A Life Hidden

Voices from the Shadows is an immensely powerful documentary about severe ME.  Filmed and produced by Natalie Boulton and Josh Biggs, it features the stories of five families, including my own.  

On its release in 2011, Voices from the Shadows received a huge response.  Later that year it won an audience award at the Mill Valley film festival.  

Taking part in the film was a daunting step for me, but one that was to change my life.  Through it I began to understand more about what had happened to me at the hands of the medical profession, and to rebuild my shattered self-confidence.  It gave me the courage to begin speaking out about the reality of ME. 

I am proud to be part of Voices.  It is widely considered to be essential viewing for anyone wishing to understand more about the illness and the terrible way that sufferers have been treated.  (Though children or anyone feeling especially vulnerable should not watch it.) 

“As a critic, I spend my life hoping to find films that will speak to me.  Voices from the Shadows goes beyond that.  It is a film that speaks for me.  And I want you to hear it.”  –  Scott Jordan Harris writing for Roger Ebert

Voices from the Shadows is available online.  The original hour long film can be watched below for free by entering the code VOICES.  Or watch an edited 30 minute version here.

Alternatively, this is the four-minute introduction to the film:

“The reach of this riveting film has been extraordinary, and it has significantly influenced the debate on seriously ill youth with ME.  This moving documentary has been like a shot heard around the world as it has precipitated an increasing awareness of the severely ill and highlighted the prejudice against patients and the unwitting but pernicious harm done by too many health care professionals.”  –  Professor Leonard Jason, Director of the Center for Community Research