A local doctor is profiled in a short film that was played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Dr. Daryl Wilson spends his days as the EMS Medical Director at Edward Hospital, and his nights singing lead vocals in the punk rock band, “The Bollweevils.”
“Me as a physician is one thing, me as a punk rock guy is a whole different, you know, set of stories there,” said Dr. Wilson.
Many of those stories were told in the documentary “Men: The Series” which gives an in-depth look at the lives of four African American men, including Dr. Wilson.
“This was put together as an homage to show who we are as men and that this is what an African American man looks like and this is what their life looks like,” said Dr. Wilson. “You know we’re just middle of the road, middle class individuals striving to better ourselves and our families just like anybody else.”
For his portion, the filmmakers followed Wilson and his band on tour in California and Chicago – seeing Dr. Wilson perform for hundreds of fans.
“I’ve always kind of been a kid who’s been independent, think independently, and punk rock’s one of those very independent minded things. So rock’n’roll itself is just an independent minded thing, it’s a good release of stress, especially working in a stressful profession such as emergency medicine,” said Dr. Wilson.
Filmmakers also spent time with Dr. Wilson here in Naperville.
“I spent days with me at the hospital here seeing patients and seeing how the medical side of me works. And then also spent some time with my family and myself and my lovely wife and my three beautiful kids and our dog,” said Dr. Wilson.
Dr. Wilson hopes the different aspects of his life shown in the film will spark a dialogue and cause people to think before they judge.
“I mean I’m a guy who is 6 foot 4, 220 pounds with dreadlocks who walks around,” said Dr. Wilson. “People will defiantly notice me and at that point they may make assumptions about who I am as a person, but they don’t really know you. So it’s one of those things to really show, hey if you want to know somebody you need to approach them and figure out they’re much deeper than the superficial things you may think about.”
An opera singer and twin cowboys were also featured in the documentary.
Naperville News 17’s Evan Summers reports.