So Much So Fast
2005 1 x 87 min Color: widescreen digital English
A West City Films production
In association with WGBH, ZDF/ARTE, BBC “Storyville” and with the support of TV2/Denmark
Producers/Directors:
Steven Ascher
Jeanne Jordan
Festivals and Awards:
Official Selection in competition at the Sundance Film Festival
Official Selection at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
2006 Theatrical Release: NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Columbus, Portland/OR, Austin/TX, Indianapolis, and more nationwide
US Television Premiere – PBS “Frontline” April 3, 2007
When asked what he would do differently in the years since his ALS diagnosis, 34-year-old Stephen Heywood replied, “Have more sex on film.” SO MUCH SO FAST is a black- humored cliffhanger of romance, guerilla science and the redefinition of time from Oscar nominees Steven Ascher & Jeanne Jordan. The story unfolds like a nonfiction novel after Stephen’s diagnosis. His brother Jamie becomes obsessed with finding a cure and the woman who’s falling in love with him has a decision to make. Filmed over 5 years, it reveals one family’s unexpected attempt to undo a medical death sentence, exploring the essential role of technology and the persistence of the human spirit.
Directors Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan describe SO MUCH SO FAST as a logical extension of Troublesome Creek that begins with Jeanne’s mother and star of the Midwestern tale, who was diagnosed with ALS just after they had finished shooting. “Ever since, we had been looking for a way to express the jaw-dropping impossibility of ALS through film, and in 2000 we came across the Heywoods’ story in a New Yorker profile by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Weiner. In the Heywoods we saw another chance to explicate universals in the particulars of one family’s story. SO MUCH SO FAST is about the biggest questions of life – mortality, ambition, time and love. The answers, as lived by the Heywoods, are never what you’d expect.” SO MUCH SO FAST binds together the personal ardor the directors bring with an ongoing story of unyielding passion.