World Mental Health Day
October 10th is World Mental Health Day. Now available on OVID is a collection of films exploring a complicated subject. Included are films reflecting historical perspectives like A Captive Feast and The Yellow Wallpaper, films exploring more modern approaches as seen in 12 Days, and documentaries like Orchestrating Change and Latest News from the Cosmos, which allow their subjects to speak for themselves and share their experiences, in all their beauty and complexity.
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  Drunk on Too Much LifeDirected by Michelle Melles • Documentary • 2021 • 77 minutes Drunk on Too Much Life is an intimate and powerful documentary following the filmmaker's 21-year-old daughter’s mind-opening journey from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels towards expansive worlds of creativity, connection... 
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  The Last to KnowDirected by Bonnie Friedman • Documentary • 1981 • 45 minutes Acclaimed at the New York Film Festival, THE LAST TO KNOW presents the real worlds of four addicted women, three in recovery, and one still drinking and using drugs. In their own words and in their own environments, these four very di... 
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  Who Am I To Stop ItDirected by Cheryl Green and Cynthia Lopez • Documentary • With Dani Sanderson, Kris Haas, Brandon Scarth • 2016 • 86 minutes Who Am I To Stop It is a documentary about the traumatic brain injury community made by a filmmaker with disabilities from brain injury. It follows three artists as they ... 
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  RyanDirected by Chris Landreth • Animation • 2004 • 14 minutes Ryan is based on the life of Ryan Larkin, a Canadian animator who, 30 years ago, produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. In the film, we hear the voices of prominent animators and artists discussing Ryan's work,... 
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  A Look at Madness / Captive FeastDirected by Mario Ruspoli • Documentary • With Dr. François Tosquelles • 1962 • 53 minutes Ruspoli had a standing interest in isolated and marginal communities, very much on display in films he shot in Lozère, in France’s rugged, unforgiving south. In A LOOK AT MADNESS and CAPTIVE FEAST, it’s pa... 
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  12 DaysDirected by Raymond Depardon • Documentary • 2017 • 87 minutes Every year in France, 92,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. 12 DAYS focuses on those who have been involuntarily remanded to a mental hospital, and more specifically documents the hearings that, accor... 
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  Liberation: The User's GuideDirected by Alexander Kuznetsov • Documentary • 2016 • 80 minutes In Sibera, Russia, 18-year-old girls Julia, Ina, Olga and Katia are transferred directly from orphanages to neuropsychiatric institutions and are deprived of their rights as citizens: no freedom, no work, and no family. On the bas... 
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  Dream DeceiversDirected by David Van Taylor • Documentary • With James Vance, Ray Belknap, Phyllis Vance, Rob Halford, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill, Glenm Tipton, Scott Travis • 1991 • 58 minutes Two young men shoot themselves in a churchyard. Ray Belknap dies; James Vance - severely disfigured - survives. Their par... 
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  The Yellow WallpaperDirected by Marie Ashton • Drama • With Sigrid Wurschmidt, Tom Dahlgren, Susan Lynch • 1989 • 14 minutes This short dramatic film brings to life the classic Charlotte Perkins Gilman story of the same name, which has become an important addition to American literature course curricula. Set in the... 
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  ElenaDirected by Petra Costa • Documentary • With Petra Costa, Elena Andrade • 2012 • 80 minutes Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictators... 
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  Cul de Sac: A Suburban War StoryDirected by Garrett Scott • Documentary • 2001 • 57 minutes In May 1995, Shawn Nelson, a 35 year-old plumber from Clairemont, California, emerged from an eighteen foot mine shaft he had dug beneath his backyard in search for gold. An ex-soldier and methamphetamine abuser, he stole a tank from a ... 
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  Latest News from the CosmosDirected by Julie Bertuccelli • Documentary • 2016 • 85 minutes Despite being nearly 30, Helene still looks like a teenager. She writes powerful, physical texts with a caustic humour. As she herself says, she was part of a 'miscalibrated batch that doesn't fit in anywhere.' A visionary author, t... 
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  The Mad Masters (Jean Rouch)Directed by Jean Rouch • Documentary • 1955 • 28 minutes The film opens on the bustling streets of Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), a major colonial port city that serves as a stage for the collision of the traditional and the modern. Among the diverse groups who populate... 
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  ShynessDirected by Les Drew • Animation • 1996 • 9 minutes This animated short is a parody of the Frankenstein story. Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster only to find out that his creation is too shy to go out and frighten anyone. The good doctor and his malevolent assistant Trevor try to find ways of h... 
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  Away from Meaning (Lejos del sentido)Directed by Olivia Luengas • Documentary • 2020 • 88 minutes When Liliana was three years old, she suffered from viral encephalitis. As a consequence, she began to experience borderline personality disorder years later. Along with her family, she devotes herself to managing and coping with emoti... 
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  Orchestrating ChangeDirected by Margie Friedman, Barbara Multer-Wellin • Documentary • 2021 • 85 minutes ORCHESTRATING CHANGE is the feature- length documentary film that tells the inspiring story of Me2/Orchestra, the only orchestra in the world created by and for people living with mental illness and those who su... 
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  Service: When Women Come Marching HomeDirected by Marcia Rock, Patricia Lee Stotter • Documentary • 55 minutes Women make up 15 percent of today's military. That number is expected to double in 10 years. SERVICE highlights the resourcefulness of seven amazing women who represent the first wave of mothers, daughters and sisters retur... 
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  The ProvidersDirected by Anna Moot-Levin, Laura Green • Documentary • 2019 • 82 minutes Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, THE PROVIDERS follows three healthcare providers in northern New Mexico. They work at El Centro, a group of safety-net clinics that ... 
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  Prisoner of Her PastDirected by Gordon Quinn • Documentary • With Sonia Reich, 
 Howard Reich • 2010 • 57 minutesImagine surviving a war, earthquake, flood, or other disaster only to be stricken by nightmares, paranoia and a very real sense that it's happening over and over. What would you do? Frightening events can... 
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  Psychology and the New HeroismDirected by Bill Roller • Documentary • 2013 • 87 minutes Philip Zimbardo is professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University and creator of the renowned Stanford Prison Experiment. Daniel Ellsberg served in the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and is best known as the ... 
 
 
               
             
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
          