Medical experts have no explanation for Morgellons disease, an illness that causes its sufferers to experience crawling sensations under the skin, itches, sores and threads that grow out of the skin. Specialists dismiss it as psychosomatic, labelling it a delusion or 'google-chrondria'. Composed of often emotionally-charged excerpts of videos made by patients sharing their experiences online, The Pain of Others explores self-diagnosis, unnecessary medicalisation and mass psychosis, retaining an empathy towards its subjects.
Special offer: purchase a joint ticket with A SELF-INDUCED HALLUCINATION (showing at 7.15pm) for £8.50
With thanks to Penny Lane
Presented by Wavelength
F: facebook.com/wavelengthdocs
T: @wavelengthdocs
dir. PENNY LANE
year. 2018
run-time. 71 mins
Doors 8PM
Film 8.40PM
Tickets: £4.50
“A canny play on YouTube react culture... Lane’s cinematic intervention lets her subjects do the talking, quietly and steadily unfolding into an unsettling auto-critique”
“Lane, far from merely compiling these videos, seems to be watching and experiencing them as if in real time, along with the viewer”
“In the era of fake news and alternative facts, and of people constructing their own custom-made versions of reality, Penny Lane’s The Pain of Others feels very timely... these psychically distressed ladies defy any easy categorization — much like Lane’s entire body of work”