Food allergy families spend countless hours reading labels, researching ingredients, and making sure epinephrine is always within reach. They don't often find themselves at movie premieres.
But for one evening in May, a group of advocates traded everyday routines for a night at the theater to celebrate the premiere of May Contain: My Life, a film by Jen Greenstreet that explores the challenges, resilience, and advocacy that define life with food allergies.
Produced by Just Like You Films, May Contain: My Life explores life with food allergies through a blend of documentary interviews and a fictional narrative woven throughout the film. The documentary features children living with food allergies, their families, medical experts, and advocates, while a dramatized storyline helps illustrate the everyday challenges food allergy families face.
For Toni Gaudiosi, who attended the premiere with her husband and a group of fellow food allergy advocates, the occasion provided an opportunity to dress up and enjoy the movie together.
"These are people that you don't see all the time but when you get together you just automatically connect," she said. "There's just this shared experience that we have gone through together so the relationships are very close and unique."
The evening wasn't just a chance to reconnect with friends. Although she knew the documentary focused on food allergies, she had few preset expectations going in. What she found was a film that resonated deeply with her own journey as a food allergy parent.
"It brought up a lot of feelings and a lot of emotions of what it's like to live every day as a parent with a child with a food allergy," she said. "And to imagine what it's like for our children."
One scene that stood out to her follows a boy attending a birthday party while carrying a backpack filled with his food and emergency medication.
"You hear the other kids saying, 'That kid is so weird. He always has his backpack,'" she recalled. "Still to this day, my son makes sure that he always has a bag to carry all this stuff. It spoke to all the feelings and emotions that we live through on a regular basis."
The film tackles topics familiar to many families in the food allergy community, including social isolation, bullying, cross-contact concerns, emergency preparedness, and the emotional burden of constantly managing a potentially life-threatening condition.
For Toni G., one of the most powerful aspects of the documentary was hearing directly from children living with food allergies.
"Kids with food allergies have a tremendous amount of maturity and empathy from a very young age," she said. "We ask these kids to carry their medicines, read labels, and be aware of things. You are able to see how strong and confident they are."
The documentary also highlights the work of leading food allergy researchers and advocates, including Dr. Ruchi Gupta of Northwestern University and Elijah-Alavi Foundation co-founders Dina Hawthorne and Thomas Silvera, parents of Elijah-Alavi. Through personal stories, medical insights, and legislative advocacy efforts, the film provides viewers with a comprehensive look at food allergies and their impact.
"It kind of covered everything," Toni G. said. "What it's like to be a mom and a kid living with food allergies, what is going on medically with food allergies, and then legislatively what has happened and what still needs to happen."
The film also explores how friends can become allies. Several children featured in the documentary are interviewed alongside friends who discuss how learning about food allergies changed their understanding and helped them support someone they care about.
Following the screening, attendees participated in a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers. Among other topics, the discussion provided additional insight into the creative decisions behind the film, including the choice to combine documentary interviews with a fictional storyline and the casting of August Maturo, who himself has life-threatening food allergies.
While the film spoke to Toni G.'s and her fellow advocates' experiences, she believes its greatest impact will come when it reaches audiences outside the food allergy community.
"The real benefit would be people who don't know a lot about food allergies watching it," she said. "There are so many families that are impacted but I still feel like it's a very misunderstood disease and diagnosis."
Just as advocacy and keeping one another safe require a community effort, so did the making of this film. "So many individuals and families played an important role in bringing this project to life," said Thomas.
He expressed appreciation to the children, families, advocates, and filmmakers who shared their experiences, including:
- Riya Gupta
- Jerome Bettis
- August Maturo
- Ava Kolker
- Owen Osborne
- Tanner Hagen
- Zeina Montifari
- Hannah, Catherine, and Emily Brown
- Mandi Kearns (executive producer) and Giles Kearns
- Jen Greenstreet (writer-director)
Additional showings will be held on Long Island on June 29th at the AMC Raceway theater and on June 30th at the Huntington AMC.
Anyone who wants to schedule a private screening can email
The video will be released on July 1st. Click here for more information.
Watch the trailer on Just Like You Films' Instagram page.
Information about streaming options will be coming soon. Stay tuned!
About the Author
Kristen Stewart is the Communications Manager for Allergy Advocates New York, where she writes about allergies, anaphylaxis, advocacy, and practical resources for individuals, families, and communities.