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Thank you. New York is good to me. Having a stroke really sucks.
Aphasia really really
sucks.
Before stroke,
life is good.
Wonderful wife, good children
Great great felt.
I'm full.
Job is voice, actor, teacher and really
good sales. Golden tone.
After stroke, I feel different now.
I can't speak.
I can't read.
And I can't write.
Nothing. Really, nothing.
Doctor said,
Wait a year and a half, and see
Well, I need a break anyway
a long vacation
I earned it!
but
one year and a half later,
no better.
I thought, what happened? What happened?
First,
therapist
Mary Beth
I love Mary Beth.
Mary
Mary Beth said, Carl, I don't know.
Doctors don't know.
Maybe,
no speaking again. I don't know. Time will tell.
What? I need to work.
I have to work.
What happens now?
Low.
Low times.
I'm
frustrated.
I'm angry.
World angry.
Why me?
Why now?
I'm trapped in my head. Prisoner.
And it's bad.
Then almost one year, and more.
of a bad place, really, bad.
But
Carl is Carl.
and most
of the time
I'm happy.
But before happy,
I need fix it,
and fix me.
First, mourn,
old Carl is dead.
I know, pity party.
Well that's no good.
Is Elizabeth here? Elizabeth is an angel.
Because I know
what piece of work I am.
Second is
acceptance
what has made me no better,
but I'm still here.
I'm still relevant.
It's no good to insulate yourself.
Fearless. Fearless.
and buy yourself something sweet. Really, chocolate is really good.
Third,
is hope.
I need hope everyday. Hope is everything.
No hope? Dead. I like hope.
And finally, purpose.
I need purpose. Every day.
Big or small, but purpose.
Every day.
I love to guard it.
Plans, going there matters.
But after
six months,
I want more.
I'm older now.
One time, in high school,
in painting,
I liked it.
But no time. I'm working night and day and weekends.
There is no
time
to paint.
Well now, lots of time.
I paint
all the pictures.
I painted all the pictures in the movie.
No good, but
I did it.
Son, Sawyer,
movie, baby.
But now, he's nine years old.
He loves to play baseball.
And I'm lucky.
Really, really lucky. Because I can walk.
My right arm is weak. My timing is off.
Okay, I need to teach
myself
with my left. Also no good.
But Sawyer
don't care!
Daddy?
He's fine! I'm good.
Now, my purpose is this movie.
Understanding Aphasia and struggle.
One help, and I'm good,
really good.
I know
that I'll never be the same.
And every day,
every day is hard. Really hard.
But every day is really good too.
Possibilities are endless. Look at this movie! And I will never quit.
Never ever quit. I never will.
I'm living a dream every day.
And Aphasia,
still sucks.
But I win every day.
And you can too. Thank you.
Thank you. My name is Jim Gloster, I am the writer and director of this film, and long time friend of Carl McIntyre.
I think we're just going to open up to a short question and answer right now.
I'd like to invite some folks to the stage that know some more stuff than I do.
Elaine, I'd like you to come up. John, if you would like to.
And I would love for Elizabeth McIntyre to come up as well.
We also have filming here, our director of photography, Jeff.
Executive producer, and his therapist Gale, is up here as well.
And Lauren, stand up. We also have Lauren here with us.
Another Actor, John Bitter, he was in the poker game,
and also long time friend of Carl.
Okay, have you got any questions for us?
Here's my question.
So uh, Carl, even though,
no offense,
you're not all well,
rather completely well,
even though you're much improved,
how were you able to deal after this film?
Because it was the narration wasn't it?
No, no it wasn't.
We got an actor, and a good friend of ours from North Carolina to do the narration.
We wrote the narration for Carl, and Carl played himself.
I wanted to thank you,
I had a 15 mile an hour head on collision,
and my trauma brain had Aphasia, and it got better after ten years,
I don't know how long it's been for you? -Six years.
Yea, that stuff takes a very very long time.
The other thing I wanted to say was that I was in the middle of medical school,
so I ended up becoming a physiatrist, and doing a lot of neurology and working with people that they called vegetables.
We had a lot of time, so we made up a certain code, and those people walked and talked and ended up walking out of the hospital
But there would be doctors that would just leave them, without any speech, without support. So I think we have a lot to learn.
I think that's one of our messages with this movie.
It's been a year and a half
and it's been a process
but he's improving on and on and on.
It's continuing. And the movie was quite a bit of therapy as well.
Hi, I'm a speech therapist myself. I work with people with Aphasia.
How important was it for you to reach out to community organizations, did you work with other patients with Aphasia?
Is this your outreach now? Did you find any comfort to be around other people?
Yea. First, speech and life is different.
I learned speech in six months. Rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed and rehearsed.
Group therapy is really good, because group is good. It helped you? -Yes, everyone is quote, in it.
We have time for one last question.
Has anyone heard of the movie- 9000 Needles?
I just saw it two weeks ago, its about
a fellow that had a stroke in his house,
and
after about a month he was released from the hospital,
because the insurance wouldn't pay his rent
so renter's insurance started investigating,
and they ended up in China, with thousands of needles in his head.
And when he came back, he was almost repaired.
So if you get a chance to see it, it's called 9000 Needles.
It's really well done, and we're pursing acupuncture right now.
I just want to make one quick comment.
We are very grateful to Carl,
and everyone for bringing this movie
so that people can learn more about
Aphasia, and I just want people to understand,
that there are more than
one million people in the United States that have Aphasia
so one in every 250 people
will acquire Aphasia in their lifetime.
Yet most people have never heard of it,
until it affects them or a family member.
The National Aphasia Association works every day
to raise awareness.
And so Carl's is one story, and I know there are many stories in this room and we appreciate everybody's stories.
We need to work together, as a team,
all of us, to raise awareness of Aphasia,
to let people know what it is, because there will be no resources,
there will be no therapy, there will be no groups for people
unless we all band together,
and get people to understand what Aphasia is.
Thank you. Let me just say that this film has been the surprise of the festival,
it has been winning crowds over every screening, and
all I've been hearing from all of our other locations is
Aphasia, Aphasia, Aphasia.
This screening did not let down,
and I look forward to
many more screening of Aphasia.
Thank you.
You are all invited to the reception that the
National Aphasia Association is doing in our lobby, two floors up.
We do need to clear this room, because we have another screening in here in the next three minutes,
you can exit from on top, that's the easiest way out.
We look forward to seeing you at other screenings coming up,
thank you.