Unrest (2017)

Available on DVD and free on YouTube. Subtitled in 34 languages. Released 2017.

Warning: for those with visual sensitivies, the first five seconds show a flashing logo.

Duration: 1 h 47 mins

Trailer below: 2 mins 19 secs

Synopsis

Jennifer Brea's Sundance award-winning documentary, Unrest, is a personal journey from patient to advocate to storyteller. Jennifer is twenty-eight years-old, working on her PhD at Harvard, and months away from marrying the love of her life when a mysterious fever leaves her bedridden. When doctors tell her it's "all in her head," she picks up her camera as an act of defiance and brings us into a hidden world of millions that medicine abandoned.

In this story of love and loss, newlyweds Jennifer and Omar search for answers as they face unexpected obstacles with great heart. Often confined by her illness to the private space of her bed, Jennifer connects with others around the globe. Like a modern-day Odysseus, she travels by Skype into a forgotten community, crafting intimate portraits of four other families suffering similarly. Jennifer Brea's wonderfully honest and humane portrayal asks us to rethink the stigma around an illness that affects millions. Unrest is a vulnerable and eloquent personal documentary that is sure to hit closer to home than many could imagine.

Sundance award-winning feature documentary, Unrest, has screened in over 30 countries and had its US national broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens. Unrest was also awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Paley Center for Media's DocPitch competition and is supported by the Harnisch Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures, BRITDOC's Good Pitch, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Fledgling Fund and the Sundance Institute.

© Shella Films, US. International release 2017