A YouTube compilation film about Morgellons, a mysterious illness whose sufferers say they have parasites under the skin, long colored fibers emerging from lesions, and a host of other bizarre symptoms which sound borrowed from a horror film. The film sets up a space of unsettling encounter with a group of “Morgies” who have turned to YouTube to find help and to prove they’re not crazy.  Intimate and unflinching, disturbing and at times funny – THE PAIN OF OTHERS attempts an act of radical empathy.

Maysles Documentary Center spotlights the first four feature documentaries of filmmaker Penny Lane, who over the last decade has distinguished herself as a vital voice in contemporary nonfiction film & video. Defined by an eclectic use of formal techniques and a burning intellectual curiosity, Lane’s body of work reveals a consistent preoccupation with the nature of truth, communicated with a wry sense of humor — an epistemological cheek. In 2016, she launched “Notes on NUTS!”, an exhaustive online compendium of annotations to her third feature. By ranking the film’s various claims and implications on a “truth scale”, Lane acknowledged and deconstructed the obfuscations of fact made by documentarians in pursuit of a good story. Her latest film, HAIL SATAN?, incorporates her first use of direct footage to profile The Satanic Temple, an organization as adept at using funny in defense of facts as the filmmaker herself. 

THE PAIN OF OTHERS is available free of charge May 28-June 4 alongside 3 other films by Penny Lane, including the new release HAIL SATAN?

Join us for a Zoom conversation on Saturday, May 30 at 1PM EDT with Penny Lane to dive deeper!