Diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, filmmaker Ben Byer starts documenting his life on camera. What begins as a series of video diaries grows into an epic journey spanning three years and six countries as he scours the globe looking for answers - and a cure. 

A cinematic adventure filled with extraordinary characters, br

 Diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, filmmaker Ben Byer starts documenting his life on camera. What begins as a series of video diaries grows into an epic journey spanning three years and six countries as he scours the globe looking for answers - and a cure. 

A cinematic adventure filled with extraordinary characters, breathtaking landscapes and abundant humor, Indestructible is beautifully shot by Academy Award™ nominee Roko Belic (Genghis Blues). In his first feature film, Byer takes us on a visually stunning global quest to survive as he begins to understand the power of the human condition.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“In September of 2002, at 31 years of age, I was diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that kills 90% of its victims within five years. At the time, I was working as a playwright and actor in Chicago, running a painting company and changing my son’s diapers. Nine months later I began to make a documentary fil

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“In September of 2002, at 31 years of age, I was diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that kills 90% of its victims within five years. At the time, I was working as a playwright and actor in Chicago, running a painting company and changing my son’s diapers. Nine months later I began to make a documentary film chronicling my new life, not one I had chosen and unlike anything I ever could have imagined. Traveling by myself and then with a small crew, we filmed the isolated world of ALS, interviewing patients and their families, medical professionals, scientists, religious figures and almost anyone we could find. I wanted to know (perhaps naively), ‘What does it all mean?’.....

 THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008

THE PLACE I GREW UP  by Ben Byer

On July 18 Indestructible opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. After showing our film all over the world I’m excited to premiere at the most prestigious art house in my hometown. In 1971 I was born just south of the Siskel Center at Michael Reese Hospital. At the time my 

 THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008

THE PLACE I GREW UP  by Ben Byer

On July 18 Indestructible opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. After showing our film all over the world I’m excited to premiere at the most prestigious art house in my hometown. In 1971 I was born just south of the Siskel Center at Michael Reese Hospital. At the time my parents were living in a twelve room apartment on the corner of State and Schiller in the Gold Coast. They paid $900 per month in rent. It was a stones throw from the Playboy Mansion where my father was working for Hef.

One of my earliest memories is riding on the back of my mother’s bike when she fell into the pond in Lincoln Park, and getting covered in mud.