Under Our Skin
Directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
At IFC Center
Runtime: 103 min.
Under Our Skin, the Lyme disease documentary, is a tendentious film primarily interesting to the Lyme community, but its poignancy gives the film a deserved wider appeal. Filmmaker Andy Abrahams Wilson follows Lyme disease patients through months of treatment, cataloging their horrific experiences fighting the disease. He also talks with an impressive assemblage of doctors and advocates, including the doctor who discovered the disease.
The problem with Lyme disease, and the reason why the patients Wilson profiles are so tormented, is controversy over chronic Lyme. Some Lyme sufferers face persistent symptoms: seizures, neurological disorders, searing pain and a laundry list of other problems for months (or years) on end. Some doctors, however, maintain that chronic Lyme disease is nonexistent.
Though his film undoubtedly excoriates chronic Lyme naysayers, Wilson interviews the opposition, allowing them to explain their positions. Their interview clips are bookended by criticisms and contradictions (claims of insurance company influence on their opinions, footage of patients with Lyme conditions the doctors deny), but the gesture is still an important one.
Under our Skin would be a more effective issue film, however, if it laid out more facts about the disease: emphasis on the fact that short term antibiotic treatment does work for some, a guide for how to avoid and spot ticks and exploration of problems with alternative and long-term antibiotic treatments for Lyme. All these would make Under Our Skin a more medically valuable documentary and less just plain terrifying.
As someone who suffered through months of Lyme disease, surrounded by ineffective doctors firmly ensconced in the “chronic Lyme doesn’t exist” camp, I don’t make these recommendations lightly. I know the nightmare of a poorly understood illness, one without fair-minded sources victims can consult. Under Our Skin, though it will bring vital public attention to Lyme is, unfortunately, not that source.
Directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
At IFC Center
Runtime: 103 min.
Under Our Skin, the Lyme disease documentary, is a tendentious film primarily interesting to the Lyme community, but its poignancy gives the film a deserved wider appeal. Filmmaker Andy Abrahams Wilson follows Lyme disease patients through months of treatment, cataloging their horrific experiences fighting the disease. He also talks with an impressive assemblage of doctors and advocates, including the doctor who discovered the disease.
The problem with Lyme disease, and the reason why the patients Wilson profiles are so tormented, is controversy over chronic Lyme. Some Lyme sufferers face persistent symptoms: seizures, neurological disorders, searing pain and a laundry list of other problems for months (or years) on end. Some doctors, however, maintain that chronic Lyme disease is nonexistent.
Though his film undoubtedly excoriates chronic Lyme naysayers, Wilson interviews the opposition, allowing them to explain their positions. Their interview clips are bookended by criticisms and contradictions (claims of insurance company influence on their opinions, footage of patients with Lyme conditions the doctors deny), but the gesture is still an important one.
Under our Skin would be a more effective issue film, however, if it laid out more facts about the disease: emphasis on the fact that short term antibiotic treatment does work for some, a guide for how to avoid and spot ticks and exploration of problems with alternative and long-term antibiotic treatments for Lyme. All these would make Under Our Skin a more medically valuable documentary and less just plain terrifying.
As someone who suffered through months of Lyme disease, surrounded by ineffective doctors firmly ensconced in the “chronic Lyme doesn’t exist” camp, I don’t make these recommendations lightly. I know the nightmare of a poorly understood illness, one without fair-minded sources victims can consult. Under Our Skin, though it will bring vital public attention to Lyme is, unfortunately, not that source.
