UNCONDITIONAL is a 2023 American documentary film from MSNBC/NBC News anchor and filmmaker Richard Lui. Seven years in the making, it profiles three families at the intersection of mental health and caregiving as they turn the corner, showing the power of relearning how to love.[1]
The film follows director Richard Lui on a journey to explore how mental health can be a source of hidden wounds and hidden strengths.[3]
Bushatz Family (Palmer, Alaska): Luke Bushatz struggles with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury from his deployment in Afghanistan. At home, his young sons and wife, Amy, share in his struggles and work to understand.
Thomas Family (Alexandria, Virginia): Mental health expert Kate Hendricks Thomas must prepare herself, her husband Shane, and their five-year-old son for her terminal breast cancer diagnosis.
Lui Family (San Francisco, California): As social worker and pastor Stephen Lui battles his eighth year of Alzheimer's, his wife and children face their own struggles to do the right thing.
The film was shot in the cinéma vérité style over the course of seven years. The filmmakers logged over 50,000 miles to return to film each of the families several times in order to explore how each family adapted with new caregiving and mental wellness challenges. Half of the film's $1.5M budget came in the form of in kind contributions from the film's 70 person crew.[4]
UNCONDITIONAL reunited much of the crew and film team behind 2020's Sky Blossom, which profiled five children as they grew up caring for military veterans living with disabilities.[10][11]
Post-Production
Producers Alex Lo and Richard Lui consulted with researchers from Boston University's CTE Center to create the animations in the film that show the experience of PTSD and TBI.[12][4] Digital animation was also used to add in dandelions which appear in shots throughout the film, taking inspiration from wisps filmed by the crew on location in Alaska, and the feather in Forrest Gump. The dandelion was used to symbolize “life's changes as the winds blow,” according to the filmmakers, and features heavily in the film's promotional materials.[4]
On May 10, 2023, as part of the White House's Joining Forces Initiative, First Lady Jill Biden hosted a screening of the film at the White House Family Theater to highlight the caregivers of wounded, ill or injured service members or veterans, calling the film "beautiful" and thanking Director Richard Lui for "shining a light on families like yours, families like Amy's and Shane's, whose stories you tell so movingly" in her remarks to invited guests, delivered at the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.[14][7]
Producer Alex Lo told reporters that he remembered learning about the White House's movie theater as a child, and that it was "unbelievable" for a film of his own to be screened there. Lo noted that it was "a privilege for the caregiving community to have this be an issue that the White House says deserves attention.”[16]
The film aired on MSNBC on May 27, 2023 for Memorial Day weekend as the top-rated program in its time slot (adults 25-54).[22] The film was the only top-rated 2023 documentary premiere on MSNBC to date.[23][24]