Courtesy of Mama Bird Diaries
Two years after its launch, the documentary Darius Goes West by filmmaker Logan Smalley shows no signs of slowing down. Nor does its star, nineteen year old Darius Weems who despite suffering from the genetic and incurable disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is seemingly unstoppable.
Along with eleven friends, Darius, then aged fifteen, left home for the first time in a bid to get MTV’s Pimp My Ride to work their magic on his wheelchair. Hopefully one that can hold the incredibly impressive twenty awards the film has since picked up!
In this, his nineteenth year, far from dwelling on the fact that it was at this age that his brother Mario lost his fight to the very same condition, Darius is touring the States in a bit to raise funds for research into DMD.
This year sees the launch of the ‘One Year…One Million DVDs’ campaign, which will see art transformed, its creators hope, into action.
With a promise of 85% of each DVD sale going directly to Duchenne research, and the rest to generating new copies, purchasing ‘Darius Goes West’ means you not only get to join Darius on his journey, but maybe even lengthen it for him and other DMD sufferers.
Part revolution, part revelation, this film proves to people of all ages how life, even when imperfect, is always worth the ride. With DMD being the number one genetic killer in the world amongst children, this is definitely a revolution well worth joining in on.
