A Doc—and a Dad

A daughter's devastating accident. Her father's race for a breakthrough. The story behind a powerful new documentary.

By Noah Isackson

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Dr. Kessler's daughter, Allison, at Harvard University, where she joined the varsity crew team

Directed by the Evanston filmmaker Maria Finitzo for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams), the 83-minute film chronicles Kessler's race to find a breakthrough. He rises for work at 4:30 a.m., works weekends, and rides an emotional roller coaster of laboratory successes and failures. "We really weren't interested in making a film that was going to polarize the issue any more than it already was," says Finitzo, who spent two years filming. "We were interested in a personal approach to the topic through his story and through Allison's story."

At a few points in the film, the camera focuses on the screen saver on Kessler's computer. It's a picture of Allison. "In the end, my research may not contribute to the cure at all," Kessler says. "But at least I'll know I tried."

Then there's his daughter: in the film, a happy, active college student, living a thousand miles from home at Harvard University. Her wheelchair doesn't prevent her from joining the crew team, working at a wildlife refuge, and throwing a dinner party (during which she toasts her mother, who is also a doctor, for teaching her to cook while drinking Champagne). Now 22, she is studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "I have to live my life," she says by phone. "I'm not sitting around and waiting for some sort of medical miracle to happen."

"My daughter has accepted this a lot better than I have," says Kessler, whose voice goes soft when he reflects on the accident. "She tells me, 'Dad, get over it.' She gets annoyed at me when I get upset. Time is more of an issue for me than it is for her; research takes a very long time."

Photograph: (Film still) Courtesy of Kartemquin Films