Social & External
The psychiatric hospital was and is a disturbing place. Michel Défago, a former nurse, reports on a time when mentally ill people were still shackled or isolated. Today, nurses make every effort to free patients from their suffering and isolation.
When Rasmus was 15, his mother and siblings moved from the island Bornholm and left Rasmus with his mentally ill father. Influenced by his father's insecurity, anger and failure, Rasmus chooses to move from Bornholm at the age of 18. Two years later, Rasmus is trying to see if a reunion is possible, but in order to forgive and create a new relationship, father and son must go on a common journey that requires extreme courage and determination to succeed.
Initially airing on HBO's "America Undercover" series, this riveting documentary focuses on three families shattered by the psychiatric disorder of schizophrenia. Subjects "Bob," "Missy" and "Steven" have lived for over a decade with schizophrenia. The film documents the difficult day-to-day existence of both those afflicted with this order and the families searching for answers to their loved ones' suffering. This film also shows the varied and variably successful treatment methods for each of the subjects—one is placed in a group home, one is placed in an institution, and one is cared for at home. The documentary was critically acclaimed for its compassionate treatment of mental illness.
A look into the mind of one of the Hillside Strangler murderers, Kenneth Bianchi.
In January 2017, a video showing a young Gambian man named Pateh Sabally drowning in the waters of Venice’s Grand Canal went viral on social networks. From the shore, passers-by could be heard insulting him, rather than attempting to help. 4,000 kilometres away, the voices and faces of his family tell the story that preceded this tragedy, the story behind the images.
Scott Panetti was tried for the capital murder of his parents-in-law on September 8, 1992 in Gillespie County, Texas. He was subsequently sentenced to death on September 22, 1995. Panetti has an extensive history of mental illness, including schizophrenia, manic depression, auditory hallucinations and paranoia. Panetti was hospitalized, both voluntarily and involuntarily for mental illness fourteen times in six different hospitals before his arrest for capital murder in 1992. Following his conviction, Panetti’s former wife, and daughter of the victims, Sonja Alvarado, filed a petition stating that Panetti never should have been tried for the crimes as he was suffering from paranoid delusions at the time of the killings.
Explorer Bruce Parry visits nomadic tribes in Borneo and the Amazon in hope to better understand humanity's changing relationship with the world around us.
THEY HEARD VOICES is a documentary film exploring the Hearing Voices Movement, chronic psychosis, and the schizophrenia label. The film is a series of wide-ranging interviews with voice hearers, medical historians, anthropologists and psychiatrists from Britain and America, presenting different people’s views. Is schizophrenia hard science or an arbitrary, catch-all term with no real meaning? What does it mean for those experiencing psychosis?
POSSESSED enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?
The Hugo's Brain is a French documentary-drama about autism. The documentary crosses authentic autistic stories with a fiction story about the life of an autistic (Hugo), from childhood to adulthood, portraying his difficulties and his handicap.
The film is an intimate record of a difficult period in the life of the creators. The main character, eight months pregnant, was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. The dramatic event disrupted the joy associated with the birth of her child.
Epigenetics and psychogenealogy through a VERY personal experience.
Impudence wins! The cheeky impostor with a secondary school diploma pretends to be "successful" as a court expert and senior physician. TV-docudrama featuring Uwe Bohm
‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.
A short form exploration of the very visceral and disorienting world of living with severe anxiety and depression, the world’s biggest health problem.
An intensive psychological test by Professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971 saw US students volunteer to play prisoners and guards in an bid to examine the nature of good and evil. Within five days, four prisoners had broken down and another was on hunger strike. This film, containing strong language, reveals why the test was abandoned after less than a week.
One in five Americans is taking a psychiatric drug, including millions of children. Pharmaceutical companies have over-hyped the benefits of these drugs, while hiding the risks and severe side effects including physiological dependence. "Medicating Normal" explores what happens when for- profit medicine intersects with human beings in distress.
