The Inheritance

Directed by: Jeff McDonald
Written by: Bridget Lyon and Jeff McDonald

This haunting, personal film offers a firsthand perspective on the hereditary neuro-degenerative Huntington’s Disease. The condition typically shows up in mid-adult life, and DNA testing has shown Wellington film editor (and screenwriter) is likely to fall prey. She and her husband, director Jeff McDonald, are forced to face the disease’s horrors head on while watching her mother’s deterioration.

Lyon has managed to trace the Huntington’s gene through her family and is determined not to pass the curse on to her own child. She meets with scientists working toward a cure, and outlines how medical science intervened to enable her to have a child without the Huntington’s gene. At the same time she doesn’t back away from the reality she, and many other family members face and the possibility that her first child might be forced to.

This is an intensely moving, personal journey into the heart of a family and their love for one another.