Triple Knot Productions, Inc. founder Brian Dery and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers mascot Captain Fear.

~ About the Founder ~

When Brian Dery graduated from Full Sail in 1998, he had a plan similar to the many students that have fixed their bright eyes on a career in the entertainment industry. He would work hard, save money, and make the move to Los Angeles to build a career in film.

In the summer of 1998, Brian was well on his way to making his dream come true by working a good-paying job at a cement company and putting away money for the big move. But after just a few months of work, Brian began to experience unusual muscle weakness. After a lengthy series of medical tests, Brian received a life-changing diagnosis. He had Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a virus that attacks the neurological system and turns the body against itself. Even with a series of 10 treatments, within three months “I’m completely paralyzed,” Brian recalls. “I’m 24 years old. This neurologist walks in and says, ‘Mr. Dery, you are never going to walk again.’”

Fortunately, Brian’s mom researched an alternative therapy, Prednisone, a form of steroids usually given to infants for respiratory problems and insisted they try it. “Within a month of being on the Prednisone, I was up walking and was discharged from the hospital in February, 1999,” he says. “But I’m not 100% normal because I still have to wear the leg braces.”

The illness may have derailed his plans temporarily, but Brian still had his eye on his dream. After an extended recovery, he gradually worked his way back into the Florida broadcast and film industry with several short films and some projects with NASA. After a few years of work, Brian realized that the experience of his illness put him in a unique position to turn the spotlight onto other people who have overcome their disabilities. In 2005, he and two friends formed Triple Knot Productions. “We make motivational inspirational films,” he says. “There’s tons of stories out there and I look forward to bringing them to film.”

For Triple Knot’s first production, Brian filmed a documentary, To Have Courage, about a young quadriplegic woman named Jen French. “She is a very active person,” he says. “She does all kinds of sporting stuff. She loves sailing, heads up all these sailing regattas. I went out to Tampa Bay and filmed her all day long. I followed her around for a few months. We traced her story of all the trials and tribulations she’s been through dealing with paralysis.” To Have Courage premiered in Naples, Florida to a large and eager crowd.

“By now I was hooked on doing these,” he explains. His next documentary, Going for the Gold, is based on the story of three young Shriner’s Hospital patients involved in the Special Olympics program. Two are adopted Russian girls, one with a deformed leg and another with spina bifida, and the third, a young boy from Columbia who’s unable to walk. For a Special Olympics event the three were involved with wheelchair racing, swimming, and track and field events. “I was there about a week piecing all that together,” Brian says. “You look at these kids and they just don’t seem like they’re handicapped.”

Triple Knot Productions now has several documentaries to their name – and the publicity surrounding his productions is growing. Several of the documentaries are aired on the Education Channel in Tampa and he’s arranged a distribution deal with Aquarius Healthcare Productions in Massachusetts to sell his films to schools, libraries, and hospitals. The films have also grabbed industry recognition. “We won two awards at film festivals with the first film,” he says, “a Bronze Telly and a Bronze Remi Award from WorldFest in Houston with the second film.”

By bringing the stories of such amazing people to a wide audience, Brian finally feels like he has found his calling. “You’re never going to forget about your disability, whether being on a pacemaker or having a prosthetic hand. I wear leg braces. I see the marks that the braces give me every day. But you put the disability aside and try to move on and achieve things.” Of all aspects of his work, Brian most enjoys talking to people. Finding out what motivates them.

“There’re tons of stories out there,” he adds, “and I look forward to bringing them to film. If I hadn’t gone through this, I probably wouldn’t be doing these kinds of films. So, in a sense I feel like my paralysis was a gift, but it’s a severe gift. I wouldn’t change anything about my life.”

Article republished with permission from Full Sail