Three women discover that what happened to them wasn’t an accident. It was built into the system. Their stories open onto a haunting investigation into the enduring legacy of medical sexism. HYSTERIA is both a searing cry for help - and an urgent call for change.
SYNOPSIS
Through the intimate stories of three women whose lives have been profoundly affected by the healthcare they received - or failed to receive - HYSTERIA exposes how sex bias is embedded in the history of medicine, and the very real consequences this continues to have today.
Moving between lived experience, leading research and the voices of experts, advocates and healthcare professionals, the film connects the personal to the global - and reveals how assumptions about women’s bodies continue to shape research, clinical trials, medical education and healthcare practice around the world.
These are not isolated stories, nor simply mistakes made by individual doctors. They reveal a system in which women’s pain is repeatedly dismissed, symptoms are misunderstood, conditions are diagnosed too late and treatments are based on evidence that does not adequately reflect women’s bodies.
This film exists to confront the biases that have silenced
and betrayed women for centuries - not only to raise awareness, but to move the needle.
Backed by a powerful impact campaign developed in partnership with world-leading Think-Film Impact Production (NAVALNY, BLACK BOX DIARIES, THE TERRITORY), HYSTERIA will help shift how future doctors are trained and how women’s pain is recognized, studied and believed.
Director Statement
This film started with my daughter. For years, we could see that she experienced the world differently, and were trying to understand why. When she was finally diagnosed with autism we asked ourselves: why did it take so long?
The explanation was simple but shocking. Autistic girls are diagnosed an average of two years later than boys - two years more questions, two years less care. Why? Because our understanding of the condition has been shaped around how it presents in boys, the diagnostic system often fails to recognize it in girls - leaving far too many unseen and unsupported.
When I started following the thread, I found the pattern runs across medicine. Women are neglected in the research we fund, the symptoms we recognize, the diseases we diagnose and the patients we believe. Once I had seen it, I could see it everywhere - in my family, my friends, even bubbling up in conversations I’d have while walking the dog. Everyone seems to have a story. And the consequences are far from abstract - delayed diagnoses, needless suffering and lives lost.
HYSTERIA is about more than exposing what has gone wrong. It’s about what happens next. My daughters were born into a golden age of medical science. Let this centuries-old pattern end with us.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Caroline Rhys Jones
After a 12-year career as a broadcast news reporter in the U.S., Caroline launched her own production company, Breadbox Films, directing mini-documentaries and creative commissions. HYSTERIA is her most personal project to date, and her feature directorial debut.
Producer Justin Benoliel, Object & Animal
Justin’s first documentary, DAUGHTERS, premiered at Sundance in 2024, winning both the Audience Award and the Festival Favorite Award before being acquired by Netflix, winning a Peabody Award and receiving BAFTA, Emmy and Directors Guild of America nominations. Justin also Executive Produced the 2025 SXSW Grand Jury Prize winning documentary SHUFFLE. Since its launch in 2018, Object & Animal has become a leading global studio, building a slate of bold, culturally resonant stories that elevate underrepresented voices.
Executive Producers: Danielle Turkov Wilson & Amy Shepherd, Think-Film Impact Production
Danielle and Amy co-lead Think-Film Impact Production, the world-leading impact powerhouse behind Oscar, BAFTA, Peabody and Emmy winning titles including NAVALNY, BLACK BOX DIARIES, THE TERRITORY, DARK WATERS (Todd Haynes, Mark Ruffalo), THE END (Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon), THE SON (Florian Zeller, Hugh Jackman).
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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