Flying on One Engine is an incredible, fantastic, heartwarming, inspiring, and hilarious documentary. It features the 77-year-old infirm Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet, an eight-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who spent half his year performing free corrective cleft palate surgeries in India. The other half he’s living alone in a tiny rodent-infested apartment in Brooklyn, surviving on leftover take-out fried rice and buying lottery tickets. He’s a brilliant character, one you couldn’t possibly dream up. He’s funny and outrageous. His candor is priceless, while the work is dead serious. And that’s only part of what makes this film so entertaining.

Flying On One Engine is teeming with life, capturing raw, intimate moments soaked through with humor and surprise. The camera gets very close in. Shot in natural light, we see the throbbing public life and the surreal private. It’s clear that director Joshua Weinstein, a recent BU grad, has a great way with people as well as a great feel for the telling moment. Laughter and real warmth are everywhere. This film is the antidote to the do-gooder film that’s no fun.
Flying On One Engine is a wholly original and wonderful new film.
-Janet Pierson (SXSW Director)