This morning I sat around a table with 8 women, and 2 men - all in their 60’s.
This isn’t my usual Saturday.
We met to discuss Unrest - a film and VR project raising awareness for CFS & ME - two very undefined illnesses, which act to group the umbrella conditions affecting millions of people globally.
Don’t say i didnt warm you, that film is a tear jerker. It follows the articulate Jennifer Brea and her incredibly supportive husband through their journey into this illness, one which leaves millions of people worldwide, bed ridden and life ridden.
My best friend of over 20years is a sufferer, eight years in bed and no signs of the tide turning yet.
And that is why we met, to talk about the film, how it made us feel and think what we could do to help. The ME/CFS community is large and disparate. It feels like no one really knows what to do to make change because no one knows how to treat this. Which makes it easy for the government to ignore the many charities, action groups and families like ours.
So what does this have to do with the Arts?
Unrest came out in mid 2017 and to date it has created an award winning VR, got nominated for an Oscar and is now free to view for those who have Netflix. Out of no where, it feels like this film has offered so much; a shared language for talking about ME, an insight into how sufferers feel on a daily basis and a tool to share with wider friendship groups. It has genuinely spread the word. its a really good film, a well considered and exciting piece of art. The VR goes further - an experimental immersive film you watch from a real bed over 7mins
The Unrest team are clever, the occupy the ground between art, activism and humanity. They get to be proud of what they made and at the same time, offer needy people a lifeline.
Now thats the power of art.
Unrest