Under Our Skin:
Award-Winning Filmmaker Focuses on Lyme Disease
Andy Abrahams Wilson is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, with a
personal connection to the topic of Lyme. His non-profit company, Open
Eye Pictures, is currently making the first in-depth documentary film
about the illness. Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease, is
scheduled for release in 2007. For details about the film, please see
http://www.lymediseasefilm.com. I spoke with Andy on July 24, 2006.
Why did you choose to make a documentary about Lyme disease?
The subject of Lyme chose me, I didn't choose it. My sister had Lyme
twenty years ago. She was complaining, and I thought she was lazy.
Flash forward to the present, on the West coast, a good friend of mine
was getting sicker and sicker, None of the doctors could find what's
wrong, it seemed to be a mystery illness. Plus, her symptoms were very
bizarre, she was having neurological problems. She'd walk into the
supermarket and forget who she was. Not just where she was, but who she
was. It seemed pretty incredible to me, especially for something that
couldn't be diagnosed.
I was shocked to find that no documentary has been made about Lyme
disease, at least one that is capable of reaching a national audience.
What surprised you most during the making of the film?
The only way to respond to that is disbelief, that it's gotten this far
and this bad. It's hard to comprehend how so many hundreds of thousands
of people are in this situation. And that there are so few resources,
such little awareness. And that Lyme sufferers are systematically
dismissed and disregarded. So, it's really the callousness with which
our system treats the disease, and treats people with the disease, that
is surprising.
How many people did you interview for the film?
We've heard hundreds of stories, when doing the initial subject
searches through Lyme organizations, bulletin boards and word of mouth.
For the documentary, we probably filmed at least a hundred. And those
stories are alarmingly and resoundingly similar, starting with the
mysterious symptoms, the misdiagnoses, and not being taken seriously.
Being told that it's all in their
heads. Money spent, specialists seen, those are
the common threads.
Who is the audience for this film?
It's a national audience, a general audience. We want this to be the
media event that breaks through, that brings an awareness to Lyme that
it's never had.
Thank you, Andy. I wish you much good fortune with securing funds to
complete the film.
Suzanne Arthur ©2006
