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Jennifer Brea

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Jennifer Brea
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard 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 the 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

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  1. ^ "unrest". www.sundance.org. Archived from the original on June 29, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  2. ^ "U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award For Editing". January 29, 2017.
  3. ^ "Tribeca Film Festival".
  4. ^ "Jennifer Bréa, Omar Wasow - Weddings". The New York Times. September 2, 2012. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  5. ^ "The New Science Of Exhaustion". www.wbur.org. February 16, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  6. ^ "Chronic fatigue syndrome activists launch 'uprising' from their beds". Al Jazeera America Tonight. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  7. ^ "A New Name, and Wider Recognition, for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". The New Yorker. February 27, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  8. ^ Romm, Cari. "A Biological Basis for Chronic-Fatigue Syndrome". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  9. ^ "Felled by 'Devastating Disease Doctors Have Never Heard of'". ABC News. October 31, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  10. ^ "Interview: Jennifer Brea Talks About Obstacles, Adjustments, and Inspiration". ProHealth.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  11. ^ "Felled by 'Devastating Disease Doctors Have Never Heard of'". ABC News. October 31, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  12. ^ "Chronic fatigue syndrome activists launch 'uprising' from their beds". Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  13. ^ Grater, Tom (August 25, 2017). "Sundance prize-winning doc 'Unrest' gets UK release". ScreenDaily. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  14. ^ Morfoot, Addie (June 22, 2017). "PBS' Independent Lens Announces Season 16 Slate (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  15. ^ Pedersen, Erik (December 8, 2017). "Oscars: Documentary Feature Shortlist Cuts Field To 15". Deadline. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  16. ^ "The Root 100 – 2014". The Root. January 1, 2014. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  17. ^ Verrillo, Erica (March 5, 2018). "ProHealth Is Proud To Announce Its 2017 ME/CFS Patient Advocate Of The Year: Jennifer Brea". ProHealth. Archived from the original on March 12, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  18. ^ "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Protests Tuesday". National Pain Report. September 27, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  19. ^ "The Beachwood Reporter - Chicago Residents To Protest Lack Of Support For Those Suffering With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". www.beachwoodreporter.com. September 26, 2016. Archived from the original on January 19, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  20. ^ "Severe ME left me in a world of pain and darkness. 26 years on, why is it still so poorly understood?". openDemocracy. December 19, 2016. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  21. ^ Pendergrast, Tricia; Brown, Abigail; Sunnquist, Madison; Jantke, Rachel; Newton, Julia L.; Strand, Elin Bolle; Jason, Leonard A. (December 1, 2016). "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.
  22. ^ ""Protesters Demand Increased Funding or ME/CFS Research"". U.S. News & World Report.
  23. ^ "The story and stigma of a baffling illness: Jen Brea speaks at TEDSummit". TED Blog. June 27, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  24. ^ ""Jennifer Brea: What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose"".
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