KPop Demon Hunters Directors Join Parkinson's Short

The New York Times Op-Docs will premiere Living With a Visionary this week. The animated short explores a poet's fifty-year marriage to an art curator living with Parkinson's disease.

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the directors of KPop Demon Hunters, have signed on as executive producers for the film. The documentary is narrated by James Cromwell and was written, directed, and animated by Stephen P. Neary.

The film has already received recognition at major festivals. It won the grand jury award for animation at AFI Fest earlier this year. It also received the short film jury award for animation at the Sundance Film Festival.

Neary created the film by hand over a period of three years. He drew thousands of illustrations on intersecting layers of vellum. He worked on the project at night and on weekends while maintaining a full-time job as a story artist and teaching at the California Institute of the Arts.

The story is an adaptation of John Matthias' memoir. It follows John as he becomes a caregiver for his wife, Diana. Diana's medication causes vivid and often beautiful hallucinations. John learns to adapt to her imaginary world. Kang described the process as "heartbreaking" and "beautiful." She noted that she is worried Neary does not sleep enough. She stated that the world needs unique stories in animation that come from unexpected places.

Appelhans compared the film to a "sketch of the human soul." He said the work captures love, grief, and connection. Neary expressed gratitude for their support. He said the film and KPop Demon Hunters are stylistically different but share a raw emotional honesty. Both works aim to bring catharsis to viewers through animation.

Living With a Visionary is part of an eight-film slate from Op-Docs for 2026. The slate includes The Revolution Against Death by Joshua Oppenheimer. It also features The Tuners and A Wolf in the Suburbs. The films are viewed as potential awards contenders.