Living with Fibromyalgia

Background

The film was created by Pacific Union College faculty members Daneen Akers and Stephen Eyer as a resource for fibromyalgia patients and their families and to help create awareness about the condition. It tells the stories of seven fibromyalgia patients. Interwoven with the patient stories are interviews with experts from the Fibromyalgia Rehabilitation Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. On their website, the filmmakers call Living with Fibromyalgia "the film they wished their family could have watched together when they first heard the word fibromyalgia."

The filmmakers stated that they would donate 10 percent of all sales of the film to the National Fibromyalgia Association to support fibromyalgia research and education.

When interviewed by Jennifer Prokopy, the editor and founder of an on online resource for women with chronic illnesses called ChronicBabe.com, filmmaker Daneen Akers shared her reasons for creating the film and revealed that she sold her house as part of fundraising efforts.

Release

The film first screened on November 18, 2006 at the Dodge College of Film's Folino Theatre at Chapman University in Orange, California. Hosted by The National Fibromyalgia Association and Trillusion Media, the film had its world première in San Diego on March 22, 2007 at the Hillcrest Landmark Theatre. The documentary was screened, with free admission, around the United States as part of the National Fibromyalgia Association's May, 2007 Fibromyalgia Awareness Day campaign.