Director with ALS Fights to Finish Final Film

Brut America

Oscar-nominated director Stacy Title's career was hitting a stride — then she was diagnosed with ALS. Now she’s determined to use the time she has left to focus on finishing her final film.

Transcript

00:00I'm very much against ALS. We have to end this thing.

00:02There's no real treatment and there's no cure.

00:05It's probably going to kill my wife and I'm hoping it doesn't kill my kids.

00:09That's the truth.

00:10I think that sadly it will be my last film, so that is the best and ultimate motivation.

00:41I started with a drop foot and slurring speech.

00:44My doctors thought I was crazy when I suggested I had ALS.

00:48Stacey's directing career was heating up again.

00:52There was every reason to believe, as the Me Too movement was just taking off about two years ago,

00:58that she would be able to be a part of that.

01:02She's a super talented director, had been in the game, had hung in there for a long time.

01:10Guys that she'd come up with had much, much, much bigger careers than she did.

01:16What the hell is that?

01:17What is it?

01:30We were very hopeful that things were going to start to turn around and they were starting to turn around.

01:35And then she got hit with the diagnosis.

01:39She has been determined to continue to direct as long as she's alive.

01:43She's a director and that's what she wants to do.

02:00Walking Time Bomb is important because it is a meaningful piece and a return to my roots

02:06with a black comedy like my debut The Last Supper.

02:09It's about a 30-year-old guy and he's trying to adopt a kid with his wife.

02:13One day he goes into the coffee shop that he goes into every day to get his usual double latte.

02:19And while he's in the bathroom, somebody shoots up the entire place.

02:23It's not really about guns per se.

02:25It's about the fact that no one in society feels that he's reacting to this massacre the way that he's supposed to.

02:31Thank you, Jonathan.

02:34You're welcome, Angel.

02:38Unfortunately, because of Stacey's situation, the budget had to go up.

02:43We had to add days to the budget because she just can't work as fast as she used to.

02:48Even with all of her pre-programming into her machine, it's going to take a lot more time.

02:52And every day costs money on a film.

03:01He is a delight. Brilliant patient and the sexiest man alive.

03:10Just because Stacey is disabled does not mean that we do not continue to have an incredibly happy, loving, married life.

03:21We still laugh all the time. We go to the movies. We fool around.

03:25We try to laugh as much as possible. That is really what life is about.

03:30That's all that really matters.

03:32What I have learned, the extraordinary thing that I've learned about this experience is

03:36nothing else matters except the intimacy that you can have, that I can have with somebody else.

03:42And there's nothing like the little things in life, laughter and sex and good food and whatever it is,

03:49that makes a human a human.

03:52Please enjoy them while you can.

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