In a system as complicated as the human body, with such variation of form and function and adaptation, there is much that can go wrong. And as far as medical technology has advanced, especially in the last hundred years, there's still so much that we're only partially equipped to deal with. How we deal with the problems that do arise -- personally and societally -- may bring out significant human qualities: innovation, empathy, perseverance, and adaptability. It is in this way that this collection of maladies and ailments, common or unique, offers not only a look at our weakness, but at our strengths.
An anthropomorphic figure with the head of an elephant stands in front of a mirror in a bathroom. As we sink into the deeper layers of a strange organism simultaneously resembling both a nervous system and a plant, the elephant-head character reacts in a violent and unpredictable way.
In this Cinema Eye Best Short Doc award winner, a courageous young Scottish actress takes the boldest step imaginable to confront her risk of having inherited the fatal, incurable Huntington's Disease.
In Bogotá, Colombia, a charismatic eleven year old named Maria Alejandra struggles to maintain a normal childhood despite the limitations imposed by a rare skin disease. Conflict between mother and daughter arises when Maria refuses to attend school early one morning.
Our skin both exposes and protects us: it is part of our sense of identity, a witness, like it or not, to the events in our lives, a tool of communication, and plays an important role in how we relate to the world. Awarded the Prix du Jury / Jury Prize at Rencontres Internationales Sciences, Cinemas
Emilio lives on his own taking refuge in the anonymity of the city. One day on his way to work he is knocked down and he lost his left eyesight. The doctors transplanted the eye of another person and he starts to see his donor´s life.
Dr. Richard Davidson, a brain specialist, experiments with meditation and yoga as a means of helping soldiers with PTSD and children with ADHD.
In Vivid Detail is the unusual love story between Leslie and Justin, an architect who suffers from Prosopagnosia, a neurological disorder that makes him incapable of recognizing faces. Face blindness is a broken bridge, a disconnected line between sight and mind. Somewhere along the path of recognit
In a local support group, Louise shares a darkly comic perspective on what's it like to be a teenage girl with Crohn's Disease. Sometimes it's easier to reveal yourself to strangers.
Great tribute to his father Benoît Labaye, suffered from multiple sclerosis at 29 years old. Benoît Labaye had been confined to a wheelchair since age 40 and died at 55 years old the 04.22.2006, as a result of pneumonia.
Ametsa has been in a clinic for some months, the same time she has not been able to sleep.
Are you normal? What does it mean to be normal? Is it a good thing, or does it mean you're just plain dull? Is being abnormal more fun, does it make us seem more kooky, quirky, individual - or could it mean we're cut off from society, perceived as odd or even mentally ill? abNormal explores and cele
Chromosomal instability during neural plate cell divisions lead to cells with too many chromsomes (aneuploidy) and too many centrosomes, which normally help organize the cell. DNA (white) is often connected in by strands in a bouquet like structure, with supernumerary centrosomes (~12 here, 1 is nor
When a soldier known only as Patient 39 awakes from a coma with no memory, the search begins for his identity and past. The new short film from award-winning Writer/ Director Dan Clifton, adapted from William Boyd's short story 'Ghost of a Bird'. 'PATIENT 39 is a superb adaptation of my short story
Nulepsy: the pathological need to be nude. An elderly man recounts his life story characterised by the rare, exceptional and inconvenient disease he suffers from. London Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Bloomberg New Contemporarie
Images from memory of a person suffering from a palsy, after falling ill with the Polio virus in the early 60s. Afterwards, experts research the technique of his falling. A dark memory depicts the absurdity of the internal step-by-step manuals by which we live. "It's like with a language. If we were
Color Condition is a glimpse into the sensory overlap experienced by someone with the neural condition, synesthesia. Synesthetics have an overlapping sensory modality in which stimulation of one sense involuntarily, and simultaneously, triggers another. However, the scientific explanation does littl