Here’s Johnny

This film screening is followed by discussion with Johnny Hicklenton, multiple sclerosis experts and documentary-makers Animal Monday. Visually arresting and deeply personal, Here’s Johnny presents multiple sclerosis through the eyes, words and images of one of the most inspiring artists of his generation. Come and discuss the making of the film and the issues it raises around complementary and unlicensed medicine.

Johnny was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis seven years ago, when he was just 33 years old, sending his flourishing career in the comic-book world into disarray. Animal Monday started filming his progress five years ago and have followed developments in his life ever since.

Grounded in a studio set in the present, Johnny retrospectively highlights key points in his ‘war against the disease’. Journey through the different treatments he has tried in his desperate bid to find something that will counter MS. Treatments are often bizarre and unsolicited, including the use of powder intended for improving the muscle tone of competition horses, electronic pads that create harsh spasms in Johnny’s muscles, and Svengolin, the liquid form of the myelin sheath of a cow.

The documentary climaxes in Johnny taking GOAT, a controversial, untrialled drug whose reputation hinges on a video showing MS sufferers in wheelchairs walking ten minutes after the first treatment. Where does Johnny’s future lie?

Using evidence from medical experts, the audience sees how MS attacks the central nervous system. What kinds of treatment should be on offer to those suffering from MS? What’s involved in creating a drug that can be prescribed?

For Johnny, to draw is to live. Here’s Johnny uses the dark comic-book style that he is famous for, incorporating animation and hand-drawn graphics to convey medical information and explore links between MS, Johnny’s life and his art.

The documentary Here’s Johnny is funded by C4 Britdoc and the Wellcome Trust.

Event organised by: The Science Museum

Speakers

Johnny Hicklenton
Will Hood, Animal Monday
Adam Lavis, Animal Monday
Kat Mansoor, Animal Monday
Dr Alasdair Coles, University Lecturer in Clinical Neuroimmunology
Dr Bryan Youl, Aimspro Representative, Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist

Facilitator: Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive, MS Society