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    Sufjan Stevens Says He Lost Ability to Walk From Guillain-Barré Syndrome

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    The indie-rock singer-songwriter said in a statement on his website that he was expected to recover from the rare neurological condition.Sufjan Stevens, the indie-rock singer-songwriter, said in a statement on his website on Wednesday that he was in recovery from a rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome that had taken away his ability to walk, saying he had been hospitalized for several weeks but was expected to recover.“Last month I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk,” Stevens said on his website. “My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility.”The musician said that his brother drove him to an emergency room and that neurologists diagnosed him with the autoimmune disorder, which can cause muscle weakness and paralysis. He was treated with immunoglobulin infusions, which he said were effective, and was eventually transferred to rehab for intensive physical therapy, noting that most people with the condition learn to walk again within a year.“My doctors did all the things to keep me alive and stabilize my condition,” Stevens said. “I owe them my life.”Stevens has a new album, called “Javelin,” coming out next month. He noted that his health had prevented him from participating in the album’s promotion.“I’m only in my second week of rehab but it is going really well and I am working really hard to get back on my feet,” he said. “I’m committed to getting better, I’m in good spirits, and I’m surrounded by a really great team.” More

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      ‘Not Going Quietly’ Review: Into the Long Fight

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      This documentary follows the activist Ady Barkan, who toured the U.S. to help demonstrators draw attention to public health policies after his diagnosis with a fatal neurological disease.In 2016, Ady Barkan was working as an advocate for economic justice when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., a neurological disease that deteriorates motor function. Doctors told him he had only three or four years to live. The documentary “Not Going Quietly” begins shortly after this grim diagnosis, as Ady embarks on a new political campaign, this time focused on public health policy.In the film, Ady leaves the comfort of home and family to travel across the United States on a speaking tour as part of his “Be a Hero” campaign. He leads rallies in Congressional districts where politicians support what Ady deems inhumane health policies. In Washington, his push for health care access leads Ady to protest Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court appointment. Through this fight, his illness progresses, limiting his ability to move and speak.The most intriguing scenes in the documentary are focused on the mechanics of Ady’s activism. The director Nicholas Bruckman captures Ady and a team of organizers as they host a training for demonstrators who intend to film themselves disrupting politicians during routine campaign stops with questions about health care. This training represents one of the few occasions that Bruckman treats Ady’s success as a result of organizing, rather than a feat achieved through sheer force of personality.Ady’s vitality has been central to his accomplishments. But Bruckman elides the significant amount of planning that it has taken for Ady and his team to build a national movement. This lack of practical detail means this documentary plays as a human-interest story, built from predictable beats of adversity and triumph. It is a warm and generous portrait, but the film lacks its central organizer’s propulsive shrewdness.Not Going QuietlyNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Lourdes’ Review: Pilgrims Find Fellowship on Quest for Miracles

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      This intimate documentary reveals the hopes and fears of those seeking healing.Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai start their documentary with imagery that is as elemental as it gets. A stone wall, slate gray, its surface sheathed, it seems, in clear water. Then, human hands, some gnarled with age, others smooth and childlike, touch the wall, sometimes with fingertips, sometimes palms.This wall is at the shrine of Lourdes, in the French Pyrenees, where in 1858 a young woman saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary and discovered a spring of reputedly curative water. The town is now host, between the months of March and October, to pilgrimages by thousands of people seeking physical and spiritual healing, and their families. The movie takes an intimate look at a few who visited the shrine of Lourdes in 2017.There’s a lot heartbreak to be seen here. A teenage girl with a skin condition, accompanied by her father, seems just as riven by the school mockery she endures as by her ailment itself. A male prostitute, whose tortured musings we hear in voice-over, assists some priests in preparing communion. A devoted mother transports her adult son, who had a brain injury in a road accident, “to see the Virgin,” as he puts it. One very young child, too sick to even travel, is prayed for by his father and brother.The movie also shows the volunteers and health care workers who look after the pilgrims during the devotional season. The movie allows these figures moments of frankness — there’s much about their jobs that’s tiring and unappetizing — but the viewer will be mostly impressed by their compassion.What do the pilgrims want? By this late date in the history of the place, few expect a cure. “There aren’t that many miracles, if you think about it,” Lydie, the aforementioned mother, admits. They seek the possibility of miracles — and hope and fellowship and understanding.LourdesNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More