Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Doco about M.E.

Been meaning to post this for a little while, but got distracted.

My friend Nasim recently blogged about an impending doco; it looks like it’s going to be excellent. Nasim and others are interviewed, and our long-time champion Professor Malcolm Hooper is absolutely sterling.

Watch the trailer!

And if you’re inspired, you can get involved.

I don’t want to detract from the trailer, but if you’re interested in some historical context about the Lake Tahoe outbreak, here’s a longer Prime Time Live story on ME/CFS, circa 1996. When it was shown in the US I’d been sick for a year - I wish I knew all this stuff back then, rather than feeling stranded in the wilderness of illness, trying to understand how I’d evaporated from my normal life and become a wraith who drifted in and out of a bedroom.

Watching both bits of film, one made so many years later, it’s bizarre to see how little has changed. Why do we persist with advocacy, despite the decades of apathy? I like what the first trailer says:

“Why should we care?

Because it could be you.”

8 comments:

  1. I heard about this too and am so grateful it's being done. I can't wait to see the final product.
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  2. I've seen that trailer. Aside from some of the accents being hard to understand on my end, it looks excellent.
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  3. I can't wait to see the finished product either, Laurel!

    cinderkeys, I saw on the blog they're currently in Nevada, so there should be some familiar accents soon.
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  4. Heh. Cool. The prospect of those interviews brings out the fangirl in me. And I should rephrase that last post to say, "It looks excellent, and I was enjoy it despite my pathological inability to understand my native tongue when the accent is different than mine."
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  5. My inner fangirl is a bit thrilled too! It's always fascinating when the big names are interviewed, people you've only ever read about. I enjoyed seeing Cheney in the 1996 vid.
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  6. I love to see your blog updates, it means you have been 'able' to write a little bit, and that makes me happy! The part of the doc trailer that always chokes me - I have watched it a few times! - is the subtitle referring to yuppie flu in 80s, it takes me right back to that hell and darkness. Yup, as you say, what has actually changed, we might well ask...

    Also, I just joined the Dr Myhill FB support group, sorry to be so late in doing so... I see the comments on the 'Jonas' thread are downright scary & puerile. Good luck to her next week!
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  7. I saw this a little while ago too! I am really glad someone is making something like this, and I hope it comes out well... It looks good so far in the trailer! Can't wait for it to come out!
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  8. What a day it will be when this documentary is complete and being watched on primetime around the world. Will it change anything? If enough people feel "it could be you"...perhaps it will. Change seems to come about when what needs to be changed is at people's doorsteps...and its scary.

    As someone whose also had ME/CFS for twenty years and lived in the outbreak vacinity...this was moving.
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