Feature Documentary
Consulta 32
Year of Production: 2017
Duration: 61 min
Color HD / VO Spanish with English subtitles
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Director and Producer: Ruth Somalo
Executive Producer: Javier Moscoso
Associate Producer: Vicente Palop
Editor: Nuria Campabadal
Script: Raúl Santos, Nuria Campabadal & Ruth Somalo
Photography: Ruth Somalo & Cristina Pérez
Colorist: Cristina Pérez
Original Music: Sara Aloy Casanoves
Sound: Sergio López-Eraña
Assistant Producer: Patricia Roth
Transcripts: JMS & María Fernandez Pello
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Produced by Horns and Tails Productions in collaboration with Hist-Ex.
Supported by Ribera Salud
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Living with chronic pain and with the impediments of the associated symptoms of fibromyalgia (FMS) is nothing compared to living in shame. Woman affected by FMS are often distrusted, misdiagnosed or not at all diagnosed.
In a general context of suspicion they live overmedicated and accused of exaggerating, faking their illness, or of somatization. The roles traditionally fulfilled by women: daughter, wife, mother, care taker, house keeper; and the new ones defined by sex, beauty, happiness, education and workplace are impacted directly by the symptoms of fibromyalgia leaving this women to wonder were their value lays now. Theirs is the crisis of everyone who has to redefine themselves against productivity or something other than the roles our society values.
This documentary journeys into the biographies of several women affected by FMS and the narratives they have constructed around the development of their illness and the medical pilgrimage they were subjected to until finding Dr Palop and his team of medical experts in Valencia. Exploring the objective and subjective elements of living with this chronic condition this documentary sites with the patients, taking them as “ultimate experts” of their own illnesses rather than creating a documentary were the power and the voice is given to the medical experts and the media analysts.
The protagonists, digging deeper into the traumatic episodes and emotional aspects of their
biographies through the interaction with the camera; and trapped in the tension between their current images and the representations of their younger, healthier, analogue selves; come to great insights and establish possible connections to the development of their illness and current identities.