EXCLUSIVE: Activist-entrepreneur Brian Wallach has taken to celebrating “half birthdays,” his most recent coming in April, as he notes on his Instagram feed. There’s a good reason to observe each half-milestone and milestone: as a person with ALS, the incurable motor neuron disease, reaching a birthday is something he cannot take for granted.
At the age of 43 and a half now, he has already long outlived the predictions he heard when he was first diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in 2017. His doctor at that time only gave him a few months to live. But Wallach has done much more than surpass the expectation of physicians; he and his wife Sandra Abrevaya have worked tirelessly to dramatically increase medical research towards a cure for ALS, bringing hope to people with the condition and their families.
Brian Wallach and Sandra Abrevaya.
Photo by Jason Bollenbacher/Getty Images for SXSW
The story of Wallach and his wife, how they founded I Am ALS, and moved Congress to take unprecedented action to address the needs of people with ALS is told in the documentary For Love & Life: No Ordinary Campaign. The film directed by Christopher Burke and produced by Burke and Tim Rummel will begin streaming on Prime Video on May 28, the week leading up to Lou Gehrig Day on June 2.
We have your first look at the film in the trailer above. It is executive produced by Jeff MacGregor, Katie Couric, Phil Rosenthal (Everybody Loves Raymond), Brian Wallach, and Sandra Abrevaya. Among the bold face names who appear in the documentary are Former President Obama — Wallach’s boss when the latter worked in the White House counsel’s office – and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla, who have been funding research into neurodegenerative disorders like ALS and Parkinson’s through their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
“For Love & Life: No Ordinary Campaign is an emotionally gripping documentary illustrating the power of love and determination in the face of adversity,” notes a description of the movie. “The film follows the life of Brian Wallach and his wife Sandra in the aftermath of his ALS diagnosis at age 37. Exemplifying bravery, inspiration and hope, Brian and Sandra continue to fight against a broken system for their own future, while seeking to build a brighter one for countless others.”
The documentary is presented by Amazon MGM Studios, a Lima Charlie Production in association with The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. For Love & Life: No Ordinary Campaign won the Programmer’s Choice Award at the Virginia Film Festival and was named Best of Show at the Impact Doc Awards. It won audience awards at both the Chicago International Film Festival and SXSW in 2023.
(L-R) Katie Couric, Christopher Burke, Brian Wallach, Rachel Platten and Sandra Abrevaya at SXSW.
Photo by Corey Nickols/Getty Images for IMDb
At last year’s SXSW, Couric told Deadline about the real-world impact of Wallach and Abrevaya’s work. “They increased ALS funding, federal funding, from $20 million to $100 million dollars… And this is every single year,” Couric said. “A hundred million dollars to ALS research, which by the way, will be incredibly helpful for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and a host of neurodegenerative diseases. They also got Social Security disability benefits to be given immediately to ALS patients instead of having them wait five months, which is a lifetime for someone with a disease like this. And, finally, they’re giving patients access to drugs that are in the pipeline that can potentially extend their lives. The work they’ve done is so extraordinary.”
“With these diseases like ALS,” Wallach told Deadline at SXSW, “there are real reasons for hope.”
Watch the trailer for For Love & Life: No Ordinary Campaign above.