Jennifer Brea
Jennifer Brea | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Occupation(s) | Filmmaker and activist |
Jennifer Brea is an American documentary filmmaker and activist. Her debut feature, Unrest, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and received the US Documentary Special Jury Award For Editing.[1][2] Brea also co-created a virtual reality film which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.[3]
In 2012, Brea married Omar Wasow, co-founder of BlackPlanet[4] and currently an assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley.[citation needed] Brea was a PhD student at Harvard University when she became suddenly ill with a high fever and became bedridden. She was initially misdiagnosed with conversion disorder, but eventually was identified as having myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).[5][6][7][8][9]
In 2013, she began making a documentary film from bed about her experience.[10][11][12] Initially called "Canary in a Coal Mine", it raised significant production funds on Kickstarter via a campaign that mobilized the online community of many other homebound and bedbound patients and their families.[citation needed] Unrest premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS's Independent Lens on January 8, 2018.[13][14] It was shortlisted for an Oscar for best documentary film.[15]
In 2014, The Root recognized her as one of the hundred most influential African-Americans in its Root100 list.[16] Brea was also recognized as ProHealth's "2017 ME/CFS Patient Advocate Of The Year."[17] In 2015 she co-founded #MEAction, a global network of patients living with ME.[18][19][20] MEAction went on to spearhead the #MillionsMissing movement, a patient-centered protest in which hundreds of empty shoes were displayed in order to represent the 25% of patients with ME who are housebound or bedbound.[21][22] In June 2016, Brea gave a TED Talk on her experience as a person with ME.[23][24]
References
[edit]- ^ "unrest". www.sundance.org. Archived from the original on 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award For Editing". 29 January 2017.
- ^ "Tribeca Film Festival".
- ^ "Jennifer Bréa, Omar Wasow - Weddings". The New York Times. 2012-09-02. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "The New Science Of Exhaustion". www.wbur.org. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Chronic fatigue syndrome activists launch 'uprising' from their beds". Al Jazeera America Tonight. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "A New Name, and Wider Recognition, for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". The New Yorker. 2015-02-27. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ Romm, Cari. "A Biological Basis for Chronic-Fatigue Syndrome". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Felled by 'Devastating Disease Doctors Have Never Heard of'". ABC News. 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Interview: Jennifer Brea Talks About Obstacles, Adjustments, and Inspiration". ProHealth.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-08. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Felled by 'Devastating Disease Doctors Have Never Heard of'". ABC News. 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Chronic fatigue syndrome activists launch 'uprising' from their beds". Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ Grater, Tom (2017-08-25). "Sundance prize-winning doc 'Unrest' gets UK release". ScreenDaily. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
- ^ Morfoot, Addie (2017-06-22). "PBS' Independent Lens Announces Season 16 Slate (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
- ^ Pedersen, Erik (2017-12-08). "Oscars: Documentary Feature Shortlist Cuts Field To 15". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
- ^ "The Root 100 – 2014". The Root. 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
- ^ Verrillo, Erica (March 5, 2018). "ProHealth Is Proud To Announce Its 2017 ME/CFS Patient Advocate Of The Year: Jennifer Brea". ProHealth. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
- ^ "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Protests Tuesday". National Pain Report. 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "The Beachwood Reporter - Chicago Residents To Protest Lack Of Support For Those Suffering With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". www.beachwoodreporter.com. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ "Severe ME left me in a world of pain and darkness. 26 years on, why is it still so poorly understood?". openDemocracy. 2016-12-19. Archived from the original on 2017-01-14. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
- ^ Pendergrast, Tricia; Brown, Abigail; Sunnquist, Madison; Jantke, Rachel; Newton, Julia L.; Strand, Elin Bolle; Jason, Leonard A. (2016-12-01). "Housebound versus nonhousebound patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome". Chronic Illness. 12 (4): 292–307. doi:10.1177/1742395316644770. ISSN 1745-9206. PMC 5464362. PMID 27127189.
- ^ ""Protesters Demand Increased Funding or ME/CFS Research"". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ "The story and stigma of a baffling illness: Jen Brea speaks at TEDSummit". TED Blog. 2016-06-27. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^ ""Jennifer Brea: What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose"".