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http://junkee.com/unrest-film-review-chronic-fatigue/134924
The raw honesty and vulnerability they’ve been brave enough to publicly expose is heart-wrenching, but also strategic. In drawing viewers into their private dynamic — the fears, hopes, insecurities, affection, anguish — they encourage the kind of empathy that has long been conspicuously absent in how people with ME/CFS are dealt with in the public sphere.
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Jen was confined to her bed for much of the filming process but, through the magic of modern technology, she effectively networked with a broad patient community. As a result, Unrest takes an international perspective, capturing diverse personal stories.
In the film, we meet Jessica Taylor-Bearman, a young, creative British woman developing strategies to stay positive and sane while confined long-term to her bed.
Through Karina Hanson, who was forcibly institutionalised for three years (literally dragged from her family home in Denmark by authorities), we see how psychiatry’s historical appropriation of ME/CFS has resulted in the systemic mistreatment of physically vulnerable people.
IT’S LIKE HAVING THE FLU WITH A HANGOVER WHILE SOMEONE TURNS GRAVITY UP TO 100.
Through Whitney Dafoe, we see ME/CFS in its most extreme form, where eating, moving and interacting become intolerable. Whitney lies silent in a darkened room, tube-fed and wearing noise cancelling headphones to protect him from sensory stimulation which worsens his already alarming condition.