Unshame pain film festival: enjoy it here!
Unshame pain film festival
Welcome.
Below you will find 18 freely available 1-15 minute films about chronic pain. Also recommended at the end is a bonus feature-length film—a favorite of mine!
To enhance your film festival enjoyment, please
check out my audience resource guide.
If you have issues with the links, a film to share, or simply want to say hello, please email me here.
Thank you!
P.S. Click here to learn about my fundraiser and support my work!
About the film festival
The following films tell an array of stories about experiencing chronic pain.
Categories include:
Fibromyalgia
Rheumatoid arthritis
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
Adenomyosis and endometriosis
Headache and migraine
Assorted and unknown conditions
Unlike mainstream media that largely represents chronic pain as only concerning white, straight, and cisgender women, these films feature Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color, queer people, people of different ages and body sizes, and people of different genders.
All films were written by and/or included the central involvement of chronically pained people.
I excluded films that utilize disability tropes of pity or helplessness or an inspirational tone that promotes super crip ideologies. Also omitted are films with narratives focused on cure or rehabilitation that perpetuate the belief that chronic pain and other disabilities are only acceptable if there is a resolution to the condition.
Films may be enjoyed individually or in any sequence. A description and access notes are included for each title.
Enjoy!
And don’t forget to check out my audience resource guide for more information about chronic pain and the power of expression through personal narrative.
Please note: all descriptions and comments about race are based on my perceptions and are subject to inaccuracies. I will happily make corrections if alerted to mistakes.
Fibromyalgia
Title of film: Fibromyalgia: Living with Chronic Pain. (7 min. 58 sec.) Documentary.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1CBULIcf9MU&feature=youtu.be
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
Louise, a Black woman who has a dance background, teaches a movement class created for other people who, like her, have fibromyalgia (BBC Stories, 2018).
Journalist Lucy Hancock, who has fibromyalgia, interviews the women of Louise’s movement class about their experiences with fibromyalgia, such as feeling invisible, “crazy,” like not a good mother, and defeated in trying to get through their lives. This short film is powerful in depicting women of different ages, races and ethnicities, and body types, and varying aspects of living with fibromyalgia.
The focus on movement in the class also conveys how important it is for many people who experience chronic pain to engage in gentle movement. However, it can be difficult to find class instructors who understand the needs of people who experience severe chronic pain, such as fibromyalgia. Louise creates a class that builds a community of people who can empathize and relate, as well as being designed and led by someone with first-hand knowledge of chronic pain.
Title of Film: A Happy Seven. (8 min.) Ben Carlson, Carsten Johnson, Samuel Mayhew, and Sophie Meath.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2M0EelD-s4
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Nora, a young white woman who has fibromyalgia, finds solace from her pain and other people’s reactions through her dreams and imagination (Five16, 2017).
Nora has difficulty sleeping, being touched, and completing tasks such as cooking due to chronic pain from fibromyalgia. When Nora attempts to socialize, people make inaccurate assumptions about her pain or express pity. Even though some are compassionate, others are judgmental and prejudiced. Despite having support from her mother and older sister, Nora struggles.
This film effectively conveys how often people who experience chronic pain are expected to explain themselves to others or provide reassurance that they are all right, even when this is not fully accurate. A Happy Seven shows how people in pain have to simultaneously negotiate the pain world and the world everyone else is in. Nora’s dream of feeling peaceful is a place of solace for her where she can escape.
People who experience chronic pain are often expected to hide their pain or perform pain by being miserable all of the time. This film artfully explores these tensions and the ways in which finding a reprieve not necessarily from pain, but from the constant demands of other people and life that can be difficult when experiencing pain, and especially when it is not well understood.
As a white protagonist from an apparently economically privileged middle class background, the character of Nora poses the risk of many films of ingraining the false belief that fibromyalgia or chronic pain conditions only affect certain demographics, or that only the pain of certain demographics is important.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Title of film: Chronic. (6 min. 22 sec.) Leah Garland.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NejE9iejg
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Nichole, a young white woman who has rheumatoid arthritis (RA), has had to quit her passion for dancing and must find ways to cope with this loss (Garland, 2023).
Nichole has to stay home from an important dance competition and struggles to find a medication to control her RA. Nichole’s frustration with having to try different medications, including a daily injection, shows how treating pain conditions is not as easy as taking a medication and having one’s life go back to what is considered to be normal.
Many people erroneously believe that RA or chronic pain, generally, only affects older people and this film provides an important representation of a teenager or early 20-something dealing with pain. Chronic illustrates the despair and isolation, such as feeling abandoned by one’s friends, that can accompany chronic pain. Chronic also shows how people who have chronic pain are expected to put on a brave face and not express their pain to others for fear of judgment, such as accusations of having an “attitude” (timestamp 1:51).
Nichole must find comfort her own way when family, medical providers, and friends do not understand. Chronic provides an impactful example of how people in pain are often misunderstood and do not talk about pain because of judgments when they do open up. Chronic tempers the difficulty of dealing with chronic pain with a sense of possibility in Nichole finding a way forward despite the barriers she faces in trying to find an effective medication and support from those around her.
Title of film: Revenge of the Electric Cart. (12 min. 9 sec.) Rikki Stinnette.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrqb6-8hQDo
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Rebecca, a white single mother who has rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and her young daughter, Ainsley, who is also white, navigate everyday life and prejudices due to other people’s perceptions of Rebecca as non-disabled (Omeleto, 2022).
Rebecca has difficulty living with RA and Ainsley, who is elementary school aged, assumes responsibilities as the two support one another in getting through the day. The experience of being a child with a chronically pained parent is conveyed, especially in Ainsley’s longing for her mother to be able to do what many other parents can. This film nicely depicts the interdependence and creativity that Rebecca and Ainsley forge in confronting tasks together, from Rebecca getting out of bed and getting dressed to encountering judgment from others about Rebecca’s disabilities.
This film runs the risk of reinforcing the idea that RA, or chronic pain in general, is only a disease of white women, which is not true. Another downside is that, at an appointment with her doctor, the physician warns Rebecca that they have to be diligent in managing her RA lest she end up in a wheelchair. Ainsley is noticeably concerned by the prospect of her mother having to use a wheelchair. Rebecca firmly reassures her this will not be the case.
While the possibility of becoming a wheelchair user is an understandable fear, the emphasis on avoiding using a wheelchair as though it is patently bad risks promoting stigmas about wheelchair users. The film suggests that a future in which Rebecca must use a wheelchair is an unacceptable future. An unintended result is promoting misinformation about needing to use a wheelchair being a terrible fate. This message contradicts reports from many wheelchair users who say they can do more than they could prior due to the support and accessibility that the wheelchair (and/or other mobility devices) provides.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
Title of film: Answering Questions: Dating A Disabled Lesbian...!. (7 min. 20 sec.) Reality. Jessica Kellgren-Fozard.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMrO8t_jyo
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
YouTuber Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, a white woman who has hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy, Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and her partner, Claudia, whom I perceive to be a woman of color, discuss dating and creating a partnership together as an inter-abled lesbian couple (Kellgren-Fozard, 2016).
Kellgren-Fozard and Claudia share humorous stories as they candidly discuss what it was like for them to meet and for Claudia to learn that Kellgren-Fozard has two rare genetic diseases, which include experiencing chronic pain and fatigue. In particular, this video does a good job of discussing how the couple navigates Kellgren-Fozard’s disabilities without Claudia falling into a savior or constant caregiver role. Additionally, the two discussed how it was for Claudia to navigate Kellgren-Fozard having caregivers present in the home environment.
The open discussion of their relationship is important representation of an inter-abled, mixed-race (based on my perception and assumptions: Kellgren-Fozard presumed to be white and Claudia presumed to be woman of color) queer, lesbian partnership. There are drawbacks to representation in that Kellgren-Fozard is a conventionally attractive white woman that many people who share her conditions may not identity with. Even so, Kellgren-Fozard adds important and engaging content that honestly discusses issues of disability and relationships that aren’t frequently discussed, especially in the context of chronic pain and illness disabilities.
Title of film: The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms. (10 min. 23 sec.) Documentary. Samuel Geiger, Eloise Sherrid, and Lauryn Welch.
Link: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-body-is-a-house-of-familiar-rooms-l43lis/
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
Samuel Geiger and Lauryn Welch, both white, forge love and partnership in an inter-abled heterosexual (presumably) relationship in the midst of Geiger dealing with chronic pain from hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) (PBS, 2023).
Geiger and Welch Geiger discuss the access barriers of Geiger’s disabilities and day-to-day challenges of being in an inter-abled relationship. Geiger and Welch want to get married but in the United States this would mean that Geiger would lose his Medicaid health insurance. Without being able to work due to pain, Medicaid is crucial for Geiger to be able to access health care. The film also discusses how the opioid epidemic has severely affected Geiger in not being able to receive the medications he needs.
The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms is a beautifully made and artfully told documentary. In particular, this film does a good job of explaining some of the affects of hEDS that are not readily perceptible to anyone except for the person experiencing dislocations and pain. As with many chronic pain conditions, most depictions of hEDS are of white women. This film is important in depicting a man with hEDS. Additionally, this film differs from the common narrative of the helpless chronically ill or pained woman who needs the valiant man’s help. Welch works a money-earning job while Geiger is mostly unable to bring in income.
The depiction of a deeply loving relationship that includes a partner who experiences high impact chronic pain is powerful. Many depictions of chronic pain and illness, or disability in general, within a romantic relationship portray resentment between partners. While candid and honest, The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms tells a hopeful story in that Geiger and Welch want to understand and support one another, even when they make mistakes or inaccurate assumptions.
Adenomyosis and Endometriosis
Title of film: All Up There. (6 min. 30 sec.) Bonnie MacRay.
Link: https://vimeo.com/829993420, https://www.girlsinfilm.net/videos/all-up-there
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
Eilidh, a young white woman in her twenties, experiences excruciating endometriosis that disrupts her life and is pathologized by her doctor (Collins, 2023).
Eilidh’s severe and debilitating abdominal pain makes it difficult to hold down a job and frequently means that she has stay at home when her friends are all going out. Eilidh masks her pain to her friends because they don’t understand or recognize the seriousness of her condition. Even as a white woman with access to healthcare and supportive parents, Eilidh cannot get the help she desperately needs. She is dismissed by her primary care doctor, who outright suggests that she should consider that the pain might be all in her head. All Up There portrays not only how painful endometriosis can be, but also the extreme difficulty that many people, including transgender people, who have endometriosis have in not being taken seriously by medical providers and others.
Title of film: Hysterical Sisters. (15 min.) Chiara Schreder.
Link: https://hystericalsistersfilm.com/
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Described as a “visual poem,” Hysterical Sisters illuminates the pain and life disruptions of women, non-binary people, and transgender men who have chronic pain and other symptoms from adenomyosis and/or endometriosis (Schreder, 2021).
Hysterical Sisters depicts ten different young adult actors of varying races, ethnicities, and genders and the disruptions to their school, work, personal, and romantic lives that adenomyosis and endometriosis cause. The disease is represented as a character of its own, which is powerful in that many experiences of pain feel like being tyrannized by one’s body. At the same time, this depiction also potentially sends a message of being adversarial with one’s body that may not be supportive or helpful. Even so, Hysterical Sisters is important in raising awareness about adenomyosis and endometriosis, and that it affects people of many gender identities and in many life arenas.
Title of film: End-O. (15 min.) Alice Seabright.
Link: https://vimeo.com/341218809
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Jaq and Claire are white sisters who both experience extreme life impacts and must consider difficult decisions such as surgeries and carrying a child due to endometriosis (Seabright, 2019).
Jaq and Claire are quirky characters that bring attention to how endometriosis can seriously disrupt one’s life. Claire is waiting to be taken to surgery for a hysterectomy in hopes that she will finally find some relief from the pain and illness caused by endometriosis. Jaq has an extremely embarrassing moment on a date due to endometriosis and tries to find medical interventions that might help with her pain and other intense symptoms.
Rather than be outwardly political, the film is successful drawing the audience in and becoming invested in Jaq and Claire as people. The audience is moved to care about all the sisters go through with endometriosis and attempting to have it treated, even if the audience does not have any prior knowledge or experience of endometriosis.
Like many portrayals of endometriosis and chronic pain and illness disabilities, End-O focuses on white, cisgender heterosexual women. The lack of representation or acknowledgment of privilege that it is to be able to access medical care is also not broached.
Headache and Migraine
Title of film: The Pain in My Head. (10 min. 10 sec.) Documentary. Yuvi Zalkow.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30FXSpgtPMI
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Yuvi Zalkow, a white man and writer, uses illustrations to tell what it’s like to experience a constant, incessant headache (Zalkow, 2016).
Zalkow conveys how difficult it is to function with a constant headache that medical providers do not know how to treat. He discusses common issues for migraine and headache endurers, such as people not understanding the extent or impact of the pain and other symptoms, having to cancel events and commitments, and at times not being able to be consistent with work. Zalkow also uses humor to discuss how the pain provides a useful out from activities he does not, or rather cannot, attend.
Headache and migraine conditions are widely misunderstood and this film provides an important perspective of what this experience can be like. Zalkow has a strong narrative voice as a writer that comes though in the sometimes tongue-in-cheek delivery that both softens and emphasizes the magnitude of the pain on his life. It is important to have a man and someone considered successful share his experiences with headaches, which have a long history of being considered unreal or a woman’s “hysterical” condition.
Assorted and Unknown Conditions
Title of film: The Waves. (1 min.) Sindha Agha.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcp4y8-XOg&feature=youtu.be
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
This minute-long film depicts different types of chronic pain with a voiceover narration inspired by words from late chronic pain endurer and writer, Virginia Woolf (Attard, 2023).
The Waves accomplishes a lot in only a minute by bringing to light many different experiences of pain among women of varying ages, racial and ethnic, and other backgrounds. The film grabs viewers’ attention with jarring and bright imagery that evokes a visceral feeling of the chaos being in pain can create. The Waves makes an important statement about how pain interacts with one’s senses and with the perception of time. The narration and music cut through the images with a soothing yet bold affirmation that women who experience chronic pain are acknowledged and recognized.
For people who are unfamiliar with pain disabilities, the film conveys enough information to make a strong statement without it being likely that audiences lose interest. The Waves gives a taste of what chronic pain can be like that hopefully inspires people to stop and consider chronic pain or seek out more information.
Title of film: Wish I Could Run Back to the Past. (1 min. 30 sec.) Star Blue.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70dwvE4THrU&list=PLyXGPZ9jJWOf8lBIQcO4cAkA5dwvpzoL8
Access notes: lyrics transcript available but not captioned or audio described.
Star Blue, a mixed-race Latinx and white woman, features in a music video for her original song about the difficulty of having one’s life impacted by chronic pain (Blue, 2017).
Blue provides an evocative portrayal of how much grief and despair there can be in developing and living with chronic pain and illness. Both the song and the imagery convey how chronic pain can feel like being trapped in a world of unrelenting difficulty. The video provides a grittier and angsty depiction of chronic pain, which can be rare, especially with pressures for people, especially women, who experience pain and illnesses to be pleasant and agreeable.
As a Chicana musician, Blue’s experiences are also important in portraying people in pain who are not only white and who also express their creativity. Wish I Could Run Back to the Past utilizes Blue’s songwriting and musical talents to make a powerful statement about her experiences. The creative expression of this video follows a long tradition of activists using their art to engage and bring awareness to important issues.
Title of film: They Live in Constant Pain, but Their Doctors Won’t Help Them. (5 min.) Documentary. Vishakha Darbha, Lucy King and Adam Westbrook.
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
This film is about the ways in which opioid prescribing guidelines are harming people who have chronic pain (The New York Times, 2023).
They Live in Constant Pain, but Their Doctors Won’t Help Them shows how interpretations of opioid prescribing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have an unjust impact on people experiencing chronic pain. The video explains how, as a result of these guidelines, many doctors refuse to prescribe opioids to people who have chronic pain from conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, due to fear of being put under medical review. Consequently, the people in the video have been forced to dramatically reduce their opioid doses or are altogether refused opioids.
Viewers are brought into the lives of real people who are in extreme pain and cannot live fully because they cannot access the amount of opioids needed to effectively manage their pain. However, the issue of discrimination that lack of access to opioids amounts to for many disabled people, and especialy Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color is not widely discussed.
Title of film: Chronic. (14 min.) Milly Garnier.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_BOAY7U-Q
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Sadie, who is a woman of color, and Rob, who is white, are a couple navigating their relationship in the wake of Sadie becoming chronically ill and experiencing severe pain in the past year (Chronic Film, 2023).
Sadie and Rob encounter relationship and intimacy challenges due to the lack of treatment and unpredicatability of Sadie’s chronic pain. Rob expresses frustration when Sadie’s blood work comes back normal and the doctor has no answers despite over seven months of searching for a reason for Sadie’s chronic pain. Sadie expresses frustration with Rob continuously trying to take care of her and not wanting him to be in the role of her caregiver.
The character of Sadie is a woman of color, which is particularly important given that representations of people who experience chronic pain frequently only feature white women. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t feel realistic in the quick turns from pain and tensions to everything being seemingly fine. Many pain conditions are unpredictable and it is common for a person to have no reason that is discernable for pain to shift.
However, Chronic makes it seem as if everything is “all better” and the straight, cisgender couple now have the opportunity to go forward because of the absence of pain, however temporary. The film does not engage with the question of what happens when Sadie inevitably has another flare-up. Sadie’s pain and illness is not understood as part of what shapes the interactions between partners in the long-term that goes beyond singular moments of sickness or feeling well. Chronic runs the risk in promoting the message that to be in a romantic relationship one’s pain and illness is not welcomed.
Title of film: i’m getting worse (autoimmune update). (8 min. 20 sec.) Reality. Zach Kornfeld.
Link: https://youtu.be/lbu8LLDB2dU
Access notes: not captioned or audio described.
Zach Kornfeld describes his experiences dealing with the effects of the autoimmune and chronic pain condition ankylosing spondylitis (AS) (The Try Guys, 2018).
Kornfeld provides important perspectives on living with an “invisible” chronic pain disability and learning to adjust to his AS diagnosis. His openness about encountering a big pain increase after beginning a helpful medication due to not keeping up with necessary exercise and other health interventions shows the immense impact on one’s life that having a chronic pain condition has that goes far beyond the pain, itself. Kornfeld describes difficulty with insomnia due to pain as well as how the pain is extremely debilitating if he does not stick to a consistent and rigorous management regimen. He is also honest that, even with medication, diet, exercise, and other pain management, the pain is still difficult to live with.
As a successful and much-beloved Internet figure, Kornfeld brings a relatable face to how chronic pain disabilities are experienced. In discussing his pain, Kornfeld shows that chronic pain can affect anyone. He reaches a broad viewer base, as exemplified by the fact that my older brother, who to my knowledge has no interest in chronic pain and illness, recomended this video.
Additionally, Kornfeld’s video about chronic pain is a rare representation of a white, cisgender man, or any man, discussing his chronic pain experiences. His concluding message that pain won’t stop him veers slightly into super crip territory and also doesn’t account for what is presumably his privileged positionality. However, overall Kornfeld’s video is positive while being honest about the immense difficulties of living with chronic pain.
Title of film: Stories of Living with Chronic Pain. (6 min. 33 sec.) Documentary. University of Michigan.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6xqCtiuA
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
This film features interviews with three people, two Black women and one white man who all appear to be around middle-age, about their chronic pain and challenges seeking effective treatment (University of Michigan, 2023).
In Stories of Living with Chronic Pain the three interviewees, inlcuding one military veteran, share what it is like to encounter skepticism and obstacles to finding chronic pain treatment. The interviewees describe how they have experienced dismissive or minimizing comments from medical providers who don’t believe they are accurately reporting their pain, or being faulted and blamed for pain by people in their lives. The film provides important encouragement to advocate for oneself and not doubt whether the pain is real or serious enough to deserve effective treatment.
This film includes important first-hand knowledge about experiencing pain from Black women and a military veteran. For many people who are not often reflected in media about chronic pain, or are only reflected in a purely negative and biased light, these are especially important interviews. While the participants do not discuss race in particular, it is likely that anti-Blackness and racism in general are factors in the difficulty accessing effective care the women interviewed report. Military veterans are also not represented and are subject to prejudiced appraisals of not being “tough enough.” This interview will hopefully move audiences rethink what being in pain and being disabled can be like for veterans and many other people.
Title of film: Struggling to Be Me with Chronic Pain. (10 min.) National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research (NIHR HS&DR).
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPpu7dXJFRI
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
A middle-aged white woman who is an actor expresses some of the recurring external messages and beliefs about people in pain commonly experienced based on findings from 77 qualitatively studies that included “over a thousand adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain” (NIHRtv, 2013).
Struggling to Be Me with Chronic Pain is important in providing audiences with insights into what it can be like to receive and negotiate messages from medical providers, friends, family, strangers, and oneself when living with chronic pain. Many of these messages are about having one’s pain perceived as “invisible” or not being fully accepted by others as having a legitimate condition. Some of the monologue brings up how easy it can be to doubt one’s own veracity, such as questioning whether the pain is truly as bad or impactful as it seems. This film also provides good reflections on pacing and other measures that must be taken in order to get things done and prioritize one’s satisfaction in life.
That a middle-aged white women portrays and voices these messages is likely reflective of the majority of participants who were in the studies from which the film is created. While the messages that the film describes are important in helping other people understand and reflect on chronic pain experiences, it could be misleading in featuring a white woman. While women experience the vast majority of chronic pain conditions, people of all genders and racial and ethnic backgrounds have chronic pain conditions. A downside of this film is that it potentially perpetuates discrimination against people who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color, and of other gender, age, and economic backgrounds by reinforcing the idea that it is only middle-aged, economically comfortable white women who have chronic pain or are deserving of effective treatment.
Title of film: Unshame Pain. (6 min.) Documentary. Ma’ayan Simon.
Link: https://youtu.be/LCNx8SYKTbU
Access notes: captioned and available transcript but not audio described.
Four interviewees of varying genders, ages, body sizes, races and ethnicities, and sexual orientations discuss their experiences with chronic pain prejudices and discrimination (Simon, 2021).
Unshame Pain discusses experiences of prejudice and discrimination as encountered by the interviewees as a result of other people’s not perceiving or believing their experiences of pain. This film is important in generating awareness and understanding of chronic pain conditions, and that they affect a breadth of people of different backgrounds and experiences.
Many people who have chronic pain conditions find it difficult to be taken seriously as disabled. Unshame Pain illustrates that being taken seriously and receiving support can be even more difficult for people who are transgender, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color, fat, and economically oppressed. It is crucial that chronic pain be accepted and advocated for both in and beyond disability spaces.
Bonus full-legnth feature film
Title of film: Pain and Glory. (1 hr. 53 min.) Pedro Almodóvar.
Link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEjFOkCKb3g
Access notes: captioned but not audio described.
Salvador Mallo, a Spanish man, is an acclaimed filmmaker in his 60s and experiences chronic pain (Almodóvar, 2019).
Mallo, whom writer and director Pedro Almodóvar based on himself, has won international prestige in his career of over 30 years. At the opening of the film, however, Mallo has stopped attempting to make films or accomplish much of anything due to severe chronic pain and depression. Although Mallo is well regarded by those who do not know the extent of his disability, the public world he once occupied is inaccessible to him. For instance, in a scene in which Mallo declines one of many invitations to speak as an honored guest at an event he explains to his friend Mercedes that he can’t sit in a chair for so long due to severe pain.
Pain and Glory is not only entertaining, but also provides important perspectives into all that living with chronic pain can impact, including aspects of one’s life like sitting that many people don’t think twice about. Additionally, the film engages with Mallo’s experiences coming from a poor village and being an out gay man. This film adds important layers to understanding pain and the difficult emotional and logistical barriers to seeking help.
References
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2M0EelD-s4
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a lot of fresh talent and stories. Los Angeles Times.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-02/hollywood-reelabilities-disabled-film-festival
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Omeleto. (2022, Nov. 30). Revenge of the electric cart [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrqb6-8hQDo
PBS. [Public Broadcasting Station]. (2023, July 24). The body is a house of familiar rooms
[Video]. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/the-body-is-a-house-of-familiar-rooms-l43lis/
The Try Guys. (2018, Sept. 15). I’m getting worse (autoimmune update) [Video]. YouTube.
https://youtu.be/lbu8LLDB2dU
Schreder, C. [Chiara Schreder]. (2021, Dec. 18). Hysterical sisters [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxDLpiZmz2A
Seabright, A. [Alice Seabright]. (2019, June 9). End-O [Video]. Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/341218809
Simon, M. [Maayan Simon]. (2021, Oct. 22). Unshame Pain [Video]. YouTube.
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