LYme

Andy Abrahams Wilson's "Under Our Skin" investigates the untold story of Lyme disease, an emerging epidemic with staggering consequences.  Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are "all in their head."  Following the stories of patients and physicians fighting the disease, the film brings into focus a haunting picture.

A friend of mine in San Francisco was getting sicker and sicker with mysterious, cognitive and neurological symptoms.  She was diagnosed with MS, and then ALS, which we know is basically a death sentence.  But, she kept looking for possible explanations and, finally, was diagnosed with Lyme disease.  Lyme disease!?  I recalled that my twin sister in Upstate New York suffered from it years ago.  I remember she was always tired and achy, though she looked just fine.  So, I never took it too seriously, like most people, and I believed it was just an East Coast illness  - if not all in her head.  So, I was shocked that Lyme disease could be so debilitating, even life-threatening.  I learned it was a virulent cousin of syphilis which, left untreated, caused neuro-degenerative impairment and dementia. 

As I looked closer at the issue, I discovered that the prevalence of Lyme disease in the US. is far greater than HIV, West Nile virus (now swine flue) combined.  Like the "great imitator" syphilis, it mimics other illnesses, including chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, AS Alzheimer's and Autism.  I learned it could be transmitted from mother to child in utero and that sexual transmission is a good possibility.  Worse still:  standard tests seem hopelessly inaccurate and most physicians are untrained to detect or treat or even look for the illness.  Furthermore, physicians who do treat chronic Lyme risk the susupension of their medical licenses!  And on the patient side, I found variations of the same story repeated thousand-fold:  doctor after doctor, years of misdiagnoses, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, denial of insurance coverage, accusations of hypochondria and finally if ever, a road back to health.

What if my friend had stuck with the ALS diagnosis?  Would she be dead today?  What if my sister never received a Lyme diagnosis and subsequent treatment?  Sometimes I say the film is my way of making penance for the way I treated my sister when she was sick.  After all, William Osler, considered to be the father of modern medicine, once said, "If you listen carefully to the patient they will tell you the diagnosis."  Our patriarchal and good ol' boy medical system is coming up against its limits of knowledge and arrogance, threatened in good measure by "internet activists" (mostly women) who are taking their family's healthcare into their own hands, sharing community and resources, and demanding help.  After five years of research and production, what we uncovered is a chilling tale of microbes, medicine and money.  ........Lyme disease is the canary in the coal mine and a case study for what's wrong and needs to be cured.

Andy:  What was abundantly clear for me was that we couldn't make a typical hour-long documentary that profiled just three or four subjects, hoping to illuminate the universal through a few personal, representative stories.  At the same time, it was necessary to get close to the film's subjects, to identify with them, to care about them.  But the depth and breadth of the issue and illness demanded that we represent a vastness of experience.  This became our goal, while at the same time keeping the film "character based" through following the arcs of some principal subjects. Early on, we had filmed hundreds of people at a Lyme patients conference, one after another, hoping to find good characters for the film.   What we ended up with was over 60 hours of what we called "white sheets" (because they were initially filmed against a white hotel tablecloth!). These eventually were edited into"chorus of voices" segments which turn up throughout the film, establishing themes and driving home the fact that the film's main characters are just a few among so many.  It's very rare in documentary filmmaking that we have the opportunity (or burden) to interview literally hundreds of people virtually with the same untold story, but that's what we had here.  It was a treasure that I held dearly and that I wanted to represent. 

This relationship between the big picture and little picture was a guiding theme in the film.  I'm fascinated by the interplay between macrocosm and microcosm, seen and unseen, and other clashing versions of reality.  The tiny microbe at the center of this larger than life issue provided a powerful symbol and point of entry for an issue that is hidden and lurking,.  Something so small yet so big.  A disease so evident but often can't be seen.  What's gotten under our skin is not just a microbe, but medicine itself, and a poisonous system which is keeping us sick.  Our own human skin is a microcosm of the skin of the earth, and the extent to which the earth's body is out of balance, so is our own.  For these reasons, images of nature, especially close-ups, become visual allegories in the film.  Nature as context and content. 

I want to show the horror of an illness and an ill system that too long has been ignored.  But, I also want to show the human and natural beauty right next to it.  Sometimes indistinguishable, the beauty and horror are connected.  If "Under Our Skin" merely perpetuates the idea that the natural world is perlious,, or that human nature is corrupt, we miss out on the glory that surrounds us - and I would not have done my job.  On the other hand, if we are lulled by convention or don't look below the surface we risk infection by the equally dangerous maladies of ignornace and apathy.  

You can also watch this movie on Vudu or on Pluto if you copy and paste:

https://pluto.tv/en/on-demand/movies/under-our-skin-1-1?utm-medium=textsearch&utm_source=google