Gleason (2016) on Netflix
R20161h 50mDocumentary
Former New Orleans Saints defensive back Steve Gleason learns at 34 that he has ALS. Weeks later, his wife, Michel, is pregnant, and he starts a video journal for their unborn son.
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- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb8.3/103,322 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
With the New Orleans Saints, Steve Gleason blocked a punt in the team's first game back at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, at 34, he learns he has ALS, a rare neurodegenerative disease that is incurable and gradually takes away a person's motor functions, and doctors give him two to five years. The condition is sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the New York Yankees star who died from it in 1941. Weeks later, his wife, Michel Rae Varisco, learns she is pregnant with their son, Rivers. Gleason starts a video journal as a gift for the child, and a filmmaker begins following him and his family with a hand-held camera.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gleason (2016)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While filming, director Sean Pamphilon recorded a New Orleans Saints team meeting in which defensive coordinator Gregg Williams urged players to injure opponents, then released the audio in April 2012 without Steve Gleason's permission, ending Pamphilon's role in the project.
- Pamphilon followed the family with a hand-held camera, then brought in recent college graduate Ty Minton-Small as a second cameraman; the family grew so close to him that they let him film the birth of their son, Rivers.
