hen filmmaker Crystal R. Emery edited the first version of her 2021 documentary, “The Deadliest Disease in America,” she didn’t include her own story. As a Black woman living with quadriplegia and two chronic conditions—diabetes and Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a degenerative nerve disease—Emery had a lot of material to draw on. And yet: “I hate when filmmakers put themselves in the film. It’s like, jeez, don’t do that,” she laughs. “I thought there were a lot of other stories that were better than mine. But once we saw the footage we had shot and began working with the
