My name is Marcelese Cooper, and I make nonfiction work that centers people’s lived experiences and the worlds they build around themselves. I am also someone who lives with Lupus, which means I understand firsthand how unpredictable and complicated autoimmune/chronic illness can be. My filmmaking practice has always grown out of community and care, and my new documentary On Good Days continues that path in a deeper, more focused way.

On Good Days is a short experimental documentary about what it means to live with chronic and autoimmune conditions on a daily basis. These conditions are often shown only during emergencies or flare ups, but most of life happens between those moments or potentially in spite of them. It happens in the pacing of energy, in care routines, in the small decisions that shape a day, and in the adaptations that allow people to keep moving through the world on their own terms. This film is focused on that living part, which is often the part that is least understood.

The group of participants I will be filming with represent a wide range of chronic conditions. While the conversation will be varied and nuanced, I can share the conditions that will be explored through their lived experiences. These conditions include:

**Hereditary Angioedema

**Hidradenitis Suppurativa

**Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease

**Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

**POTS

**Endometriosis

**PCOS

This set of conditions alone shows how broad the chronic illness landscape can be. Some are rare, some are commonly misunderstood, and some sit in the overlap where chronic and autoimmune experiences meet. Each person in this group lives with their condition in a way that is specific to their body and daily rhythms. Even when two people share a diagnosis, their symptoms, triggers, and care needs can look entirely different from one another. Through my own experience with Lupus and through conversations with healthcare professionals and disability advocates, the film will also address the autoimmune side of this landscape. Chronic and autoimmune illness often intertwine, but they aren't the same, and details like that are a part of why I'm making this film. The goal of this project is to show why individualized care matters and why no diagnosis can fully explain the life of the person who carries it.

The film will use interviews, captured moments from daily routines, sound, and sensory driven visuals to bring viewers closer to what living with these conditions feels like. Its possible that some experiences are internal or emotional in ways that a camera cannot fully capture, so certain scenes will shift into animation (another part of my practice). This approach gives the more subtle or invisible aspects of illness their own space. The goal is to create a clearer, more grounded understanding of chronic and autoimmune conditions through the real lives of the people who experience them while also trying to give space to those frustrating things that bloodwork or WebMD don't describe.

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For full transparency I'm applying where I can for grants while also attempting to raise funds independently for this project, because I refuse to wait for permission (funding) to try and tell these stories. Fundraising is beginning with what is most essential for the filming itself. To travel safely and responsibly to meet participants in their own locations, I need support covering the core costs of production this summer.

I'm aiming on raising at least 3,000 dollars to cover essential filming needs

**1,800 dollars for travel

Flights or train travel to meet participants. I do not drive, so safe and accessible long distance travel is necessary.

**900 dollars for lodging

Eight to nine nights of housing while filming.

**300 dollars for meals

Basic food costs during travel.

All equipment, editing tools, animation software, and post production resources are already mostly covered through my own investment in the project. This fundraiser focuses only on the travel and logistical support that makes filming possible.

So to make a very long story short: If you are able to donate or share this campaign, you're helping bring these stories out into the world to be seen and heard. Your support helps create a film that treats chronic and autoimmune illness with the nuance and attention it deserves. Most of all, you are helping lift up the voices of people who live with these realities every day.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting disabled and chronically ill communities. And thank you for standing behind work that centers lived experience with intention and care.