8 Movies About Epilepsy to Watch This Summer

June 18, 2018

From documentaries to dramas, these movies expose the hidden disability of epilepsy through film and shed light on the topic, potentially helping patients better understand their illness.

Exposing the hidden disability through film (in alphabetical order of title)...

Control

English songwriter and musician Ian Curtis “…sings in a band called Warsaw. He meets a girl named Debbie whom he promptly marries and his band, of which the name in the meantime has been changed to Joy Division, gets more and more successful. Even though Debbie and he become parents, their relationship is going downhill rapidly and Ian starts an affair with Belgium Annik whom he met after one of the gigs and he's almost never at home. Ian also suffers from epilepsy and has no-good medication for it.” Sadly, the movie ends with Ian’s suicide.

2007, available on Amazon

Diagnosis Epilepsy: Now What?

A diagnosis of epilepsy instantly raises numerous questions and fears for the parents and caretakers of a newly diagnosed child.

Beckett Films, Documentary, 2007

Electricity

“A journey seen through the eyes of a young woman with epilepsy that brings extraordinary hallucinations as she searches for her long lost brother.”

2014, available on Netflix

The Exploding Girl

On a summer break from college, a young woman with epilepsy struggles to balance her feelings for her fledgling boyfriend.

DVD release 2010; Available on Amazon

A Fighting Choice

"A teenager afflicted with epilepsy sues his parents for the right to have 'split brain' surgery in order to cure his seizures. With Beau Bridges, Karen Valentine, Patrick Dempsey, Frances Lee McCain."

Drama, Walt Disney Television, 1986

First Do No Harm

"When a mother learns that her young son has epilepsy, she first trusts the judgment of the hospital staff in how best to bring it under control. When debilitating conventional treatments fail, she tries a controversial diet to treat the illness."

Drama, 2009

Seized: Inside the Mystery of Epilepsy

"Powerful, intimate stories of patients, families and doctors fighting on the front lines for new treatments and new insights into this ancient disease."

PBS Documentary, 2016

Zach: A Film About Epilepsy

Breaking Branches Pictures and C.U.R.E. (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy) worked together to create this short documentary in the fall of 2009.

Documentary, 2009