I Remember Me

I Remember Me - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a 2000 documentary written, directed, and narrated by Kim Snyder about ME/CFS, featuring the 1984 Incline Village chronic fatigue syndrome outbreak and other similar outbreaks. Motivated to find out more about the illness that struck her in the mid-1990's, Snyder interviews patients, physicians, and researchers around the U.S.

Awards

 * Winner, Best Documentary Starz Peoples’ Choice Award, 2000, Denver Film Festival
 * Honorable Mention, Golden Starfish Documentary Award, 2000, Hamptons Film Festival
 * First Runner Up, Audience Award Best Feature, 2001, Sarasota Film Festival

Reviews

 * 2002, Maryann Spurgin Reviews I Remember "Excerpt: 'I got a sense that Snyder had failed to do her homework before she made the film...As patients continue to suffer abuse, misdiagnoses, psychopathologizing, lack of medical care, and iatrogenic worsening of their condition, the real story still waits to be told.'"
 * 2003, Leonard Jason Reviews I Remember Me "Excerpt: 'In the course of the four year production, Kim had called me a number of times to get my reactions and seek my advice on her film. During those conversations, I had urged her to consider the politics of this disease and to make the audience care about the central figures. I wonder what more could have been done to make the message accessible to the public...There are so many other stories that might have captured audiences' sympathies. I know of children who are being taken away from their parents because they are being charged with child abuse due to their lack of ability of going to school.  Exposing such abuses would have been riveting.  I know of many families that have been broken apart due to the spouse's inability to deal with the illness, and showing these types of effects might have generated more compassion for those affected.  Thousands of individuals with CFS have lost their jobs, lost their homes and some have even become homeless---and had such stories been portrayed, particularly if the premorbid functioning had been presented in a way to build audience identification, more interest among potential viewers might have been actualized. '"