The ALS Therapy Development Institute is thrilled for the upcoming film, TransFatty Lives, which will premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival on April 15-26. TransFatty Lives is a film about and by Patrick Sean O’Brien- who in 2005, at age 30, was diagnosed with ALS and told he would only have five years to live. 

Patrick is “TransFatty,” the unabashed, charismatic, and creative force who remains an internet personality and filmmaker. TransFatty Lives, a documentary ten years in the making, portrays the ups and downs of Patrick’s life from diagnosis to current day.

Additionally, in an effort to provide resources for supporting ALS research and speech-assistive technology, TransFatty Lives has chosen to partner exclusively with the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a nonprofit biotech focused solely on finding treatments and a cure for ALS, and Acapela Group, a text-to-speech (TTS) solutions provider.

Immediately following the first two screenings of TransFatty Lives will be a Q&A featuring film director and subject, Patrick O’Brien, the film’s producers, and representatives from the ALS Therapy Development Institute and Acapela Group. 

To purchase tickets to the documentary screening, visit Tribeca Film Festival's TRANSFATTY LIVES film guide.

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Official Synopsis of TRANSFATTY LIVES

At 30, Patrick Sean O’Brien was TransFatty, a New York City DJ, internet personality, and filmmaker. He spent his days as a beer-drinking creative force, making art films about perverts, vulnerable souls, and Howard Johnson's restaurants. Then his legs started shaking.

Defying sentimentality, TRANSFATTY LIVES takes you on an emotional rollercoaster from Patrick's wild, fun-loving days into the dark heart of ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease). Given 2 to 5 years to live, Patrick first loses his ability to walk, then to move his arms, then to swallow, and even to breathe. With the support of his bewildered friends and family Patrick braves the unthinkable and turns his camera onto himself.

As the director and star of his own documentary, Patrick films every step of his debilitating journey from first diagnosis through his current paralysis. Forcefully lacking self-pity, he captures the emotion, humor, and absurdity of real life as he makes art, gets political, falls in love, fathers a son, and fights extreme depression and paranoia.

At 40, Patrick has completed this film by typing directions to his editors with the movements of his pupils. Miraculously, TRANSFATTY LIVES is not a movie about death. Because, while Patrick’s brain stopped being able to control his muscles, it remains brilliantly alive, allowing him to ask: “What if my diminishing physical abilities can be inversely proportional to my journey inward?  And, more importantly, "will there be bacon and unicorns once I get there?”

 

Website:                      www.transfattylives.com

Facebook:                   https://www.facebook.com/EWBOK.POB?ref=br_tf

Twitter:                       @TransFattyLives

https://twitter.com/TransFattyLives