Award-Winning Narcolepsy Film Premiere & Writer/Producer Q&A: Walking Through Peanut Butter

Grab your popcorn and join Project Sleep on Monday, June 27th at 6pm ET for a special online premiere of the award-winning short film about narcolepsy, Walking through Peanut Butter, written and produced by Rising Voices advocate, Anna Marr.

The film, based on Anna’s real experiences navigating the comedy world of the city that never sleeps while living with narcolepsy, is nine minutes long and will premiere on YouTube on Monday, June 27, 2022 at 6pm ET.

Right after the premiere, Project Sleep will host a very special live Q&A with writer, actor, and producer, Anna Marr, via Project Sleep’s Facebook Live on Monday, June 27, 2022 at 6:10pm ET. To tune in for the live Q&A, go to Project Sleep’s Facebook Page and look for the live video in our feed.

Parents Please Note: This film contains suggestive dialogue, strong language, and situations you may not find suitable for your child. We suggest to first screen the film on your own to gauge its appropriateness for your child.

About Walking Through Peanut Butter

A stubborn, overachieving new college grad dives headfirst into the comedy world of the city that never sleeps—aka, the perfect place to adapt to her newly diagnosed narcolepsy.

For people with narcolepsy, the boundaries between wakefulness and sleep are blurred as we see, hear, and feel aspects of dream sleep while partially conscious. The small surrealist moments of the film remain my favorites. I often have a hard time knowing what’s real and what’s not, and I hope to give the audience a taste of that.

– Anna Marr

Watch the Trailer

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Walking through Peanut Butter won Best Women Short at the Independent Short Awards 2020, and was an official selection of the Bentonville Film Festival 2021, Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival 2021, Jelly Film Festival 2021, and Los Angeles Women in Film Festival 2020.

About Anna Marr

Anna Marr is an LA-based actor, writer, and voiceover artist originally from Ohio. She is a co-founder of Bluelaces Theatre Co., a non-profit that creates interactive, multi-sensory theatre for individuals with developmental differences. Anna was diagnosed with narcolepsy as a senior at Northwestern University. She developed Walking through Peanut Butter as a dark comedy based on her experiences navigating New York’s comedy scene with narcolepsy. Learn more about Anna at anna marr.com and follow WTPB on Instagram.

Fighting Stigma through Film

Films like Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Moulin Rouge! and The Mysterious Benedict Society leverage incorrect portrayals of narcolepsy as, at best, simply amusing– and at worst, the butt of a joke. In real life, narcolepsy is a chronic, invisible neurological sleep disorder that hinders the brain’s ability to regulate the sleep-wake cycle.

Films such as Walking through Peanut Butter give accurate portrayals of what living with narcolepsy looks like to help raise awareness, shift mindsets, and fight stigma.

While we all cringe at Hollywood’s portrayals of narcolepsy, Anna is a leader in stepping forward to create new media content that is entertaining and revealing to the real-life lived experiences of people living with narcolepsy and other chronic conditions.

– Julie Flygare
President & CEO, Project Sleep

Project Sleep has proudly supported Anna’s creative efforts. Read her Rising Voices essay, “Laugh at Me, Not My Narcolepsy: Why I take sleep more seriously than I take myself” where she first described her sleepiness as “walking through peanut butter.”