In less than one month, Disorder: The Rare Disease Film Festival will be underway. The only film festival that focuses exclusively on rare diseases will take place November 9-10, 2019 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.
The two-day event will include 54 films dealing with some aspect of the 7,000 rare diseases that afflict 1 in 10 Americans. Co-founder of the festival, Bo Bigelow said, “We couldn’t be more energized by the enormous response from filmmakers all over the world who are sharing these powerful rare-disease stories. ” Bigelow is a filmmaker and father of a child with USP7.
The festival will not be limited to documentaries. Co-founder, Daniel DeFabio said, “We’re so glad to have not just documentaries this year, but fictional films, animated films, even a comedy or two. ” DeFabio is the father of a child with Menkes disease. Tickets for the festival are now on sale at the event’s website.
Some of the diseases covered in the festival include Batten disease, Sanfilippo syndrome, epidermolysis bullosa, myofibular myopathy, USP7, Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, GM1 gangliosidosis, Vater syndrome, Lafora disease, Angelman’s syndrome, spinal muscular atrophy, Wilson’s disease, cystic fibrosis, Menkes disease, Fraser syndrome, congenital disorders of glycosylation, myotubular myopathy, Tay-Sachs disease, Huntington’s disease, fragile x syndrome, sickle cell anemia, Pfeiffer syndrome, Niemann-Pick disease, Menkes syndrome, giant axonal neuropathy, Hunter syndrome, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Bosch-Boonstra-Schaff optic atrophy syndrome, Friedreich’s ataxia, Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, cerebral palsy, Vater syndrome, and Bohring-Opitz syndrome.
Between many of the film screenings, rare disease researchers and patient advocates will share stories from their experiences.
CheckRare is a proud supporter of the film festival. Here is an interview we did with DeFabio about the festival.