How to make a film about chronic illness

The Rest Room

How often do you see chronic illness or disability portrayed on your screens? The answer is, sadly not as often as we should. In fact, disabled people are the most under-represented group in television, both on and off screen.

In this episode, we explore how accessible the industry is as we speak to screenwriter Charlotte Paradise. She’s behind the short film ‘Chronic’ which follows a chronically ill woman as she moves in with her boyfriend for the first time.

Charlotte herself lives with chronic illness, so we spoke about the highs and lows of the industry, what it's like to tell such a personal story on screen, and how they endeavoured to make this an accessible process from start to finish.

So whether you want to get into the industry, or you simply want to see more representation on your screens, we hope this episode will get the conversation started.

You can read the transcript here: https://bit.ly/rest-room-chronic-film

Learn more about Chronic at: www.instagram.com/ChronicFilm

Thanks to The Old Vic for sponsoring this podcast. You can learn more about their upcoming production of A Christmas Carol and their Access Scheme:

• https://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2021/watch-at-the-theatre/a-christmas-carol-5


• https://www.oldvictheatre.com/your-visit/access/access-membership-2

Follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/NatashaLipman and Twitter: www.twitter.com/NatashaLipman

If you'd like to dive deeper into any of the research I've highlighted in this episode, check out the links below.

• https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaads-where-we-are-tv-report-despite-tumultuous-year-television-lgbtq-representation-holds


• https://creativediversitynetwork.com/diamond/diamond-reports/the-fourth-cut/


• https://thehysteriacollective.com/2021/11/04/calling-cut-on-the-inaccessibility-of-the-film-industry/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashalipman.substack.com