Samantha Sewell, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2022, UCLA, Screenwriting Award / 2022, Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize

Project Type: Pilot

Genre: Drama

Length: 60 pages 

Field of Science: Medical Genetics

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

“Until Then We Keep Breathing” is a limited series that chronicles the birth, growth, joys, fears, and near-death moments in the life of Steven “Stevie” Spellman, a man born with Cystic Fibrosis during the early 1960s—when the life expectancy was just five years old. Across this series, his life unfolds, dependent upon advancements in science and medicine to grant him more time, yet also stifled by these various technologies, which keep him from living the normal life he desires.

Each episode explores a period in Stevie’s life where he reconciles with his congenital illness. From episode to episode, the time periods we cover are asymmetrical. In one episode we are privy to 18 years of his life, when in another we cover two days. This purview offers the flexibility to adequately cover the span of a life, yet also the intimacy to authentically honor the most private and challenging parts of this illness. Although disconnected in pace, what ties these moments together is the interplay between the imprisonment of illness and the will to live a normal life.

Beyond Stevie’s personal experience, each episode highlights how congenital illness interferes with the everyday life of a family. From Stevie’s mother, Phyllis, and her unrelenting mission to track down the latest treatments and the best doctors, we are afforded a glimpse into one woman’s fight to keep her son alive. Through Stevie’s father, Martin, and his auditory impairment, we witness the complexities of love and self-blame in the wake of shared physical disability. Alongside Stevie’s wife, Marie, and her interest to start a family, we are introduced to the emotionally and physically challenging world of IVF and ICSI.

Through Stevie’s children, and their curiosities about their father’s health, we are shown the boundaries and distance that physical illness can create between parent and child. In addition to being about one man’s battle with Cystic Fibrosis, “Until Then We Keep Breathing” honestly depicts how a multi-generational family organizes around congenital illness.

Across this series, each episode is a window into the most challenging and pivotal aspects of Stevie’s life. In the beginning, we watch Stevie’s mother fighting for her son’s early life, and later, Stevie taking ownership of his illness. In later episodes, we explore Stevie rejecting his physical limitations, and hiding this from his first love, Marie. We witness Stevie and Marie trying to conceive children by way of IVF and ICSI. We watch Stevie become a father while simultaneously dealing with the death of his own father. We follow Stevie when his lung collapses, nearly taking his life. And we end on a miraculous note in which Stevie’s health improves due to a trial medication. The series closes on the unimaginable: Stevie outliving his mother—the woman who spent her whole life keeping him alive.

What sets this story apart from others about illness, is that it is not centered on the suffering associated with sickness. It is about the determination to live despite the ever-present possibility of a sudden end.