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| 02-03-04 PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT:
Richard G. Pellegrino, M.D.,Ph.D.
One Mercy Lane, Suite 503
Hot Springs, AR 71913
Phone: 501-624-6636
Fax: 501-623-4544
http://www.yourmovieproject.com
Hot Springs doctor honors
MS group for help with media project |
| Hot Springs, Ark. (March
1, 2004) On February 27, in Hot Springs historic Malco
Theater, Dr. Richard Pellegrino took time out of his busy
schedule to address a crowd of over one hundred invited
guests, and honor those who assisted him with
YourMovieProject.com. This is a two year old multimedia
project that will provide an effective media voice for
patients with multiple sclerosis and others with chronic
diseases through entertainment. The project aims to create
commercially viable and entertaining medical thrillers and
documentaries.
The first project centers around multiple sclerosis, an
ofttimes progressive neurological disorder, and begins with
a website, YourMovieProject.com, that collects letters from
patients about what their life is like with MS. "We use this
information to create accurate characters with MS, who are
then woven into the plot of medical thrillers, written as
both novels and movies" "If the characters are crafted
properly, then people with the illness will bond with these
characters and through their behavior in the story, our
readers can learn how to better deal with the illness." In
addition to a medical thriller, a documentary will be shot
for each illness selected by the project.
"If you take 100 patients with a chronic illness, 20 will
be doing well and living full lives. Another 20 will never
come out of their room. The rest are somewhere in the
middle. We want to create exciting thrillers and use the
power of story to help the 20 that have figured out how to
live full lives in spite of the disease to speak to the
others." Other groups that the project is intended to reach
are family and friends of patients as well as the general
public.
"We think that people with chronic illness have been
forced to find extraordinary solutions to extraordinary
challenges and have something to teach us all, so these
books, movies and documentaries will be entertaining for a
broad audience, whether you are interested in the particular
illness or not."
The first novel, a medical thriller entitled Point
Source, concerns multiple sclerosis and takes place
largely in Hot Springs. It will be out in hardcover in the
middle of this year. The first documentary is being shot now
and will be out by the fall.
Richard Pellegrino, M.D., Ph.D., a former National
Multiple Sclerosis Society fellow, Trustee of the American
Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians, and winner of the Ten
Outstanding Young Americans award for 1995, is a practicing
neurologist and researcher in Hot Springs, Ark., with a
special interest in multiple sclerosis.
Photographs of honorees supplied on request. |
|
11-04-03 PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Richard G. Pellegrino, M.D.,Ph.D.
One Mercy Lane, Suite 503
Hot Springs, AR 71913
Phone: 501-624-6636
http://www.yourmovieproject.com
Physician brings MS to the Big screen!
A 15 year old girl begins writing a letter
to a Doctor whom she does not know. Her mother has multiple
sclerosis, a chronic brain disease that often causes progressive
disability. She does not seek treatment for her mother, she only
wants to talk. She speaks of her early childhood and how she has
had to increasingly pick up the responsibilities of the
household as her mother became more disabled and her father
left. She sometimes fights with her mother, but “my mom is the
best person in my life, and I love her, MS and all”. She
concludes by making sure the physician knows that she is a young
actress who has had a lifetime of experience with MS and can
sing and dance. Huh?
Well, the doctor is making a movie! Richard Pellegrino,
M.D.,Ph.D., a former National multiple sclerosis Society fellow,
Trustee of the American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians,
and winner of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans award for
1995, is a practicing neurologist and researcher with a special
interest in multiple sclerosis. He has formed a group to produce
a Documentary and a detective thriller (novel) involving
characters with multiple sclerosis (MS).
The documentary is meant to provide a media voice for patient
with MS through entertainment. The novel, Point Source,
is a commercially viable medical thriller with a main story line
of international intrigue, but a back story line involving
people with MS. If the MS characters are created accurately,
people will bond with them and perhaps learn something about MS
through their behavior. The project website,
www.yourmovieproject.com
(YMP) has received hundreds of
thousands of hits from the MS community. The site, which went
online in late May of 2002, is designed to engage this community
and assist Dr. Pellegrino and his team of writers in forming an
accurate view of the MS experience.
The project has captured the imagination of many people and
attracted attention from two Canadian documentary film companies
who want to follow the progress of the film. The YMP team is
working closely with a professional producer whose brother has
multiple sclerosis and has attracted support from other
Hollywood notables. All music and art for the film have been
provided by the MS community.
Both the book and the documentary are due to be released in
2004. The documentary is entitled YourMovieProject.com: On
hope, fear and second chances.
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