Matter of Mind: My Parkinson's

Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s is the second in a series of three documentaries focusing on neurodegenerative diseases. Parkinson’s disease (PD) develops when nerve cells in the brain stop making dopamine. PD strips away motor abilities, causing a wide range of symptoms, from tremors and falling to dementia and depression. 

Peter Dunlap-Shohl is diagnosed with PD at the age of 43. As a political cartoonist, he contemplates his future and how he will continue to draw as his motor control declines. In his home state of Alaska, there are no Parkinson’s specialists, so he moves to Washington state for better care. He transforms his journey, with its comedic highs and somber lows, into a graphic novel. Veronica Garcia-Hayes lives in San Francisco’s Mission District. She was diagnosed with PD when she was pregnant, and 12 years later, she manages progressing symptoms while raising a teenager. She channels her energy into physical fortitude, becoming a boxing coach and an advocate for exercise, one of the most powerful methods of slowing the progression of PD. Juan Solano is a Puerto Rican optician. He owns a mom-and-pop eyeglass shop in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, but worries for the business’ survival as his PD symptoms grow more acute. In hopes of altering the disease’s progression, he pursues deep brain stimulation, a surgery in which electrodes are implanted in the brain.

Each is a tale of determination, where through ingenuity and adaptation, three people offer insight into what it means to live with degenerative illness.