The Lyme Times Volume 25, Number 2

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6 The Lyme Times
Under Our Skin 2: Emergence
Much-awaited sequel follows old friends and introduces new voices
By Dorothy Kupcha Leland
It would be hard to overstate how important the documentary
Under Our Skin has been to the Lyme community. When released
in 2008, it galvanized the Lyme community in a way nothing had
before.
Community screenings of Under Our Skin sprang up in
hundreds of theaters, social halls and living rooms around the
country. They often garnered coverage frommedia outlets big and
small. The film was an effective tool for teaching the public about
Lyme disease.
It also offered an opportunity for people to recognize themselves
in its stories. One was musician Kathleen Hanna, featured in the
filmThe Punk Singer. She had suffered for years with Lyme without
knowing what she had. Seeing Under Our Skin led her to diagnosis
and treatment. Many others have had a similar experience.
Under Our Skin was shown on national TV, even though the
IDSA and its apologists tried to prevent PBS stations from playing
it. The film is also now available for free viewing on .
Many in the Lyme community have seen Under Our Skin many
times. We feel personally acquainted with the patients portrayed:
former park ranger Jordan Fisher Smith, rock-and-roll promoter
Dana Walsh, new bride Mandy Hughes and several others. We
also feel connected to the doctors under fire — Drs. Charles Ray
Jones and Joseph Jemsek — as well as Alzheimer’s researcher Dr.
Alan MacDonald.
Fast forward six years to the much-awaited sequel, Under Our
Skin 2: Emergence. It updates us about what has transpired on the
broader Lyme disease issues and tells us how the individuals we
met in Part 1 are doing today. (How heartening to see that most
have gotten well and moved on with their lives!)
The physicians are a different story. Drs. Jones and Jemsek,
hounded by their respective medical boards, sustained staggering
financial losses. They each paid a heavy emotional price as well.
And Dr. MacDonald’s life has taken several astonishing turns
since the filming of Part 1.
Among the new voices in Under Our Skin 2 is Lorraine Johnson,
CEO of . She cogently lays out how conflicts of
interest and medical collusion continue to block progress in the
Lyme arena.
Part 2 also deals more with international aspects of the disease.
It interviews experts from Australia, Canada, Germany and
Norway, among others. Coverage of Lyme protests around the
world includes footage from Washington DC, Strasbourg, Berlin,
Victoria BC, Oslo, Brussels, Sydney, London and San Francisco.
Those protests — which encouraged so many and helped raise
global awareness of Lyme disease —might never have come about
without the spark provided by the original Under Our Skin. Thus
the process comes full circle.
Andy Abrahams Wilson, director of both films, says not only is
the epidemic emerging, but so is “the reality of Lyme as a complex
chronic infection that can no longer be denied.”
Watching these two documentaries is the simplest way to get
up to speed on one of the most critical healthcare issues facing
America today. Information is power — and we won’t fix this
Lyme problem without it.
Dorothy Leland, LDo Vice President for Education & Outreach,
is TLT Online Editor.
Producer and director Andy Abrahams Wilson, second from left, with
cast members, left to right, Mandy Hughes, Jordan Fisher Smith, and
Dana Walsh at the Los Angeles premiere of EMERGENCE Oct. 2, 2014.