{"id":646012,"date":"2026-05-16T04:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/646012\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:02:11","slug":"portland-documentary-filmmaker-brian-lindstrom-is-dead-at-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/646012\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Documentary Filmmaker Brian Lindstrom Is Dead at 65"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom has died. His documentaries told the stories of people\u2014almost all of them in Oregon\u2014at society\u2019s margins, many of them struggling with addiction, mental health diagnoses, or other forces beyond their control. He was 65.<\/p>\n

Lindstrom\u2019s wife, the author Cheryl Strayed, announced Lindstrom\u2019s death Friday, May 15, on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing more immense than our sorrow that progressive supranuclear palsy took our beloved Brian from us is the endless love we have for him,\u201d Strayed wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In late April, Strayed announced<\/a> she would cancel some upcoming writing workshops and public appearances as her husband had been diagnosed with \u201ca serious, fatal illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressive supranuclear palsy is a rare brain disease that affects walking, balance, eye movements, and swallowing. <\/p>\n

Lindstrom\u2019s most recent film, Lost Angel: The Legend of Judee Sill (2022), was awarded Documentary of the Year by Docnroll Film Festival. It tells the story of the folk singer Judee Sill, from a troubled adolescence to her meteoric rise to folk stardom to her 1979 death of a drug overdose at the age of 35. <\/p>\n

Most of Lindstrom\u2019s other films focused on subjects closer to home\u2014he grew up in Portland\u2019s Parkrose neighborhood and attended Lewis & Clark College\u2014but he maintained a keen interest in mental health and addiction issues and the lives of people at society\u2019s margins. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis work as a documentary filmmaker was dedicated to telling stories of people who, as he put it, \u2018society puts an X through,\u2019\u201d Strayed wrote in Friday\u2019s post. \u201cHe erased that X with his camera and his astonishing heart. He made films about incarcerated moms and their kids, about people with mental illness and substance use disorders, about teens living in homeless shelters, foster care, and detention centers, about people who were at the bottom and trying to climb up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindstrom is perhaps best known for Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse, a 2013 documentary detailing the 2006 death of James Chasse and its aftermath. Chasse was tackled by Portland police in the Pearl District and, hours later, died of his injuries while being transported to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really hammers Alien Boy home is the Life part of its title,\u201d AP Kryza wrote<\/a> in a review for WW in 2013. \u201cWhen Chasse was slain, the police falsely labeled him a transient junkie. Lindstrom\u2019s film dives deeply into the life of a man who touched countless lives through his art and the pioneering position he held in Portland\u2019s early punk-rock scene. Ex-girlfriends, family members, musicians, artists and parishioners from his church all tell of a deeply troubled but caring man whose mental despair robbed him of peace.\u201d (Chasse was acquainted with members of the seminal Portland punk band The Wipers; the movie\u2019s title comes from a song the band wrote about him.)<\/p>\n

Reviewing 2007\u2019s Finding Normal\u2014which follows Recovery Mentors acting as peer support for people struggling to recover from addiction\u2014for WW, David F. Walker wrote that Lindstrom was \u201cas uncompromising in his study of recovery as are the mentors who have rebuilt their lives and are now committed to helping others.\u201d The film won Best Documentary at the Oregon Independent and Ashland International Film Festivals in 2016.<\/p>\n

Lindstrom\u2019s filmography also includes a number of documentary shorts, Old Town Diary and To Pay My Way With Stories, as well as Mothering Inside, which tells the stories of incarcerated mothers and their children. Mothering Inside won Best Documentary at the Oregon Independent and Ashland International Film Festivals in 2016.<\/p>\n

Jason Renaud, a longtime friend of Lindstrom\u2019s and a producer of Alien Boy, told WW he believed Mothering Inside was Lindstrom\u2019s favorite of his films. It follows the lives of incarcerated mothers and their children; according to Renaud, he continued to follow the story long after the film wrapped. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Brian for 40+ years\u2026We worked on a variety of projects together, always kibitzing,\u201d wrote Renaud. \u201cWe had different values\u2014he was a Christian and believed in redemption. He was a genuinely nice person. He cared about strangers. He believed things could be made right. He was a good dad and a good son and a good husband. He was a listener. He was a watcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has real-life impact that changes laws, forces action by civic leaders, and drives compromised politicians from public office. <\/p>\n

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