‘You Look Fine’: Award-Winning Film Turns Invisible Illness Into a Call for Preventative Health

Jared “J.” Snow knows what it means to look healthy while fighting serious health complications invisible to others.

The filmmaker lives with sickle cell disease, a chronic, hereditary, debilitating illness.

“For me, hearing, ‘you look fine,’ is something universal that all people can relate to whether they have a rare disease, hypertension, cancer, or high stress,” he said. 

Bringing an intimate story of awareness, especially to communities of color, of dismissing symptoms that can’t be identified outwardly, his nationally award-winning documentary “You Look Fine” premieres at Greenbelt Cinema on Sept. 3.

 “It reveals how others can completely invalidate your health experience and even make you doubt yourself because symptoms aren’t always visible,” Snow continued, teasing the film ahead of its Greenbelt, Maryland, premiere.

Audiences of all ages and backgrounds have been drawn to the relatability of the film’s message.

“It layers in others’ experiences because everyone is fighting something that the world can’t see.  During past screenings, people have been vulnerable enough to voice very personal battles that they were fighting,” recalled the filmmaker.

And perhaps beneath the many layers of the documentary is a message simple yet powerful.

“Recognition, validation, community connection, and the support to voice unseen pain,” said Snow. “These are the foundations of true healing.” 

Preventative Health, More Than Meets the Eye

For John E. Samuels and his wife, Tesha F. Samuels, preventive health is inseparable from the concept of good health.

Co-founders of Journey to ExSCellence, an organization created in 2023 to help people with sickle cell disease find resources, support, and advocacy, the couple has experienced firsthand how everyday life challenges impact access to health care.

“With heavy economic concerns, family caregiving, and oftentimes the feeling that you are carrying this alone, preventative health is sometimes pushed to the back; worse still, even serious symptoms can be ignored,” Tesha Samuels, 44, recounted.

For the Samuels family, preventive health is not an abstract recommendation; it is the difference between discovering a problem early and confronting a crisis later. 

“I want people to be aware of the fact that debilitating health problems are often unseen,” said John Samuels, 70, “sometimes even to ourselves.”

The duo works to raise awareness beyond sickle cell. 

The American Heart Association notes that the rate of high blood pressure among Black adults in the United States is among the highest in the world. Many clinicians recommend that people of color should be screened earlier for health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. For people of color, many diseases that respond favorably to early treatment are often not diagnosed until late or advanced stages.

The wife emphasized that one of the most impactful ways to address health disparities is through the power of community.

“This documentary is of particular importance to the DMV,” she said. “The fact that a man has given access to the entire world to view the most vulnerable parts of his health care journey both educates and gives us the courage to be empowered to better navigate our own.”

Knowledge Is Power

Snow sees the documentary as more than a story about disease; he sees it as community empowerment. 

This year, he launched Better Exists, an organization dedicated to helping people with sickle cell disease improve their quality of life through life skills, education, and a healthier relationship with their bodies.

The Samuels share a similar mission and see community events such as “You Look Fine” as critical to forging a deeper understanding of unseen health crises, both physical and mental.

“You walk around and see people in tailored suits looking fine, but behind that, many are going through tremendous mental and physical anguish,” said Tesha Samuels. “This film shows us how to be more empathetic to other people’s unseen pain, and that of our own.”

For Snow, the message of his film lies in encouraging people to claim the power of their own story.

“I believe that the documentary teaches people to use their experiences, even the most painful ones, to tell their story instead of allowing their experiences to become their story,” said the filmmaker. “The power in that knowledge for so many of us is life-changing.”

This reporter has genotype SS, the most aggressive form of sickle cell disease. She lectures and advocates nationally for the inclusion of mental health support and holistic and alternative medicine as treatment for those with chronic illnesses.