He went on to make A song for Daniel, Twins of Mankala and First Steps. He also made Lest we Forget a featurelength documentary film.
At the peak of his career in 2005, he was diagnosed with progressive primary multiple sclerosis. All of 25 years, he didn’t pay much heed to the diagnosis. It only hit him in 2006 when during a Caribbean vacation he fell on the beach and couldn’t pick himself up. From there on his numerous medical appointments began. He found that his disability was quickly worsening, and with doctors’ appointments taking up
most of his time, he was losing out on what he loved doing—making films.
He refused his mother’s advice to give up filmmaking. Instead, he decided to take his camera along to all his appointments
and film various aspects of his living with the new disability. And so began his film spanning seven years of his life from the time of his fall. When I walk was an official selection of the
Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and
won ‘best Canadian feature documentary’
award at HotDocs, the grand jury
award for ‘best film’ at the Los Angeles
Asian Pacific Film Festival and ‘most
popular Canadian documentary’ at the
Vancouver International Film Festival.
Turning the camera on himself
wasn’t something he was comfortable
with at first especially after being habituated
to shooting the scenes, constructing
the shots and editing his own
films. He found a ray of hope in a girl
he met at an MS support group. Alice
and Jason wed in 2010. Marrying Alice
he says was an exhilarating moment
for him. Alice plays a vital role in the
production, shooting and editing of the
film.
Over the period of seven years the
film shows Jason’s physical condition
deteriorating, his unsuccessful search
for a cure, his struggle coping with it
and the various challenges he faces getting
around accessing facilities in New
York. In 2006 he began walking with a
limp, in 2007 he walked with a cane,
in 2008 he used a walker, then wheelchair
and now a motorized scooter. The
hardest part of the day, he says, is waking
up after a whole night of dreams
where he can walk and dance with
friends.
The film, he told Herald Reviewwas
challenging yet rewarding. “Every day
was more difficult than the previous
one as my physical self got worse. I
wanted to put the camera down so
many times but realized the importance
of the project, so I kept going
on.” Having to edit footage of himself
on screen wasn’t a pleasant experience
either.
His story is about the universal
struggle of triumph over tragedy and
he wants people to relate to that in any
way they can.
A disability can be an isolating experience
presenting challenges in accessing
facilities. Up to this day Jason
has trouble calling for a cab in which
his scooter can fit into. Restaurants
don’t have ramps and subways are the
least accessibly with no elevators. A lot
of the new constructions build accessibility
into their design. But the old
constructions don’t have this accessibility
and this sets limits on facilities
that the challenged can enjoy.
A spokesperson for the differentlyabled,
Jason is developing ways to facilitate
movement around the city for
those with mobility challenges through
an AXS map (access map) funded by
Google Charitable Giving and other
foundations. The crowd-sourced tool
helps share reviews on the wheelchair
accessibility of businesses and places.
The map is available online as well as
on android and iPhone applications.
Jason was born in Ohio. He moved
to Vancouver when he was 14 and later
moved to Brooklyn, New York where
he currently lives. The last time he was
in Goa, he worked on a short fictional
film in Panjim. He is expanding this into
a feature film called ‘Trance’ and hopes
to film in Goa in the next two years. Jason’s
life took a wonderful turn last
year when Alice gave birth to Jase.
