79 minutes
Directed by: Eric Metzgar
New England Premiere

New England Focus Film presented by LEF Foundation

Presented by Newbury Comics

In 2004, 34-year-old Jason Crigler's was a life of promise. A sought-after NYC guitarist, he had a steady lineup of gigs and an album halfway through production. His wife Monica was three months pregnant. But a sudden, overwhelming headache disrupted first a performance . . . and then his entire world. Jason's brain hemorrhaged without warning during an August stage show, plunging him into oblivion. Music, nightlife, and the spotlight yielded to surgery, infection, and vegetation. Motor and communication skills disappeared, seemingly overnight. Doctors saw frighteningly slim prospects of a meaningful recovery. But they underestimated the energy, focus, and commitment of Jason's family, who were determined to summon back the man they knew and loved, no matter the obstacles.

Writer/director/producer Eric Daniel Metzgar (2007 Independent Spirit Award nominee for THE CHANCES OF THE WORLD CHANGING) weaves interviews and journal entries together with home movies and routine recordings of Jason's rehabilitation sessions to present a remarkably detailed portrait of a family on a mission. The Criglers hastily redesign their lives to ensure that Jason is never without structure, stimulation, or love. His friends and fellow musicians (including such notables as Norah Jones and Marshall Crenshaw) organize benefit concerts to help fund his care. At the center of the flurry is Monica, a fighter of the truest kind, who gives birth to a daughter and devotes herself to fortifying her family. At last comes the day when the slowly recuperating Jason reaches for his guitar.

The Criglers' closeness and courage are tangible elements in this intimate and bittersweet film; Metzgar understands well the strengths of his subjects. LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. offers firsthand evidence of the human body's capacity to heal, music's capacity to uplift, and family's capacity to endure.

-Sandra L. Frey