Juan Carlos Garcia/ Reform Agency
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 | 07:45
CDMX.- Exposing the vulnerability of a human being is one of the bravest and most noble (or risky and uncertain) acts that anyone can perform, and if actor Michael J. Fox encouraged this in his documentary, it should be celebrated and detailed with attention.
In this way reflected the writer and documentarian Davis Guggenheim, who directed Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and which earned him positive opinions for its moving confection about Parkinson’s disease.
“I could only speak highly of Michael for this work, but the best thing I can say is that I admire his courage and his ‘pants’ to expose himself in such an intimate way for the public figure that he is.
“And I admire so much more that when he agreed to do the documentary, his sole purpose, always, was to think about the awareness it could raise to raise funds to do more research on this sad and terrible disease. It has no other purpose than that,” Guggenheim said. in the virtual presentation of Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
During promotional activities for the film, which will soon be released on Apple TV+, the husband of actress Elisabeth Shue and Oscar winner for An Inconvenient Truth, was accompanied by the 61-year-old Back to the Future star, who was diagnosed with said degenerative disease since I was 29.
“When you talk about a disease, as a talking point, I think it’s invaluable that it’s approached from an awareness point of view, and not as criticism.
“What happened with Michael is very unfortunate, but I am most proud to see him on his feet, trying to do his best and in the best way, with therapies, talking about how his environment would improve, how important it is that a government put special attention to research into diseases that affect thousands of people,” said the director of He Called Me Malala.
Although he declined to say what the most difficult moments of filming the documentary were, he said that he became even more sensitive to what the actor faces.
“There are moments when Michael talks to you about his condition in a way that makes you lose ground. But far from feeling something negative, he generates a lot of empathy.
“And I feel like the moments where he allows us to be with his family, with his wife (Tracy Pollan) and his daughters, brings us closer to very human moments, far removed from this subject of being famous and full of glamour,” he shared.
Throughout his career, Davis Guggenheim boasts credits as a writer on soap operas such as ER, Alias and Deadwood, and among other documentaries he has made, for film and television, are It Might Get Loud and Waiting for Superman (which won him the Audience at Sundance), in addition to having dabbled as an executive director in more than 50 productions.
