Living Proof

Multiple Sclerosis societies around the world maintain that the cause and the cure of MS are still unknown. Yet pharmaceutical companies are showing record profits on sales of MS drugs, even though there is no conclusive evidence that they have an effect on the course of the disease.

Filmmaker and activist Matt Embry was diagnosed with MS in 1995 and was told there was no cure. His father, Ashton, a research geologist, helped him develop simple dietary and exercise guidelines. He has since remained healthy. Now in his early forties and showing no signs of physically slowing down, he sets his sights on shaking up a system that has so far refused to listen.

Treatments by top-tier scientists that have shown major improvement on patients' mobility have systematically been shut down by big pharma and delays from the FDA since, as Embry argues, they don't offer the prospect of a marketable product (read: a drug). Perhaps more surprising and shocking is the refusal of some charitable associations to partake in crucial information sharing.

Living Proof is an incendiary, disciplined and heartbreaking exposé on the reasons sick people might be staying sick. Embry brings a profoundly personal approach to the lack of transparency and questionable morality in the policies of medical development — policies that have direct impacts on the patients he meets. He follows the money, and it doesn`t lead to a good place.

MAGALI SIMARD