Strong is a powerful short documentary following filmmaker and producer Paris Jones' inspiring journey of resilience and | dG1fZ0taQW1oLTJzamc
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Mac a Detroit filmmaker is using his own production company to showcase his
00:04 inspiring journey and triumph over cancer. Strong living with multiple
00:09 myeloma as a powerful short documentary following Paris Jones is resilience and
00:13 it releases to the public next Monday here to tell us all about it. Paris
00:18 Jones himself. Welcome. How you doing? So good. Especially that you're here.
00:22 Thanks for waking up early and being with us in studio to talk about this
00:26 for those who aren't familiar and you share a little bit of your story.
00:30 Yeah. So um in october of 2019 um I was diagnosed with blood cancer,
00:38 multiple myeloma. Did you have any symptoms, anything that made you go in
00:42 or is that more of a silent cancer? There were symptoms which I really just
00:48 ignored in the beginning. Um I didn't go to the hospital to get checked out
00:53 and that's the problem with a lot of people but especially men. Um and you
01:01 know there was I was feeling you know I was having some back pains but I was
01:06 playing sports, playing basketball, going to the gym, kind of putting it
01:09 off on other things, putting it off and I was just like, you know, just not
01:16 really taking it serious until one day I sneezed and it shattered my back.
01:23 Wow. Okay. Tell me a little bit about getting from there to where you are
01:28 now. How did you overcome? How did you persevere? So you know, once that
01:33 happened, you know, of course I had to get treatment. I was in the hospital, I
01:38 was paralyzed. Um but just, you know, just having great support, great people
01:45 around me, family, friends, you know, I did have to um go to physical therapy
01:52 and get stronger and stronger. I did have to do treatment which I'm
01:55 currently still in treatment but it's only once a month now. On the screen
01:59 here are these clips from the documentary. Tell us what parts of your
02:03 journey will we see? I'm assuming this is physical therapy and when you're
02:06 really in the thick of it, you're going to see, you know, kind of from the
02:09 beginning, this is a short form documentary though. It's a short form,
02:14 you know, couldn't, you know, put everything in it but I wanted to make
02:17 it really impactful. You know, I really wanted to tell my story. Like I said,
02:21 you'll see from, you know, my little bit of my childhood and then me um how I
02:27 got into the entertainment business, um doing events um and then how I started
02:33 my production company and then spiraling into my diagnosis and um you
02:40 know how I'm here today. Where can people watch this next monday? Where
02:44 should they head to? So yes, we are doing a screening. Uh it's actually a
02:49 complimentary open screening to the public. It's going to be cost no cost.
02:54 No cost. It's going to be at the Royal Oak. Imagine um downtown level and it
03:00 starts at six p.m. Um you know seats are filling up but if you go to the
03:06 website, the information is there. I see we got information up right now. Um
03:11 and just email um RSVP and we'll get you on the list. Perfect. Paris, why
03:16 was it so important for you to put this together and to spread the word? Do
03:20 you want people to catch it earlier? Is there even more points to this? You
03:25 know, why was this such a passion project? Because you're being very
03:27 vulnerable. Yeah, no, definitely. I want people to tell the story because I
03:30 didn't know about this blood cancer, multiple myeloma. Um and you know, as
03:36 far as for people that don't like to get checked out and you know, that was
03:40 just the one thing, you know, for me, I felt that I was invincible. Um me
03:45 eating the right foods, working out every day and I still got hit with this,
03:49 you know, dreadful disease. Yeah, so discriminate, doesn't discriminate. So
03:55 that's why I wanted to just put this out just to tell the story, give more
03:58 awareness, you know, for this and I think it's really going to impact a lot
04:02 of people. Well, Paris Jones, we appreciate your transparency, your
04:05 vulnerability and again monday at the Royal Oak Imagine Theater. Thank you so
04:10 much. We appreciate it. Rachel, thank you so much for having me.