Black Heart Health a Focus of New Documentary

Donnie Seals Sr. says he was dead — flatlined on the operating table as he was being prepared for his third open-heart surgery. Doctors brought him back to life. “I’m not going out like this,” he thought to himself afterwards. “I’d rather go out exercising and being healthy than going downhill with more and more medications.” Father and son, Donnie and Eric celebrating the completion of their 350-mile bike trip  |  Credit: Timothy M. Schmidt And so began his journey to health, a quest over nearly 30 years, that would spur him to reduce his daily heart medications from 20 to just one, overhaul his diet, spark a passion for bike riding and eventually take the 70-year-old Seals from St. Louis, Missouri, to his home outside Chicago over the course of a four-day, 350-mile biking adventure with his son Eric. Lucky for us, Eric and his brother Donnie Seals Jr. are filmmakers, who document the preparations and the ride in a way that’s engaging and immersive “Bike Vessel,” premiering on PBS’s Independent Lens on Feb. 24, is meant to invoke Donnie’s obstructed blood vessels, but also, according to Eric, “a vessel is something that will get you [what] you’re looking...