Life According to Sam is a documentary about Sam, (obviously), who has progeria, and the web of related topics that naturally follow. In this case, those are progeria itself, how hard a mother will work to save her son’s life, and how the medical establishment and the FDA handle drug trials and experimental drugs.

Progeria is an incredibly rare disease that basically causes the body to age way faster than it’s supposed to. The average life span is something like 13 years of age, but the cause of death is almost always something primarily associated with the elderly- these kids die of heart disease and stroke while their peers are learning what it means to have a crush on someone. The fact that a kid with progeria will get as far as tweendom and no more is particularly heartbreaking; while losing a child at any age is painful beyond my ability to conceive as a non-parent, the film clearly shows that watching your little boy grow up almost like normal for more than a decade makes knowing that his time is inescapably limited that much worse.

Continue reading →