This Is Endometriosis

Filmmaker Georgie Wileman puts a really brave face on her struggles with this painful and debilitating disease as she mixes up some home movies with some pieces to camera and explains just how profoundly it has affected her life. There is a little of the science to her ailment which helps us understand something of the nature, but not as yet the cause, of this illness but essentially this is an highly personal story from a woman who isn’t afraid of showing us both her good and not so good days. Her candour about her desires to have children is touching as is her obvious determination to raise the profile of endometriosis amongst the broader community in the hope that it will lead to better awareness, more research and offer some sort of hope to those who are suffering from a chronic pain that varying and regular forms of surgery can only hope to treat with varying degrees of effect. Like a lot of documentaries like this, a lot hangs on the character of the storyteller, and Wileman proves successful at introducing, explaining and illustrating the suffering and frustrations whilst retaining a positivity that I think might challenge the best of us. I preferred the video-diary approach she chose to a longer-form exposé as it keeps the focus on the people this impacts, and though it certainly is not a comfortable film to watch, it is certainly an informative one.