film. For the Contenders panel, O\u2019Brien used his digital voice synthesizer to answer questions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUsing a synthetic voice is a curse and a beautiful blessing,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWhen I was still able to speak, I would dictate stories and eat Lindt chocolate balls. Those were the days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien continued to elaborate on the developments that led to Reed as his speaking voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Contenders Documentary \u2014 Deadline\u2019s Complete Coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvan was initially thinking of using his own voice,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThen when artificial intelligence dropped, we didn\u2019t spend as much time in that world as we might have, because we were settled on a human. J.R. was the perfect fit. I felt early on that we would need a human voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMathis was able to use visual effects to represent O\u2019Brien\u2019s spirit. One sequence transports O\u2019Brien, still in bed, to the forest showing \u2014 at least metaphorically \u2014 that he is not confined. He explained using iPhone\u2019s LiDAR Scanner to capture O\u2019Brien in his bed and transpose it to a different background.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe idea was that the wall breaks away behind him and Patrick\u2019s mind, basically, is able to elevate him out of his room in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and take him back to where his heart longs to be, which is New York City,\u201d Mathis said. \u201cIn the city of the future, as we rise up on the skyscraper, we put a model of Katz\u2019s deli, which was Patrick\u2019s favorite place to eat a pastrami sandwich. And as we go by, you\u2019ll see one of the Easter eggs that we put in the film, that LiDAR scan that we used of Patrick in the forest is also inside the Katz deli.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat sequence, like the entire film, represents O\u2019Brien\u2019s continued efforts while coping with the realities of ALS, said Mathis.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s so special about Patrick is that his wonderful, brilliant, creative mind is still all gas no breaks, even inside a body that doesn\u2019t do what his brain wants anymore,\u201d Mathis said. \u201cFor those that don\u2019t have the experience of someone with ALS in their life, it really shows that there\u2019s a lot more going on than initially you would see just from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck back Tuesday for the panel video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The documentary short The Hemingway captures co-director Patrick Sean O\u2019Brien\u2019s life with ALS. O\u2019Brien reached out to longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1096,10308,102089,146,102094,85,46,102095,73493,78243,102096],"class_list":{"0":"post-172848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-awardsnews","10":"tag-contenders-documentary","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-evan-mathis","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-patrick-sean-ou2019brien","16":"tag-short-films","17":"tag-shorts","18":"tag-the-hemingway"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}