Unrest

Unrest is a sensitive and arresting rally cry for increased awareness about this disease, and an existential exploration of the meaning of life while battling a crippling chronic illness.

Unrest works particularly well once Brea looks beyond the limitations of her own bedridden experiences to document other cases worldwide, providing a stirring collage of stories to illustrate the destructive impact of the disease and why it remains widely neglected by the medical community.

Though the “Patient, film thyself” concept is starting to risk overexposure...Unrest is a high-grade example of the form that’s consistently involving, with content diverse enough to avoid the tunnel-visioned pitfalls of diarist cinema.

Using her own experience with the syndrome as a springboard, Brea offers an affecting film.

It powerfully insists on giving a voice to victims whose greatest challenge, apart from their symptoms, is surmounting a world of indifference.

Like many first-person medical documentaries — such as the recent “Gleason” — Unrest can be really hard to watch. Brea’s film, though, might be the beginning of hope for millions of sufferers who might see the film, and could be a conversation starter for additional funding into research.

A documentary that serves a vital function. Ricky Gervais notwithstanding, this disease is no joke, and it’s not going to be addressed as the scourge that it is until a larger portion of the population gets that. This movie should help.

Unrest is a spellbinding masterpiece of storytelling, art, and social injustice commentary. Filmmaker Jennifer Brea brilliantly combines hypnotizing visuals, captivating music, and interweaving plot threads to engross the audience and masterfully accomplish what every good artwork should: profound and lasting emotion that spurs its audience to think, feel, and act in new ways. Indeed, and amazingly in a single film, Unrest evokes profound sadness, crushing frustration, mad fury, and finally hopeful epiphany that through this film and its social justice campaign, moviegoers can change the world--not just for the benefit of ME patients, but also for the benefit of the world. #TimeForUnrest

Truly moving! Multiple award winning documentary. Beautiful visuals and score. A compelling story that will move you to action. In this film I found a battle cry, a love story that mirrored my own, and reasons for hope. I wept and laughed. You will be glad that you watched this film.

Ground Breaking and for the Millions of under severed patients around the world maybe a game changer. Ms. Brea gives a face and articulate voice to a serious illness shoved into the shadows by the medical researchers charged with keeping our citizens healthy. This movie provides a glimpse of her coming of age in the face of a complex not well-understood illness with grace, humor, and determination. She is not alone in her search for medical help and introduces a few of the other patients and researchers in her quest for appropriate medical assistance as she learns to redefine her own personal gifts. This film I expect will stand the test of time among a handful of projects turning the tide and attention toward this often misunderstood, poorly investigated serious illness. Very well done.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, is a devastating disease which, from patient to patient, manifests itself with a myriad of different symptoms and severity. At its core is unexplained fatigue that never leaves and at times can be crushing. Jen Brea, the filmmaker, and star of 'Unrest' is one of the severely ill. Brea becomes bedbound after her Neurologist, unable to explain her symptoms with standardized medical testing, diagnoses her with Conversion Disorder (hysteria) telling her that although her symptoms are real they are coming from her mind and have no biological cause. She walks home from his office ignoring her symptoms only to collapse once home and is then bedridden for 2 years. She begins recording her symptoms and struggles and after launching a Kickstarter campaign spends years filming herself and interviewing patients and researchers using Skype from her bed. This is very hard to watch it but also tells the love story between Jen and her husband which helps the viewer withstand the brutal patient stories.

This is not an easy to watch documentary but necessary for those working in healthcare as clinicians, surgeons, and support staff as well as government healthcare organizations and the families and friends of patients to understand the struggles faced by those who are suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Jennifer Brea brings you into her world by turning the camera on herself as she struggles to get out of bed, crawls on the floor to get around, and interviews patients and scientists in order to explain her disease to the viewer. She is one of the severely ill but the disease that impacts up to one million in the US and millions more worldwide can differ in severity from patient to patient and can fluctuate in severity over the years and decades. There are no approved treatments. Ms. Brea and her husband Omar Wasow struggle together to find a new path for their once very promising lives both professionally and personally. Social media led her to find many others that have been ill for decades, some involved in advocacy and a handful of researchers working with very little money for many years. The documentary has had a positive impact on mass media who until recently reported negatively of the patients (malingerers, lazy) and incorrectly on the disease as a mental health issue and supporting the bad research which ultimately promoted exercise as treatment when in fact exertion, physical or mental, makes the patient worse. Brea herself collapsed after a walk home from her doctor and was bedridden for more than 2 years. She has not returned to her former unwell health prior to that walk home and now uses a wheelchair. When able to sit up must keep her legs tucked underneath her so blood does not pool to her feet as she also has POTS (often a comorbid of ME/CFS). Ms. Brea has now found a new career path in her documentary filmmaking as well as advocacy for funding research.