The Man Who Learned to Fall is a feature documentary about a gifted writer and sought after teacher who celebrates the wonder of life even as he is slowly dying of a fatal neuromuscular condition. At the age of 35, Philip Simmons learned that he had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Married, with two young children and a promising career as an English Professor and writer, he was told that he had less than five years to live. Filmed in the foothills of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, this intimate portrait of Phil and his family captures the witty eloquence and poetic grace of a dying man and his heroic journey. As his muscles deteriorate and his body becomes increasingly paralyzed, Philip Simmons continues to “wrestle joy from heartbreak” – again and again and again – at each stage of his ongoing losses. Although his illness eventually forced him to give up his University teaching, he continued to write and in August, 2000, he published Learning to Fall: the Blessings of an Imperfect Life, a book described by Rebecca Pepper Sinkler, former editor of The New York Times Book Review, as “a literary gem enlightening us about the deepest mysteries of life” We meet Phil a year after the publication of his book which his publisher, Bantam Books feels "has the potential to be a spiritual classic". Although, he eloquently described ALS as “emptying me out one teaspoon at a time”, he also proclaimed that “a fuller consciousness of my own mortality has been my best guide to being more fully alive”. Phil Simmons outlived the medical predictions, and lived with his illness for almost ten years.