TransFatty Lives

There have been a lot of documentaries - some terrific – about someone fighting a terrible illness. There have been a few made by the victim themselves, providing an extremely intimate view of the journey of facing death or extreme loss, But none that I've seen are quite like "TransFatty Lives".

Patrick O'Brien (aka DJ TransFattty) was an experimental film-maker and performance artist before he was diagnosed with ALS. His work was filled with a wild (and very endearing) gonzo sense of humor and happy creativity. And he brings that touch into documenting his own tragedy, so the moments of heart-rending naturalism are mixed with moments of great artistic and human playfulness, wit and cinematic invention.

In the end, that mix of honest pain and artistic desire to find understanding, joy and hope, to look at his situation from both inside and out, and to transcend the clichés of a 'disease film' make this one of the rare documentaries where you will both weep and laugh out loud - often when you least expect it. (It doesn't hurt that O'Brien's own story takes some very unexpected and powerful turns – both good and bad.)

A wonderful, funny, creative, tragic, deeply moving and yet uplifting film about truly trying to use life's lemons to make lemonade, and about the search to find meaning in our short and sometimes terribly difficult lives.