FAME Week Africa Students Film Showcase 2025: Emily Mürch’s “99 Days Too Soon” Is An Emotional Journey on Premature Birth and Neonatal Care

On 24th August, 2002, 26-week-old Emily Mürch was prematurely born through a cesarean section, after which the baby spent 99 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Over two decades after her birth, the young woman, a South Africa Film Academy intern, has produced and directed 99 Days Too Soon, a short personal documentary that relives experiences from those early, critical days in the NICU. The documentary includes archival footage with family and self-conducted interviews with her parents Klaus-Peter and Caron Münch, brother Aiden Münch, NICU nurses Sr Sylvia Sass and Sr Diane Du Preez, paediatrician Dr Heinrich Weber, and other medical professionals like Dr Rick Dippener and Kelly Anne Delaney who provide insights on the 99-day experience and discuss the short and long term effects of premature birth.

Münch’s documentary provides an emotional and moving account of her birth circumstances through the perspectives of those who witnessed it. By doing so, she creates a connection between the tough, helpless times as a baby and her present fully developed and independent human state. For her, telling this true-life story provides the unique opportunity and privilege to appreciate the noble and delicate work of dedicated health professionals while leaning into an aspect of her formative years that has contributed to her identity. The accounts are a fusion of medical facts and experiential revelation, through which the audience are educated on neonatal care.

As each interviewee tells their account of how they contributed physically and emotionally to the development of the premature baby, the documentary passes an important message on the importance of family and health support to the wellbeing of a young person. Mürch sits with her parents Klaus-Peter and Caron Münch and brother Aiden Münch for a highly intimate interaction on how they responded to her days in the ICU. She visits Sr Sylvia Sass in her residence and interviews Sr Diane Du Preez on duty at work. Over a video call, she links up with Dr. Heinrich Weber, an Associate Professor of Paediatrics, learning about the challenges, risks and long-term effects attributed to premature births. Thus, the documentary reveals how certain careers, such as a medical one, often draw attention to the blurred lines between professionalism and personal obligations.

99 Days Too Soon focuses on a unique stage of one’s life journey that does not seem to get enough attention in mainstream media. Because medical science, in a generic sense, is thought of as a serious discipline, it does not very often form the basis of documentary that is tailored to entertain as much as it educates. Münch’s approach, however, offers a bit of medical thrill and adventure, making itself accessible to diverse audiences and leaving behind a trail of hope, survival and inspiration.