Educational Media Reviews Online

Life. Support. Music. is more than an inspiring documentary of one man’s journey back from a devastating brain injury. It is an ode to musician Jason Crigler and his family. Writer, director and producer Eric Daniel Metzgar pays homage to our human characteristics of strength, tenacity and above all, love, through his beautifully poetic film.

Jason and his wife Monica were beginning a new chapter in the summer of 2004. Jason was an established member of the burgeoning, influential singer/songwriter crowd in lower Manhattan, and they were happily expecting a new baby. When Jason suffers a brain hemorrhage on stage, their lives are irrevocably changed forever. Told from the perspectives of his wife, his sister, his mother and father, and his friends, Jason’s long, arduous recovery unfolds.

Doctors did not hold much hope for Jason. He was severely incapacitated and spent a good deal of time in a vegetative state. The physicians and therapists don’t usually see people with his degree of disability make a complete recovery. His family, however, thought differently, and their herculean efforts and almost constant care are what this story is all about. They relocate to be near Jason when he is moved to a rehabilitation facility in Boston, Massachusetts. They spend countless hours with him making sure he is cognitively stimulated. They suffer through setbacks and celebrate even the smallest of forward steps. When the time comes to leave rehab, his family refuses to put him in a nursing home. Armed with dire prognoses from the doctors, and with full knowledge of the intense amount of care Jason will need, they bring him home and devote nearly two years of their lives to bringing him “back.”

As Jason progresses physically, he once again picks up the guitar. And although he is walking, talking, and spending time with his new little daughter, Ellie, he becomes depressed. The doctors advise his family that this is normal and even signals a big progression in the healing process. Jason continues to play guitar, starts joining his colleagues on stage but the joy he once felt for the music isn’t there. There’s no emotional attachment to the songs. Finally, at a concert he puts on with a variety of his musician colleagues, it happens—he connects! The excitement and joy that he feels radiates to the audience that night, it’s electric, and Metzgar translates it deftly and with quiet grace to Life. Support. Music.

This film deserves wide spread viewing. As an educational tool, it will benefit academic library collections supporting the health sciences and primarily rehabilitation sciences, and larger public libraries will find it complementary as well. It is a bit long for classroom use, but is still highly recommended for those preparing for a career in healthcare.