LOS ANGELES, Oct 1, 2019 - The documentary Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons has teamed with world-renowned educational distributor Video Project to release the 90 minute film for educational and community screenings. Skin Deep is an investigation by Emmy-winning filmmaker Pi Ware into the fierce controversy surrounding the illness known as Morgellons disease. The documentary is now available for purchase by universities, libraries, medical schools and community groups and comes with a free 20 page study guide.
If you began producing tiny threads from your body, you would go seek treatment from a doctor, wouldn't you? Well countless have already experienced this phenomenon, and have found their pleas to physicians fall on deaf ears. Skin Deep is a comprehensive look at Morgellons disease, most well known for afflicting Joni Mitchell. Long thought to be a delusion, new studies and recent discoveries are giving the disease a scientific legitimacy and offering hope to those afflicted. Skin Deep speaks with advocates, skeptics, and sufferers alike to explore this troubling phenomenon, and shines a light on how the medical community reacts to emerging diseases.
Says director Pi Ware, “With many new diseases, there is a period of time before the science of the disease is widely accepted, a time when doctors say, ‘What you're suggesting goes against what I learned in medical school,’ a time when patients are vulnerable to the prejudice and arrogance of otherwise well-meaning physicians.” Medical history is filled with similar examples: from ulcers (once believed to be caused by stress, now proven to be caused by bacteria) to Multiple Sclerosis (called “hysterical paralysis” until CAT scans and MRIs were invented) to lupus (over 50% of all lupus patients have been told their symptoms are "all in their head”). Continues Ware, “There exists a period of time when the victims of a disease are blamed for their disease, and the resulting shame, confusion and anger doubles their suffering. Morgellons patients are living in that time right now.”
Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons began filming in the spring of 2015. The film follows several patients and physicians who treat them—using antibiotics or anti-psychotics depending on the doctor’s belief system. The film focuses on the battle between a nurse (Cindy Casey-Holman) who is convinced she has a biologically-based disease and a skeptical dermatologist (Dr. Steven Feldman) who favors psychiatric diagnoses. The film climaxes in a showdown at the Morgellons Conference in Austin, Texas, where bridges between doctors and patients will either be built... or burned.
Educational copies of Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons are available at videoproject.com https://www.videoproject.com/Skin-Deep.html Each purchase includes a free 20 page study guide.
The documentary Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons will also celebrate it’s World Premiere this Saturday, October 5th at 2pm in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets are available at awarenessfestival.org
View the trailer for the film at morgellonsmovie.org.
SKIN DEEP: THE BATTLE OVER MORGELLONS; writer/director, Pi Ware; produced by Lev Mergian, Laura Stoddard, Gary Leva, Patrick Belton, Pi Ware; directors of photography, Sam Price-Waldman, Alex Naufel, Jacob Pinger, PJ Raval; music, Andrew Gross; executive producers, Denise and Jerry James; co-producers, Shelby Hadden, Sydney Niemerow; editors, Tom Putnam, Pi Ware.
Contact: morgellonsdoc@icloud.com
What: Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons Educational & Community distribution
When: Now
