"Unrest" updates

[hinterland]

Yes I agree with you. I thought it was grudging. And there was perhaps a subtle inference all the way through that he wasn't convinced that it is a physical illness.

It's difficult to pin this down. But I didn't like the sentence that starts "Luckily for her she found just enough inner strength" - The first time I read it I wondered if it was sarcastic. It's certainly possible to read it that way.

"The loving but baffled family members", seems to put her very much on the outside with the families rather than with the sufferers. He didn't really seem to have been moved by the plight of patients.

"The film staunchly argues" is annoying as well. I mean it could've said "convincingly" or "movingly".

"The debate rages on… But the suffering is real" leaves the suggestion of an imaginary illness kind of hanging in the air.

I felt that he didn't want to associated with validating the illness. And this does seem to be The Guardians position.

I thought the same as you about the Guardian article, as it is true to form. But I’ve just clicked on the author link and she gives low ratings across many of the films she’s reviewed. She may just be a cynical person.

 

[TreePerson]

Yes @hinterland I think you are right about the cynicism. Originally I thought it had been written by a woman and then for some reason I think perhaps the spelling of Leslie made me think it was a man so I went back and changed all the pronouns in my comment.
I feel pretty confident that The Guardian have an agenda when it comes to ME but this is less likely to extend to film reviews.

 

[hinterland]

Unrest is available on Amazon Video, in the UK, from last night. Pay to view: £12.99 to buy. You can install the Amazon Video app on your smart tv for free, and don’t need to be a Prime member to watch pay to view content.

 

[Hajnalka]

Here is a list of the current options to buy Unrest and the countries they are available in: https://www.unrest.film/digital

 

[Cheesus]

My iTunes preorder came through and I just got finished watching it. I thought it was very good.

 

[Cheesus]

This quote from Jen really resonated with me (may be a spoiler if you want the entire film to be a surprise):

Spoiler: Jen Brea quote

If i completely disappear and i’m in this bed and i can do nothing then it's like i don’t even exist or that I never existed. And then what was the point of it all? Of being born in the first place?

Honestly there are a lot of days when i feel like i am doing a good job by holding it together and not killing myself. I am really proud of that. I really don’t want to die, I really don’t want to die, but at a certain point it is hard to call this living, and I think the grief of all those things i might not do or see or have…

 

[frozenborderline]

Thank so much for your kind words about the process, Leela. It took more than I ever knew I had to give.

Folks should really feel free to say what they like – I really don't mind that not everyone loves the film. I just think it's important to bear in mind that the way any one person receives the film isn't necessarily the way others or the public more broadly will. We worked very hard to translate the experience of living with ME to a general audience. An incredible amount of thought, intention, and experimentation (i.e., audience testing) went into it. There was deep mentorship and creative collaboration with some incredible filmmakers via the Sundance Edit & Story Lab and other spaces.

We also had specific aims. My aim was to make a critically acclaimed, festival film that would receive broad distribution and generate a ton of press. We did that. A second goal was to use Unrest to help grow and build the movement. We are doing that and time will tell how successful we will have been. The ultimate goal is to achieve a deep and lasting resonance in our culture (only time will tell). Making an educational film for medical doctors, a PACE expose, or a NOVA or Discovery-style TV documentary are entirely different but also important goals. Someone should make those films; we need them. If this film aimed to be the latter, it would have failed at that goal. But it aimed to be a Sundance film, which it was and which I also think this movement needed, among the constellation of many things this movement needs.

I agree that this movement needed that. You are so right, and I think have a killer instinct. I was an artist and musician before I got sick (hopefully will be still in the future) and so I'm kind of a snob, I guess? I sat down with no context to watch the film and thought it might be hard to get through just because documentaries about chronic illness that are framed in advocacy terms can be really boring or corny. But I think I watched it not just as someone with CFS/ME, but as someone wanting to watch a film, and was drawn in by it. I think it was really good, and I think I could show that to people who don't know much about CFS/ME and they would be pretty drawn in by it. It has a heavy emotional impact. I empathize with almost every part of your story. I wasn't a PhD student at Harvard but was extremely ambitious before I got sick and I feel like everything has been robbed from me. It's brought me to some low places.

Hopefully I can show this to my parents when it comes out on DVD and they will be more understanding.

 

[frozenborderline]

Yeah i think everyone attacking Jen for not portraying x or y thing perfectly needs to chill. Imagine how fucking hard it must be to make a Sundance film of this scope while you're that sick? some people might be sicker than her, but I'm doing pretty terribly and have never needed a wheelchair or been unable to talk, so I grant her that she's pretty sick. Or at least has been at points. I think that it's amazing that she had a caring spouse to help with this as well as, probably, a team of people, and that's the only way it's realistic to accomplish something like this while sick, but I'm also sure that her vision and instinct was good. She's a good face of this illness. People that are used to marginalizing the chronically ill and thinking of them as on the outskirts of society will have a harder time doing this with someone that was a charismatic young(er) PhD student at Harvard when she got sick. For better or worse that really helps. She's doing a really tricky thing. You have to show how hard the illness is while not making footage so abject that people don't want to watch it.

 

[Joshybo]

I've just had a chat with The Regal Cinema at Wadebridge, they do one off screenings! Bingo!
Waiting for the manager to call me to find out how may people we need to make it pay...

Mrs Sowester, Did you make any headway with The Regal in Wadebridge? I'm interested in setting up an Unrest screening there too.

 

[Chelby]

I would love to see a PACE expose documentary.

 

[MEMum]

Mrs Sowester, Did you make any headway with The Regal in Wadebridge? I'm interested in setting up an Unrest screening there too.

I think Mrs Sowester's health has deteriorated recently, which is probably why you have not heard anything.
I would recommend you go ahead and organise something. There are a fair few members from the SW area I think.