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MERIN: I think he also teaches us to think about simple things like walking and breathing, the human capabilities we tend to take for granted. In following his learning, the film allows us to learn everything him. That's why I say it's a very life affirming film. And, you fall in love with Eric. He's a completely compelling and engaging character. He has great humor. Can you talk about the humor and the importance of humor in this film, what effect do you think that will have on audiences and making them more aware?
KAUL: Again, just to back track a little bit, you're absolutely right that there's so much we don't stop to think about, that I had to stop to think about in the course of making this film.

Brain injury is something we harbor so many misconceptions and so much ignorance about. We talk about the brain in very loose terms. We say things like, "Why can't you use your brain!" or "What's the matter with your brain?", but we really don't understand that the brain controls everything. It controls our behavior, our movement, our feelings, our knowledge base, everything. And it's only very very recently that neuroscientists have learned that the brain is not fixed in form or function. And just to digress a little bit, a fact that I found interesting, something I never knew, was that it wasn't until the 1970s that neuroplasticity became an accepted idea. That's the concept that the brain can change with experience. So what's happening nowadays is that modern medicine allows the brain-injured to survive the coma. We've gotten that far. But then there's recovery. Recovery's a long and unpredictable process. Even doctors can't tell us what part of the brain will heal or over what period of time it will heal.

So that leads to what you're saying. When I first met this family, I couldn't help but wonder, this has been many years and you need something to sustain yourself. They have hope - Eric's dream of walking is important; dreams keep us all alive. And what they have beside that is a wicked sense of humor. It's not just Eric. I heard Eric laugh and I thought that's amazing. He's very funny. Is he teasing me that he has three kids named Moe, Larry and Curly? What's going on here? But then, I would talk to Isaac and he would make me laugh. I'd listen to Susan. They talk about deadly serious things, and she can make you laugh at that moment. It's black humor, but humor nonetheless. I think that humor sustains us all, and humor has sustained Susan, Isaac and Eric through the years.

MERIN: Has Eric seen this film? How has he responded to it?

KAUL: Eric has seen the film. Recently, we previewed the film at the Sprout Film Festival at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And it was amazing. The room was packed, and Eric sat there through the whole screening never making a sound. Alexandra would have been proud of him. And after the screening what was lovely was that everybody wanted to say hello to Eric. That's what often happens with the main character of a film, but what was lovely was that nobody stopped to think, "How do you say hello to Eric?" Everybody just started going up to him and saying, "Hello Eric. I'm so and so." "Hello Eric. I'm so and so." And he was so cool, calm and collected, he handled it really well.

And I must say one of the potential challenges never became one. I had spent a long time visiting Susan and Isaac and Eric so that they would get to know me and I would get to know them. But I wasn't sure how Eric would respond when the crew arrived. I worried that shooting is demanding on anyone. Would Eric be aware what this was about? Would he want to do it? Would he get tired? Would he refuse to do it? Would he respond? And you know something, he always wanted to do it. He always responded. Somewhere inside him, I know he wanted to do this, he knew it was important, and he knew that he was going to do it well.