My latest film commissioned by UW Medicine features Charles Burt, an artist whose Parkinson’s diagnosis seemed destined to spell the end of his career. But a surgical team was able to quiet the tremors in his hands using deep brain stimulation, a surgery in which the patient has to be awake to ensure proper placement of electrodes within the brain.

The creative team at UW Medicine was able to get me and my small crew into the surgical suite to film the operation, which was unnerving! Charles was speaking with his doctors throughout the surgery, and the climax of the film is when they apply stimulation to the electrodes and ask him to draw something.

I couldn’t have done this project without the amazing team I work with, Jamie, Jenny and Zack, at UW. They brought me in early on this project so I was able to film Charles attempting to paint before the surgery, with tremors that made his work almost impossible. And then after the surgery, the contrast couldn’t be more striking.

This is the kind of work I (as a cancer patient myself) was born to do: to tell stories about the men and women who dedicate their lives to helping patients like Charles and me to live their best life. As long as we can.