TRAILER
Bike Vessel follows a father and son, 35 and 70, as they cycle from St. Louis to Chicago. Film director Eric D. Seals’ father almost died after three open-heart surgeries. However, 20 years later, he makes a miraculous health recovery after discovering his love for bicycling, bringing his son Eric along with him.
ABOUT THE FILM
Eric D. Seals grew up eating just about every southern delicacy you could name: pulled pork, liverwurst sandwiches, fried fish, alongside his father, Donnie Seals Sr. Living in Wheaton, a west suburb of Chicago, he also watched his dad drink and smoke for almost 10 years, until 1995 when he almost died. Donnie Seals Sr. would undergo his first open-heart surgery before the age of 50.
Over the next fifteen years, he would have a total of three quadruple bypass surgeries and be forced into early retirement. However, the story doesn’t end there. Seals is now 70 years old and bicycles more than 30 miles a day; his heart problems have all but disappeared. Having once been on more than 20 daily medications, he is now down to one and his doctors call his recovery miraculous.
TODAY
At 70 years old and with over 15,000 miles logged on the road, Bike Vessel tells the story of a man defying health statistics and renewing his lease on life. The film takes a hard look at the health disparities plaguing Black men, and the systemic racism that has elevated them to the lowest life expectancy and highest death rate of any other racial or ethnic group.
“I thought I was spending too much money on bikes. Then my doctor said I would spend more money on medicine.”
Donnie Seals Sr.
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