The Film: Stories of Lupus
The award-winning short documentary, Stories of Lupus©, was the first documentary to be broadcast on national television that presented an emotional and intimate account of people finding ways to live with the unpredictable, often life-threatening, and highly misunderstood disease. Presented by Thirteen/WNET in New York, it premiered nationally on PBS during October Lupus Awareness Month, 1999.
Then and Now: Nearly 25 years later, the stories of those living with lupus, and autoimmune disease, remain relevant and urgent. At some point in your life, you could have about a one in five chance of developing an autoimmune disease. The odds are greater if you are a woman, you have a genetic predisposition to autoimmunity, or you are exposed to certain pollutants. These diseases include more than 100 lifelong and costly illnesses such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and endometriosis. They are often difficult to diagnose and currently impossible to cure. (Source: Scientific American, December 2023: 'Autoimmunity Has Reached Epidemic Levels. We Need Urgent Action to Address It'.)
Produced & Directed by: Karin Mellberg, Marcia Urbin Raymond
Narrated by: Charles Osgood, anchor CBS News Sunday, The Osgood File
Music by: James Frizzell & James Newton Howard
Edited by: Charlotte Grossman (Free Willy)
Major Partners: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Robert W. Johnson IV Charitable Trust, The Fuller Foundation, Inc., Joseph Drown Foundation, Jim and Kathy Campbell, See's Candies, Inc., Arthritis Foundation, National Office, Genelabs Technologies, Inc., The Lupus Foundation of America, National Office, ADP, Inc., 20th Century Fox, Deluxe.
Running Time: 27 minutes, ©1999 Mosaic Productions, LLC
