Unrest

Jennifer Brea is a Harvard PhD student about to marry the love of her life, when she is struck down by a fever that leaves her bedridden. Months before her wedding, she becomes progressively more ill, eventually losing the ability even to sit in a wheelchair. When doctors tell her it's "all in her head", she goes online and finds a hidden world of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Unrest tells the story of Jennifer and her husband Omar Wasow, as newlyweds grappling with how to live in the face of a lifelong illness. In search of answers and initially bedbound, Jennifer sets off on a virtual voyage around the world, meeting four extraordinary ME patients in the US, UK, and Denmark. Their bedrooms connected by Skype and Facebook, these patients teach Jen how to make a life of meaning when everything changes.

Unrest is a first-person story of resilience in the face of life-altering loss, exploring how we treat people with illnesses we do not yet understand — how confronting the fragility of life teaches us its value and, ultimately, how we all have the need to find community and connection