Personal narratives put a highly individual stamp on issues of broader interest
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Another film in this vein is Unrest, directed by Jennifer Brea, which both chronicles Brea’s own struggles with extreme chronic fatigue syndrome and unlocks for the audience a lot of information about the experiences of those around the world who are left helpless by the syndrome, which the medical establishment often treats as made up or untreatable. That Brea pulled off the film at all is astonishing, given that she was bedridden for much of the time she spent making it. But her personal perspective makes all the difference: She gains our trust, since we can plainly see the veracity of her experience, and that makes the moment when she widens her perspective to the community of people suffering from chronic fatigue all the more moving — and the failure to address a search for the cure all the more infuriating.
