Complicated the movie

"INSPIRING AND HEART-WRENCHING!"

– Kent Hill, Film Threat

“A FASCINATING MEDICAL MYSTERY...

AN AMAZING PIECE OF STORYTELLING!”

– Matt Carey, Deadline Hollywood

"A HEARTBREAKING WAKE-UP CALL

AND A RALLYING CRY FOR CHANGE.”

– Tom Needham, Film Sounds

Hear an update from the producers of Complicated, a new documentary about EDS and the challenges families of sick children go through in the medical system!

"It's been a whirlwind several months as COMPLICATED took to the campaign trail--the Academy Award campaign trail, that is. Oscar qualified, the film officially is in the running for Best Documentary Feature. If you haven't yet, you can watch the trailer now.

As part of this campaign--and to bring visibility to the movie and to the movement it shepherds--COMPLICATED premiered theatrically in Los Angeles for a week long run in September. It then had four "For Your Consideration" screenings--in Charleston, Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

After its premiere earlier in the year at Slamdance Film Festival and an award at the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival, COMPLICATED screened at the Ojai Film Festival in November and is set to show at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival in February.

As part of its award season offerings, the LA Times selected COMPLICATED for a special screening and Q&A in November. The film was also chosen by Deadline as one of 12 films for their Deadline Contenders series, which included a longform interview with director Andrew Abrahams by industry veteran Matt Carey.

A special thanks to the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation for its support of this long and daunting Academy Award campaign--and for opening its doors to our cameras. Top-down EDS research, which excels at MUSC's Norris Lab, in partnership with bottom-up awareness efforts, like our film, is an unbeatable way to effect meaningful change.

COMPLICATED is now available for educational and community group screenings. Early next year it will be available for home video streaming and, soon after, will be offered on Apple TV, which we're happy to report recently acquired the title! 

If you are moved by our work, we ask that you consider an end-of-year tax-deductible contribution to support our ongoing impact efforts so that COMPLICATED can make a difference for all those suffering from complex, misunderstood illness like EDS."

Dr. Russell "Chip" Norris and members of the team, program coordinator Molly Griggs and health communication specialist Molly Dickerson, traveled to see the LA times premier and Ojai film festival premier of Complicated and be in community with patients and families with EDS who rallied at the screening.

The two “For Your Consideration” screenings of Complicated was part of its Academy Award campaign, supported by funds from the MUSC Foundation and provided by generous donors.

The first screening was hosted by the Los Angeles Times in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 6th at 7:00 p.m., and the second took place at the Ojai Film Festival in Ojai, California, on Friday, November 7th at 1:00 p.m.

The film, which is Oscar eligible, prominently features the Norris Lab and highlights the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome research being conducted at MUSC. Attendance at these events provides a unique opportunity to showcase our institution’s leadership in advancing Ehlers-Danlos syndrome research, strengthen relationships with partners supporting this work, and interact with advocates, clinicians, patients, and policymakers. As a research lab, one of our objectives is to increase public awareness of and support for research on the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. Continuing efforts to engage with members of the media, film industry, and philanthropic community is crucial as it can open new avenues for collaboration, funding, and public awareness that directly benefit patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.

For another Oscar Voter screening at Quad Cinema in NYC, we met up with Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier, PharmD and patient advocate with EDS. Camille was a visiting scholar in our research lab in 2024. Diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) at age 11 and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) at age 26, Camille's experiences managing chronic pain and disability led her to advocate for better awareness and research for EDS and other complex or dynamic conditions.

"People think you're a unicorn when you win Miss America, and they don't think you have anything wrong with you, but that's so untrue," she said. "And that's the whole issue with EDS— people like me look like I'm 100% fine, but then have all these other things that I deal with." {Forbes}

To learn more about the film, go to www.openeyepix.org/complicated