Daniel Lukasik ’88 (right) with documentary co-creator Mark Anthony Dellas (left).
(Photo courtesy of Patrick P. Lee Foundation/Nancy J. Parisi.)
Finding hope in a grievous loss
My Brother Lost in Time: A Bipolar Life is the title of the short film that Daniel Lukasik ’88 made about his relationship with his brother Paul. The losses are too many to count.
Paul was brilliant—“usually the smartest guy in the room,” Lukasik says. He had a master’s degree and at times, held down substantial jobs. But Paul never acknowledged that he had bipolar disorder, a form of major depression where a person swings between periods of mania and depression. Untreated, it took over his life as he grew older. And it led to his drug-induced death at age 58.
Dan Lukasik, who himself lives with clinical depression and advocates for better mental health for lawyers and others, wanted to see some good come out of his grief over the loss of his younger brother. Lost in Time is the result—a beautifully produced 15-minute film about him and Paul, going back to their Niagara County childhoods, and an appeal to be aware of those with mental health challenges and help them to seek treatment.
“I really didn’t want how he died and his mental illness to define him,” Lukasik says. “So the film looks back to when we were both small children and innocent, before all this happened. I think I was trying to find him in time.”
Lukasik made the project with documentary filmmaker Mark Anthony Dellas, whom he met by chance. It was a collaborative effort. “I had a pretty strong idea as to the structure of what I wanted the film to look like,” Lukasik says. “I worked on themes with Mark, and he would say this doesn’t work, this does work. We looked through dozens of old photos, and he shot a lot of interviews with me.” Lukasik appears throughout the film—driving through the old neighborhood, reflecting on his brother’s life.
They premiered the film on Oct. 23 before a sellout crowd at UB’s Center for the Arts in conjunction with National Depression Awareness Month and then had another showing on Nov. 17 at the North Park Theater in North Buffalo. They paired the showings with panel discussions and a reminder of the resources available to families dealing with mental illness. The film made its television debut on PBS and is available online.)
Lukasik also launched a new website, BuffaloDepressionProject.com, with information and support specific to Western New York. A recent study, he says, estimates that 220,000 people in Erie County alone will be diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. “That is just a whopping number,” he says. “And we have so many great places and treatment providers, but nobody knows about them or what other resources are available.” He hopes the film and the website will help bridge that gap.
Throughout, his message is clear: the public, and maybe lawyers in particular, need to know that mental health challenges can be managed and that a good life is possible no matter what.
“I’ve had a great career,” Lukasik says, “and one of the takeaways is that you can live with a serious mental health condition. You can experience clinical depression while still being successful and happy in your professional and personal life. The point is to learn how to manage it, and that does not come intuitively. Lawyers are fixers; we’re paid to fix people’s problems. But this is something you can’t fix by yourself.” That’s why he created his first website in 2010, LawyersWithDepression.com, to help lawyers find help and support.
In the film’s valedictory message, he puts it another way: “Mental illness doesn’t have to have the final say. Love can. And so can hope.”