TransFatty Lives

I'll be an electric vegetable. It's the latest trend, jokes the director and protagonist of this documentary, providing a sample of his dark humor. Patrick O'Brien was a New York City DJ spinning under the name TransFatty, who also had a video blog and made campy short films. He called himself a beer guzzling creative force. In 2005, he suddenly noticed his legs were shaking. The medical diagnosis was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and doctors gave him two to five years to live. Patrick's movie memoir documents ten years of struggle with a body that becomes alien. The illness takes away control of his legs and hands, ability to swallow and ultimately to breathe. While Patrick's muscles gradually atrophy, his son is born. The film TransFatty Lives is dedicated to the boy. It is a documentary that eschews sentimentality in favor of boldness with punk energy and the protagonist's dark humor. The biggest challenge in completing this film? You mean, besides having ALS? Besides having my hard drives stolen? Besides missing footage, no money, and collaborators who came and went, making TransFatty Lives was a cakewalk, summarized the director for IndieWire. His efforts were appreciated at the Tribeca Film Festival, where TransFatty Lives received the Audience Award.