When doctors diagnosed 19-year-old rock star Jason Becker with Lou Gehrig's Disease, they said he would never make music again and that he wouldn’t live to see his 25th birthday. 22 years later, without the ability to move or to speak, Jason is alive and making music with his eyes.
A Brief History of Time (1991)
This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.
Unrest (2017)
When Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden, doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Determined to live, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her story—and four other families' stories—fighting a disease medicine forgot.
That Vitamin Movie (2016)
A respected documentary maker hears from a friend that his long term depression has been helped after watching a video entitled "Food matters" and following a nutritional protocol involving high doses of vitamins, as outlined by a featured speaker in Foodmatters, by the name of Andrew W Saul. Beatie visits Saul and is given an outline of Orthomolecular Medicine, the protocol envisaged by Nobel prize winners and eminent scientists.
The Polio Crusade (2009)
The film interweaves the personal accounts of polio survivors with the story of an ardent crusader who tirelessly fought on their behalf while scientists raced to eradicate this dreaded disease. Based in part on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky, Features interviews with historians, scientists, polio survivors, and the only surviving scientist from the core research team that developed the Salk vaccine, Julius Youngner.
Uma Gota de Esperança (2021)
A mother discovers that her son has a disability that causes her breast milk to intoxicate him. But the discovery comes too late to prevent the loss of neurons.
Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997)
The story of Robert Flanagan, a man who was born with cystic fibrosis and told he wouldn't live past 20, who through a unique odyssey of masochism, art and love found a way to live decades past his expiration date.
Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL (2022)
Celebrated author and Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin tackles the myth that the NFL was somehow free of politics before Colin Kaepernick and other Black NFL players took a knee.
Health for the Americas: The Unseen Enemy (1945)
Disney animated educational film about staying safe from disease.
Coronavirus (2020)
As the WHO warns the coronavirus is reaching a dangerous tipping point, watch the most up to date and comprehensive account of the extraordinary chain of events that have left the world on the edge of a pandemic.
We Were Here (2011)
A reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of the crisis.
What About ME? (2016)
Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.
Matter of Mind: My ALS (2023)
Matter of Mind: My ALS follows three people living with the fatal illness ALS, in an intimate exploration of the complex choices confronting them and the different paths they find.
Fiona Humphrey: A Family Album (2019)
Fiona Humphrey (9 y/o) suffers from Sanfilippo Syndrome, a rare form of MPS that is slowly destroying her abilities and will ultimately kill her. Her mother Catriona suffers from an equally rare kidney disease. Her adolescent sisters Paige and Heather function as parents when their father Randy is working at Cracker Barrel, as the sole source of income. This is a look into their life, and the sacrifices they make to be happy.
The Shiranui Sea (1975)
The sea around Minamata was heavily polluted with mercury during the 1950s and 1960s from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in the Yatsushiro Sea which, when eaten by the local populace, gave rise to Minamata disease. The disease was responsible for the deaths and disabling of thousands of residents, all around the Yatsushiro Sea. The marine ecosystem was also extensively damaged.
Min död är min (2024)
Stefan Nilsson chose to end his life on May 25, 2023, just months after being diagnosed with ALS. This follow-up documentary by Tom Alandh brings to the surface the issues revolving euthanasia when there seems to be nothing left to do.
Dis-Ease (2024)
DIS-EASE is a feature-length documentary about how we imagine disease, and how that affects what we do when we encounter illness, outbreaks, doctors, treatments, and disability in real life. It dives deep into the weird, wild archives of medical imaging, public health messaging, and pop-culture outbreak narratives to understand how ideas have moved between science, science fiction, and political ideology over the past century. (Yes, this is a film that covers both antibiotic resistance and the persistence of zombie apocalypse films.) Ultimately, DIS-EASE is a provocation to re-think how we define both the "public" and "health" in public health - who is included, what counts as care, and what it means to be sick or well in a world perpetually on the brink of collapse.
Reminiscence (2025)
Aurora, daughter of retired Jazz composer Hugo, is informed that his father’s Alzheimer’s disease has worsened significantly. She will use their memories together and the music they composed in order to try to get him to recognize her one last time before he moves permanently abroad to continue fighting his disease.
The Flu That Killed 50 Million (2018)
It is 1918 and the end of WWI. Millions have died, and the world is exhausted by war. But soon a new horror is sweeping the world, a terrifying virus that will kill more than fifty million people - the Spanish flu. Using dramatic reconstruction and eyewitness testimony from doctors, soldiers, civilians and politicians, this one-off special brings to life the onslaught of the disease, the horrors of those who lived through it and the efforts of the pioneering scientists desperately looking for the cure. Narrated by Christopher Eccleston, the film also asks whether, a century later, the lessons learnt in 1918 might help us fight a future global flu pandemic.