I USED TO DANCE

Femke is sick and done with being sick. She lives with the rare autoimmune disease Lupus. A sniper. Her immune system doesn’t know what the good or bad cells are, but thát she already explained a thousand times!

 

Through her imagination she’s able to cope. Vulnerable and obstinate she fights her battle. Cynical when needed.

 

In the film we experience how. It draws us into her inner world. We see what she doesn’t want to show. We hear what she normally doesn’t say. On the cutting edge, because she assumes that she can do everything. In her head, at least.

FEMKE KRAMER​​​​​​​

The documentary “I used to dance” is about my life with the autoimmune disease SLE. My immune system attacks my body and breaks it down on all fronts. The disease cannot be cured. Only by taking drugs, the degradation process can be inhibited. Or not?

 

My mind isn’t completely out of the bottle yet. This documentary is the first outcome of my original purpose. It was a challenge to let part of the story be experienced from my thoughts, my head, my emotions. It was an agony too. Attempt after attempt failed.

 

So am I successful then? This is just the beginning. In the documentary, I show how I mentally and physically survive, often invisible to others. I do this by intertwine documentary scenes with my personal experience. I take the viewer into my world by the audio to be heard what I actually experience in my head.

 

For a change in medical country, in our current social settings, my film is far from adequate. Then many more people need to shake off their behaved and responsible desired acts, and stop with the traditional desired behaviour between the sick and the not sick.

 

Doctors don’t often know the cause and solution of the disease. Therefore the experience of the patient is required as well for better treatment.

 

Finally! Let’s reverse rolls, doctors ask patients for advice.

Beautiful.

 

But what would happen if we honestly say what we think: ‘What are those ugly spots on your skin? Glad I don’t have them’. Or would you dare say: ‘Cut it out with your bullshit about being sick. I know now that you are and it doesn’t really interest me'.

Short Competition 2015