Screening Time: Friday, May 2, 3:30 PM, Charles Theatre 4

Director: Nonny de la Peña

Cast: Misty Jones, Jane Alexander, Julie Patrick

Country: U.S.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 100 minutes
Format: Beta SP

Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) describes an unimaginable occurrence: a mother purposely and secretly hurting her child for the attention and drama it brings the mother. This defies everything we are taught about parenthood, but MSbP has been a. medical diagnosis for 25 years. This film challenges the scientific basis of the whole MSbP diagnosis by examining several specific cases in detail. An angry polemic, this film may not find answers, but it will certainly provoke discussion.

--Jed Dietz

Presented By: Nonny de la Peña, producer Amy Sommer, and several members of the local pediatric community

Nonny de la Peña graduated from Harvard, and had a distinguished journalism career before turning to documentary filmmaking. Her first film, Death on the Job was nominated for an Academy Award, and she has directed projects for HBO, A&E, and the BBC. A Jaundiced Eye, a film about a false child abuse case, screened at the Toronto Film Festival and has aired on the Sundance Channel. Nonny gave birth to her first child in 2001 while researching MAMA/M.A.M.A.

Amy Sommer has had a distinguished producing career in both fiction and nonfiction filmmaking, and her films have been nominated for both Emmys and Oscars. A graduate of Wellesley College, Amy earned an MA from Columbia. She produced the distinguished Waco: Terms of Engagement, and is executive producer of Unprecedented, which also screens at the Maryland Film Festival 2003.