|
Twenty year old
Gemma Quinn has been paralyzed from
the neck down for over eleven years.
In spite of being a tetraplegic,
Gemma has finished the English equivalent
of high school, written a play for
the Paul McCartney theater in her
home town of Liverpool, England,
designs clothes, traveled around
the United States and Europe and
is a spokesperson for the U.K. Charity
Spinal Research. She is the recipient
of a courage award and had a personal
meeting with Princess Diana. Gemma
is an
extraordinary young woman.
When her father,
Mike, learned that an unusual man
in London who calls himself a mind
instructor had helped a paraplegic
woman walk after all others had
given her no chance to do so, he
thought he and Gemma should explore
the situation. They did and the
results have made worldwide headlines.
The BBC reported her progress as
“Miracle Steps”.
Miracle Steps is
about Gemma’s remarkable attempts
to regain use of her paralyzed body.
We follow Gemma from the time of
her tragic accident to the present
and spend almost two years observing
her ups and downs in a very intimate
portrait her quest to walk again.
Our cameras and Gemma’s diary
camera record raw moments of success
and failures.
We watch as the
mind instructor, Hratch Ogali, a
very unusual man with a clinic in
the heart of London who has no former
medical training, is able to help
Gemma move her feet and hands and
ultimately feel pain for the first
time in eleven years. The mind instructor’s
work with Gemma can best be described
as very aggressive psycho/physio
therapy with aspects of personal
training and healing used to achieve
unexpected results with Gemma and
other patients.
We juxtapose Gemma’s
story with the story of another
paralyzed patient of the mind instructor
and the stories of two paralyzed
young men receiving treatment at
the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
Doctors and researchers at the Miami
Project are employing high tech
equipment to pursue and record the
results of similar very aggressive
physical therapy. Their results
have also been extraordinarily encouraging.
Our documentary
is hosted by and dedicated to Christopher
Reeve, who received a letter from
and wrote to Gemma shortly after
he was paralyzed eight years ago.
Gemma’s story is very timely
and is certain to inspire countless
people whether they are paralyzed
or not.
|
