Michel Petrucciani

A portrait of French jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani (1962-1999), who was born with a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and a short stature. Petrucciani was less than three feet tall and weighed only 70 pounds. Because he couldn't attend school, he started listening to music at a very young age and revealed himself to be a child prodigy. He began performing at 13 and moved to California and then New York, where he immersed himself in nightlife and was once literally carried by friends from a restaurant to his performance. His love of music was more powerful than his physical pain: his bones broke at the slightest touch, and often he had to keep playing with broken fingers. This moving music documentary intersperses interviews with American and French fellow artists and conversations with the fast-fingered musician himself. Family pictures and archive footage illustrate the life of this very special pianist. We also meet some candid ex-girlfriends - despite his physical limitations, Petrucciani had a turbulent love life and broke many hearts. He died of a lung infection in 1999, at only 36 years old.