Jennifer gave the highest-rated talk at the 2016 TED Summit in Banff, Canada, the first ever TED Talk about ME. ‘What happens when you have a disease doctors can’t diagnose?’ Together, Jen and her new husband, Omar, must find a way to build a life and fight for a cure. Disbelieved by doctors yet determined to live, she turns her camera on herself and discovers a hidden world of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME. Jennifer Brea was 28 and working on her PhD at Harvard and months away from marrying the love of her life when she gets a mysterious fever that leaves her bedridden and looking for answers. In the aftermath, she rediscovered her first love, film. An activist for invisible disabilities and chronic illness, she co-founded a global advocacy network, #MEAction and is a TED Talker. She has an ABįrom Princeton University and was a PhD student at Harvard, until sudden illness left her bedridden. Jennifer Brea is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. They were so generous with their time their passion, not only about educating viewers about ME but also how the film evolved, the specifics about the writing process, collaboration, fundraising, and more, underscored their generosity of spirit. I had the opportunity to interview director Jennifer Brea via Skype and meet producer Lindsey Dryden in person. One of the most striking elements of this documentary is that one does not need to be directly affected with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome), to appreciate this film. It is indeed a personal journey about Jennifer Brea and approaches a medical mystery with an examination of science and medicine that is accessible and gripping. The feature documentary Unrest is poignant and personal, and educational without being didactic. Her TED Talk, "What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose?" has been viewed over a million times.Click to tweet this article to your friends and followers! Jennifer is also working on a virtual reality project based on the film, which will premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will screen at South by Southwest, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, and other festivals around the world. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing. Unrest, her film debut, premiered at Sundance 2017 where it won the U.S. She is a Sundance Institute Fellow and has been supported by Sundance Institute's Documentary Edit and Story Lab, Sundance Institute's Catalyst Forum, IFP's Filmmaker Lab, and the Fledgling Lab. In the aftermath, she rediscovered her first love, film. Jennifer was pursuing her PhD in Government at Harvard - studying political economy and statistics, and working on a dissertation on lynching in the US - when sudden illness left her bedridden. After graduating from Princeton University with an AB in Politics, she was a freelance journalist in China and East and Southern Africa and a TED Fellow. Jennifer Brea is an independent filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
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