Your Friend, Memphis

Your Friend, Memphis was very warmly received at its World Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It provides a powerful documentary account of an ambitious young man named Memphis DiAngelis who dreams of big despite the limitations created by his disability, cerebral palsy. He wants to build a life for himself beyond the limitations of a group home that many people like himself end up in. He seeks to achieve a normal self-supporting life as he struggles for more. He is an endearing, emotional, idealistic dreamer. The filmmakers capture his life over about 5 years of young adulthood mostly here in his hometown of Austin, TX.

Too often people are seen only through their disability and the limitations that it imposes. Memphis wants to do more than just survive. His parents struggle to both support and encourage his ambitions while trying to restrain his expectations. We see both his successes and his failures. The portrait is intimate and allows us to get below the surface of a person with a severe disability and see the human being below. Memphis can be seen as both a heroic inspiration and at times a warning of genuine dangers. There are no easy answers for Memphis. His story is specific to a person with physical disability, and yet, there is a more universal quality in that each of has to struggle with our abilities and limitations.