Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet

Jesse Vile's documentary about rock guitarist Jason Becker rivals Julian Schnabel's 2007 film The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly in its portrayal of human courage and fortitude. A prodigious teenage talent, Becker had recorded two albums with his own combo, Cacophony, in the late 1980s and had just joined David Lee Roth's band when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (or Lou Gehrig's disease) at the age of 19. As he began to lose mobility and the ability to communicate, his father, Gary, devised an eye alphabet that not only allowed Becker to converse, but also to keep composing. The creative process may be excruciating, but the music Becker makes is sublime, testifying to the artistry and resilience of a man who continues to beat the odds two decades after being told he had only a few years to live. Eschewing sentimentality and cant, this is a truly inspirational profile of an overlooked genius.