Gleason and filmmaker
Sean Pamphilon, who had directed
Run Ricky Run, an ESPN profile of former Saints and Dolphins running back
Ricky Williams, agreed to collaborate on a documentary profiling Gleason and his experiences with the illness. Shortly thereafter Gleason found out that his wife, Michel Rae Varisco, was pregnant with their son, Rivers, and she and their son factor heavily in the documentary as it depicts the life of their family and the role of his disease in shaping it. Pamphilon, who was biding time between New Orleans and his home in Seattle, followed the family around with a hand-held camera, and eventually, due to the logistical difficulty of proving adequate coverage, brought in Ty Minton-Small, a recent college graduate, as a second cameraman to help capture footage. Minton-Small and the Gleason family developed a strong rapport, with the Gleasons allowing Minton-Small to film the birth of their son, Rivers. During production, the unit found themselves in the center of a
controversy concerning former Saints defensive coordinator
Gregg Williams, who was accused of offering players bounties as a reward for injuring players on opposing teams during games. Pamphilon recorded a team meeting in which Williams urged players to "kill the fucking head." Pamphilon, who became concerned about traumatic brain injuries in football, decided that the audio should be made public. In April 2012, a month after the NFL made the situation involving Williams and his staff public, Pamphilon released excerpts from the meeting without Gleason's permission, effectively ending their relationship and his role in the project. Ty Minton-Small and David Lee, who had been hired as Pamphilon's assistants earlier that year continued to follow the family for the remainder of the shooting. According to Gleason, the crew and his family became very close: :Ty and David more or less lived and traveled with us," Gleason wrote Gambit in an email interview "They did caretaking for me, and are like uncles to Rivers. ... Ultimately, they weren't outside filmmakers filming our family. We were a team, working together on a mutual project. Ty and David are family to us. The film chronicles the progressive stages in Gleason's disease. As his disease advanced, Gleason lost control of most motor functions, including speaking, and he now relies on assistive technology, known as Augmentive/Alternative Communication (AAC), to communicate. Steve Gleason is a fan of rock group
Pearl Jam and is friends with several members of the band, including
Mike McCready, who wrote a song called "Hoping and Healing" that was included in the film. ==Release==