Filming our documentary

These are exciting times at the Byrd House. Our good pal and filmmaker, Marvin, is visiting this week to film a documentary on Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He's been here less than 48 hours but has already filmed interviews with our therapists and ourselves. He has yet to film other local SMA families and our doctors at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

We expect the documentary to ultimately last about one hour. The focus of the film is to attract attention to SMA and to highlight some of the Phoenix SMA community. It's been tough to film so far, as you might imagine--lots of tears, on both sides of the camera. But there's lots of good stuff, too, and of course the kids are bright beacons of happiness throughout it all.

Marvin expects post-production to take about six months, and then we're contemplating the viability of screening the film next year in a few cities where we have an abundance of SMA families and support. We have ideas to hold screenings in Baltimore and Phoenix, so far. It's too early to focus too much on that, though. For now, our focus is keeping to the week's filming schedule and getting Marvin back home to the east coast next week with all his equipment in working order so that he can get to work on editing.

Marvin's professional works prior to this project can be found on imdb.com.

A Facebook fan page is being developed for the film, and when it goes live, we'll let everyone know so that you can join.

If you have inquiries or suggestions or advice for us regarding this project, we're all ears. Email us at byrdsforacure@gmail.com.