Sensitive Skin;A documentary about psoriasis

In a world where beauty and perfection is everything, imagine waking up in the morning with your body covered in spots and flakes. You think perhaps it is an allergy or maybe a really bad rash. You later discover it has a name but has no cure. Sensitive Skin is the portrait of Glory’s ten year journey with the autoimmune disease Psoriasis. The documentary is honest, open and raw.

I have been friends with Glory Edozien for just under five years and in that time, we have become incredibly close. We have gotten to the point where people actually think we are related as they say we look alike. We both disagree though. But jokes aside, i have watched her at the best and the worst living with Psoriasis, the autoimmune skin disease characterized by abnormally excessive and rapid growth of skin cells which she was diagnosed with ten years ago. Over 90 percent of Glory’s body is covered in spots, scales and flakes or psoriasis plaques as they are called. She wakes up dusting flakes of her bed and just watching her, you realise psoriasis isn’t just a battle but a war. The strange thing about war is that you aren’t the only casualty. Everyone else around you is. The parents that wish they could fix you but they can’t and the friends that want to understand even when they haven’t got the faintest clue.

When I  thought of making this documentary, my intention was to do away with the doctors and medical lingo so I really wanted to explore an honest and open conversation about something that seemed like a private battle but yet so public. I didn’t want to reiterate what anyone could already find on Google. I wanted to discover what it was like to wake up not recognizing who you are and then being told that you may never look like the person you once saw in the mirror. Glory inspires me everyday, her strength, her willingness to be vulnerable and her drive to discover that there is absolutely more to the self that meets the eye. I hope i have been able to capture that relentless spirit through our conversation.

Sensitive Skin for me is about a psoriasis sufferer, but it is also a portrait of moving from loathing to self acceptance and living despite it all.

Glory works as a project management executive at an environmental company, she is also a writer and hosts the Inspire series a chat show on the web that explores the lives of everyday people living extraordinary lives. In this film, we discuss family, society’s perceptions, faith and what it is like to live with psoriasis.

This project is a creative collaboration between myself, my wonderful filmmaker friend Jay Franklyn Jituboh and of course Glory Edozien. I call us a trinity because if serendipity didn’t bring us all together i doubt this would have come to life. Jay was so committed to this project that his energy and spirit kept driving me forward. He is a bit of a monk, always so super positive even in my many moments of self doubt.

Sensitive skin Part 1

Sensitive skin Part 2