ALS Movies

Eat Your Catfish (2021)

Documentary · 1h 14m · USA · eatyourcatfish.com · ·

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Fixed-camera from Kathryn's point of view inside a Manhattan apartment; no crew, no cutaways, just the daily grind of late-stage ALS. Dark humor. Marriage friction, caregiver turnover, and a daughter's wedding deadline keep the stakes immediate.

What it shows about ALS: home ventilation and suction routines; communication bottlenecks with limited mobility; caregiver burnout and turnover; family logistics under constant strain.

Awards

• Emmy® Winner - Outstanding Social Issue Documentary
• Best Documentary - Istanbul International Film Festival
• Best Documentary - Antenna International Film Festival
• Best Documentary nominee - IDFA Envision Competition

Festivals & Screenings

• IDFA — World Premiere
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival
• Sheffield DocFest
• PBS P.O.V.

Gleason (2016)

Documentary/Sport ‧ 1h 51m ‧ USA · Wikipedia · ·

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Diary-style doc from diagnosis through advocacy and fatherhood. Tech becomes survival: eye-gaze, wheelchairs, environmental controls. Public activism collides with private exhaustion.

What it shows about ALS: AAC evolution and setup; mobility adaptations for parenting; partner load and role shifts; advocacy's practical costs.

Awards

• SXSW Audience Award
• Full Frame - Special Jury Mention

Festivals & Screenings

• Sundance Film Festival
• HotDocs

"The film is moving and insightful because it is more concerned with being honest than with being uplifting."

"Frank, unashamed and bruising."

"A lot of sports-themed films put a heroic, inspirational spin on the proceedings. You cheer, shed a few tears, and move on. That's so not "Gleason.""

Go On, Be Brave (2023)

Documentary · 1h 51m · USA · website ·

WATCH NOW: Eventive

Andrea Lytle Peet takes on endurance races across 50 states post-diagnosis. Community forms around motion, not pity, and the film avoids inspirational sugarcoating. The body's limits and workarounds are the real plot.

What it shows about ALS: pacing strategies and fatigue management; adaptive bikes/gear; travel with disability; fundraising that isn't extractive.

Awards

• RiverRun International Film Festival - Audience Award

Festivals & Screenings

• Santa Barbara International Film Festival

"This extraordinary woman refused to hear the word no."

"The inspiration of the motion picture and Andrea Lytle Peet's spirit and determination floored me to the point of joyful tears."

Hin und weg (Tour de Force) (2014)

Drama · 1h 35m · Germany · Wikipedia ·

WATCH NOW: Apple TV

A last bike trip with friends ends at an assisted-dying clinic. Low-key performances keep the melodrama out; choices land as practical, not sensational. Friendship becomes custodial care without calling itself that.

What it shows about ALS: timing end-of-life decisions; cross-border assisted dying logistics; consent between partners and friends; anticipatory grief in practice.

Awards

• Jupiter Award - Best Actor
• Jupiter Award - Best Actress

Festivals & Screenings

• Locarno Film Festival
• Hamburg Film Festival

"There have been a lot of narrative features and documentaries made on euthanasia, but "Tour De Force" manages to become a unique and emotionally immersive experience on the subject by sidestepping all of the surrounding political controversy and focusing entirely on the psychological and spiritual effects the practice has on people. It's a powerful experience that's remarkably tender and human, equally heartbreaking and life affirming. "Tour De Force" is a powerful drama about the value of life, friendship, and love, as well as the inevitable grieving process one has to survive upon the loss of a loved one."

I Am Breathing (2013)

Documentary · 1h 22m · U.K. · website · ·

WATCH NOW: Rakuten (UK) | GuideDoc (UK) | Apple TV (Canada)

Neil Platt writes for his infant son as his breathing capacity falls. Minimal staging, direct address, no evasions. Palliative truth-telling without moral theater.

What it shows about ALS: respiratory decline and NIV trade-offs; symptom management near end of life; legacy work; hospice framing that isn't euphemistic.

Awards

• Riverrun International Film Festival - Best Documentary

Festivals & Screenings

• IDFA
• Edinburgh International Film Festival
• HotDocs
• True/False Film Fest

"Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon deliver an achingly reflective look at the life of a man struggling with ALS."

"A film that, amid cinema's hit parade of violent but curiously instantaneous deaths, reminds us what it means to bear witness to the very end."

"A simple, straightforward documentary that quietly demonstrates how life continues to flourish even in the face of death."

Indestructible (2007)

Documentary · 1h 53m · USA · website ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime

Ben Byer films three years of experiments and border-hopping in search of a fix. The result is candid about hope, denial, and the market of "options." Keeps the camera on the body's feedback, not miracle narratives.

What it shows about ALS: experimental treatment gauntlet; trial tourism vs evidence; prognosis acceptance curve; caregiver partnership under uncertainty.

Awards

• Raindance Film Festival - Jury Prize

"Byer, despite the lousy hand fate dealt him, wasn't much about gloom."

"The result is something that is, though not necessarily unique in the annals of documentary history, as engaging as any such story can be, particularly when isolated and presented as sincerely as it is here."

It's Not Dark Yet (2016)

Documentary · 1h 21m· Ireland · ·

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Simon Fitzmaurice, a filmmaker diagnosed with ALS, directs his debut feature using only eye-tracking technology. The documentary chronicles his creative persistence and his family's daily life around it.

What it shows about ALS: eye-gaze communication in professional work; ventilated life at home; creative identity beyond physical loss; the logistics of directing through assistive tech.

Awards

• Galway Film Fleadh - Best Irish Feature Documentary

Festivals & Screenings

• Sundance Film Festival
• Sydney Film Festival
• Biografilm Festival

"An uplifting portrait of a debilitated man driven to excel by a relentless desire to live life and love those who surround him."

"A heartfelt and stirring documentary about the extraordinary love for life of Simon Fitzmaurice, an Irish writer and filmmaker stricken with a devastating ALS diagnosis but determined to never give in."

"The very definition of a documentary crowd-pleaser, "It's Not Yet Dark" provides an appropriately poignant and upbeat account of Irish filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice's inspiring triumph over physical limitations."

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (2012)

Documentary · 1h 27m · USA · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV

A shred-guitar prodigy loses motor function but keeps composing with eye movements and custom rigs. Family engineering plus stubborn artistry carry the film. Longevity reframed as continuity of work.

What it shows about ALS: eye-tracking communication systems; bespoke assistive setups for creative work; long-term care planning; family as adaptive team.

Awards

• Hamptons International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
• San Francisco Doc Fest - Audience Award
• Biografilm - Lancia Award

Festivals & Screenings

• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
• Cinequest San Jose Film Festival

"Becker's story is both tragic and inspiring, and his music, with which I was previously unacquainted, is exciting and impressive."

"Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet pays hearty tribute to Paganini-playing shredders and offers up a blueprint for dedicated care in the home and community."

Mr. Connolly Has ALS (2017)

Documentary/Short · 32m · USA ·

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High-school band teacher Mike Connolly records his final year of teaching after an ALS diagnosis. Students, colleagues, and family navigate the slow changes together, keeping humor intact even as his speech and mobility fade.

What it shows about ALS: continuing professional life post-diagnosis; classroom adaptation; speech-to-text tools; maintaining identity in a shrinking body.

Awards

• Sarasota Film Festival - Audience Award
• International Documentary Association - Best Short nominee

La natura delle cose (2016)

Documentary · 1h 10m · Italy ·

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Observational, spare, and patient—closer to a diary of attention than a plotted doc. The form forces viewers to sit with slowness, repetition, and reliance. No speeches; the routine is the argument.

What it shows about ALS: micro-rituals of care; negotiating dependence with dignity; cognitive clarity alongside physical decline; the tempo of everyday constraints.

Awards

• Triesta Film Festival - Best Italian Movie
• Camden International Film Festival - Emerging Cinematic Vision Award

Festivals & Screenings

• Locarno International Film Festival
• Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival

"The intimate and personal story of a man close to death, which doesn't penetrate his suffering in an invasive way, avoiding simple rhetoric and refusing the vague and superficial approach often adopted for subjects such as euthanasia and its ethical-political issues."

Not Going Quietly (2021)

Documentary · 1h 37m · USA · website · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV | YouTube

Ady Barkan turns diagnosis into strategy for health-care reform. The travel schedule is grueling, the messaging tight, and the private toll visible. Advocacy as vocational pivot rather than coping mechanism.

What it shows about ALS: rapid progression logistics on the road; voice banking and amplification; staff/caregiver coordination; policy work from a disabled body.

Awards

• Emmy® nominee - Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary
• SXSW Film Festival - Special Jury Award, Audience Award/li>
• Cleveland International Film Festival - Audience Choice Award
• International Documentary Association - Best Feature nominee

Festivals & Screenings

• Glasgow Film Festival
• Heartland Film Festival

So Much So Fast (2006)

Documentary · 1h 27m · USA · website · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV

The Heywoods refuse fatalism and build patient-driven biotech from scratch. The film stays practical about time: science moves slow, disease doesn't. Organizing fills the gap between them.

What it shows about ALS: trial design realities; compassionate-use tension; data sharing and patient registries; family mobilization at scale.

Awards

• Boston Independent Film Festival - Audience Award

Festivals & Screenings

• Sundance Film Festival
• HotDocs
• Full Frame Film Festival

"Humorous. Impressive. Effortlessly profound."

"The filmmakers sustain an atmosphere of relentless forward motion. A perceptive portrait of an entire family in revolt against fate."

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Drama · 2h 3m · USA/UK · website · ·

WATCH NOW: Spectrum | Amazon Prime | Apple TV |

Biopic frame focused on Stephen and Jane Hawking's partnership. Less procedure, more relationship dynamics and intellectual continuity. Polished, restrained, emotionally legible.

What it shows about ALS: long-term living with MND; evolving assistive tech and care infrastructure; partner fatigue and resilience; public life with disability.

Awards

• Oscar® Winner - Best Lead Actor
• Oscar® nominee - Best Motion Picture
• Critics Choice Award nominee - Best Picture

Festivals & Screenings

• Santa Barbara International Film Festival
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

"Despite its title, The Theory of Everything is less about astrophysics and more about the quantum mechanics of human relationships under pressure."

"Marsh and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme's exquisite harnessing of light and the former's guiding of Jones and Redmayne to performances of surpassing delicacy elevate such passages to something beyond Douglas Sirk."

""The Theory of Everything" is not afraid to reveal honest, intimate and emotionally painful moments in this couple's relationship. We witness two characters who are heroic but human as they struggle to get to heart in the center of their own universes.

The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Narrative biopic · 2h 8m · USA · wikipedia · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV

Gehrig's myth, not a medical manual, but the film minted the cultural shorthand for ALS. Sentiment is era-typical; significance is historical reach.

What it shows about ALS: early public framing of "Lou Gehrig's disease"; stigma and hero narrative; pre-modern medical context.

Awards

• Oscar® Winner - Best Editing
• Oscar® nominee - Best Picture
• National Film Preservation Board - 2024 Winner

"As a simple, moving story with an ironic heart-tug at the end, it serves as a fitting memorial to the real Lou, who called himself the luckiest man alive."

"For baseball and non-baseball fan alike, this sentimental, romantic saga of the NY kid who rose to the baseball heights and later met such a tragic end is well worth seeing."

Trans Fatty Lives (2015)

Documentary · 1h 23m · USA · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV

Patrick O'Brien's decade-long diary—profane, direct, and inventive. Tracks trach and vent transitions without euphemism, and keeps gallows humor in frame. Style serves honesty, not uplift.

What it shows about ALS: tracheostomy and ventilation decision points; independence‑vs‑safety trade‑offs; social life after invasive interventions; dark humor as coping.

Awards

• Tribeca Film Festival - Audience Award

Festivals & Screenings

• HotDocs
• Milan Film Festival
• HotDocs

"An unusually playful and emotionally involving first-person chronicle of serious illness."

"By its end, TransFatty Lives leaves no doubt that its hero not only lives to accept his state, but thrives on it."

"For much of the time, 'TransFatty Lives' is an affirming rage against stillness, of any kind."

You're Not You (2014)

Drama · 1h 44m · USA · wikipedia · ·

WATCH NOW: Amazon Prime | Apple TV

A classical pianist with ALS hires a green caregiver; the relationship develops past clichés. The film pays attention to labor: lifts, feeding, schedules, boundaries.

What it shows about ALS: hands-on care skills; training a non-professional; dignity in daily tasks; navigating intimacy without sentimentality.

Awards

• Jupiter Award nominee - Best International Actress

Where There is Life (2017)

Documentary · 1h 20m · New Zealand ·

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Filmmaker Gwen Isaac documents Leanne Pooley, a mother of two, as she lives with motor neuron disease and prepares her family for the future. The film avoids sentimentality, observing both exhaustion and absurd domestic moments.

What it shows about ALS: family caregiving dynamics; practical end-of-life planning; humor as resistance; the tension between medical management and personal autonomy.

Awards

• London Independent Film Awards - Best First Time Film Director