A wake-up call: After NC filmmaker survives cancer, he urges men to ‘save the dad bod’
At the age of 26, Michael Washington received life-altering news, news that would forever change his outlook about himself.
He was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney cancer. While the news was shocking enough, Washington said he wouldn’t have learned he had it if his fiance, Bria, hadn’t encouraged him to go to the doctor.
But Washington didn’t have major health problems then. His father did, having survived three heart attacks and a stroke. For Washington, any health problems weren’t on his radar until Bria, now his wife, noticed an abnormality in his core area.
It was a wake-up call.
“I would have died from cancer if it wasn’t for my wife telling me to go to the doctor because I was stubborn,” said Michael Washington, now 35.
Michael Washington isn’t alone in being “stubborn,” or hesitant to visit a doctor when something is wrong, or even when everything is just fine. A 2019 national study from the Cleveland Clinic, for example, showed 72% of men surveyed would prefer to do household chores than go to the doctor, with 77% even willing to go shopping with their significant other as an alternative.
That hesitancy can be learned early on and then can be exacerbated by societal conditions, said Dr. Eric Wallen, a urologist at UNC Men’s Health.
If something is not dire or pressing, many don’t tend to it, Wallen said.
“In other words, if it doesn’t hurt, and it’s not broken, you don’t need to pay attention to it,” Wallen said.
Michael Washington, now cancer-free, wants to change that mindset, not just for men, but especially for Black men. Drawing upon his personal health experiences and his love for film, he channeled those messages into a new documentary called “Save the Dad Bod” that delves into the topic of men’s health.
The 61-minute film, shot and edited by Washington, details his story and includes anecdotes from medical experts, like Wallen, as well as former UNC basketball star Phil Ford, who is a prostate cancer survivor.
“The reason that you should care about your own health is because you love something or someone,” Washington said. “That’s why you do things.
“That’s what the movie is about. It’s the fact it’s bigger than you and you need to take care of people. The only way to take care of people is to take care of yourself.”
A natural storyteller
Washington always considered himself a storyteller, so creating a film was a fitting way for him to express himself. He was a theater major at UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating in 2009.
“I just love the idea of a beginning and an end,” Washington said. “It’s something where you take someone on a journey. And I found my voice in storytelling.”
His journey in film began in a simple way: with people he knew and a knack for telling a good story. As a college student with a camera, that’s all he needed.
“At least it was at the time, it was a lot easier to tell a story with a camera than it was, to fly on a full play, renting space and going through all the other hurdles or processes,” Washington said. “It could just be me and my buddies. That’s how I started out, with just me and my buddies.”
He pursued his love for films after graduating. He created Argyle Rebel Films, where he is the CEO, to show off his short films.
The company name encapsulates a combination of his geographical background and his personality. The iconic argyle often used in UNC-Chapel Hill branding helps Washington display his tie to the Tar Heel State. He believes that North Carolina offers great opportunities for telling compelling stories and creating films.
“I always thought we had magic here in North Carolina,” said Washington, who now lives in Durham. “It’s home. It is this place that just has this undeniable magic in every corner whether it’s Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill or beyond. There are all these stories to be told here.”
The “rebel” part of the name represents his tendency to go against the grain and accomplish his goals. Regardless of resources, he lets nothing stop him from pursuing his passion.
“There is not one rule I won’t break if I think it’s if it’s going to help me get somewhere, if it’s going to make a better story,” Washington said. “And by better story, I mean better time in life.”
Learning new habits
Before “Save the Dad Bod” became a reality, Washington created a series on YouTube called “Kill The Dad Bod” in 2018, where he chronicled his weight loss and fitness journey.
Creating the vlog gave him the opportunity to give people a behind-the-scenes look into his life. The concept of the vlog changed, however, while he was doing multimedia for UNC Men’s Health. As he was shooting and working with people who were struggling with their own health, it got him thinking more deeply about the topic of physical wellness.
One day, while playing basketball after dropping off his son at school, he had an epiphany about what the vlog should accomplish.
“It was like, it’s not ‘Kill the Dad Bod,’ it’s ‘Save the Dad Bod,’” Washington said. “And I switched it. And I was like, ‘Let’s make this men’s health documentary encouraging guys to wake the hell up.’”
“Save the Dad Bod” offers serious – yet at times, humorous – insight on why men tend to go to the doctor less frequently than they should and why keeping healthy is vital. The range of guests featured in the film make for light-hearted scenes, as Washington himself provides narration in spots. The message remained throughout the documentary, however, with men’s health as the focal point.
In addition to Wallen and Ford, it features actor Mike Wiley, Dr. Kwame Gyampo, a dentist, and Dr. Robert Hutchins, medical director of Chapel Hill Internal Medicine.
Wallen explained why some men avoid going to the doctor on a regular basis. In comparison to women, he says men tend to skip the doctor because they are not tasked to do so early on in life.
“When women are growing up, they start seeing an obstetrician (or) gynecologist to have a baby, or maybe before that to get birth control,” Wallen said. “And they tend to continue that relationship with their OBGYN from having the baby to talking to them after having the baby, then having another baby, and then having regular checkups.
“It becomes routine for most women to see an OBGYN as they progress through young and then middle age,” Wallen said. “Whereas for men, there’s no sort of equivalent of that.”
Washington adds that some people are simply scared of the unknown.
“And I think when it comes to men in general, whether they’re Black or White or even Asian, whatever, is that we are afraid of outcomes,” he said. “If we know something bad might happen, we’re just going to leave it alone, we’re not gonna touch it until it’s too late.”
In addition to experts urging men to take care of themselves, Washington gets personal, inviting his father, William Washington III, to talk about his own health struggles.
Wallen said Washington’s father’s story was just one powerful aspect of the film.
“I think the most important message is that it’s important to think of health in terms of the context of one’s family and in terms of one’s community,” Wallen said. “And feeling that accountability to others may help more men get to doctors. It was really moving to see the generations of his family, talking about the health impacts.”
A film with a message
Like many creatives, Washington has his share of influences. He cites filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, John Hughes and Wes Anderson as some of the filmmakers he appreciates and looks up to. He enjoys directors who place emphasis on dialogue, giving extra credit to Tarantino.
His passion for cinematography is easy to pick up on, said Bria Washington, who adds that they have an “intense” DVD collection at home with hundreds of films.
She also is featured in “Save the Dad Bod” and recalled her husband making last-minute edits to the film before he finally screened it.
“He definitely is fun to watch when he gets inspired, because he just kind of goes all into it,” Bria Washington said. “Like I know I’ll wake up at three o’clock in the morning and he’s not in bed because he’s downstairs editing.”
In July, Washington screened the film in the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill. The theater was filled with those in the documentary as well as friends and family. After the film, Washington received a standing ovation from the crowd.
What means the most to him, however, is the message that is gleaned from the documentary. He doesn’t want people to wait too long before taking care of their own health.
Neither does Bria Washington, who says she’s proud of her husband for making the film.
“Even now, when we’re married, and we’ve been married for almost eight years, and still, it’s like, ‘OK, I don’t want to lose you,’ ” Bria Washington said. “Because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want your health to not be the factor that takes you away from me one day.”
Details
To learn more about “Save the Dad Bod,” go to argylerebelfilms.com.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:30 AM with the headline "A wake-up call: After NC filmmaker survives cancer, he urges men to ‘save the dad bod’."
