Love in the Time of Antidepressants

Flee

June 2021 •Danish

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.

Fragility

January 2016 •Swedish

"You are suffering from a mental fragility,” the doctor tells Ahang as she desperately tries to understand why she sometimes feels so terribly sad, as though everything has fallen apart. From the outside, she seems to live a sound and good life. For periods of time everything feels really good. But then it hits her: that horrific panic and despair that destroys everything and presses her down into a deep black hole.

Le chemin brut de Lisette et Romain

December 1995 •French

Beyond Hoarding

May 2019 •English

"Beyond Hoarding" takes a fresh look at hoarding through the experiences of people afflicted with this compulsion. Mental health experts shed light on this psychiatric disorder which is treatable.

Letters from Generation Rx

July 2017 •English

As a result of the 2008 documentary"Generation Rx," thousands of people wrote director Kevin P. Miller to share their experiences on psychiatric drugs. Miller combines their gripping tales with the latest mental health research, science, and medical health perspectives.

Executing the Insane: The Case of Scott Panetti

January 2007 •English

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.

Wake Up

September 2010 •English

Jonas Elrod woke up one day with the ability to see and hear angels, demons and ghosts. Filmed over the course of three years, this documentary follows Jonas and his girlfriend as they try to understand the phenomenon.

Out of Sight: Stop the Stigma, Start a Conversation

September 2017 •English

Out of Sight takes a close look at how our society treats adolescents at-risk of suicide, or suffering from depression - and its dire consequences. It addresses the idea that such issues are best kept "out of sight."

Does Your Soul Have a Cold?

October 2007 •Japanese

This documentary follows the lives of five Japanese individuals to explore how depression is perceived in Japan and how the marketing of anti-depressants since the late 1990s has shifted public awareness. Once a term used only by psychiatric professionals, "utsu" is now commonly used as anti-depressant use has surged.

Days of Madness

February 2018 •Croatian

Days of Madness portray an incredible odyssey of two mentally diverse and unjustly rejected people who are learning to accept it, faced with the blindness of the society and the health system that made them addicts.

Billy

April 2024 •French

Billy is a film buff who films himself non-stop. During a film shoot, he meets Lawrence Côté-Collins and the two become friends. One night, he assaults her. Years later, in prison for the deaths of two people, Billy is diagnosed with schizophrenia. With the help of the filmmaker, his only remaining relationship apart from his family, his personal archives become an invaluable resource for understanding his illness. A formal deconstruction of schizophrenia through a remarkably open-minded gaze.

Die heilende Sprache der Pferde

May 2012 •German

War and Peace of Mind

March 2016 •Finnish

War and Peace of Mind explores what war does to the human mind and how both, the individuals and the nation as a whole, survive it psychologically. Finland and WWII, locally known as continuation war, is the backdrop of this documentary.

Hold mig fast. Før jeg forsvinder

April 2023 •Danish

Fernanda Young: Foge-me ao Controle

August 2024 •Portuguese

A dive into the intimate and creative universe of writer, screenwriter, and presenter Fernanda Young. The documentary takes an unconventional approach and becomes a poetic essay, using disruptive archive collages and visual and soundscapes of intimate moments. The film is also an invitation to reflect on creativity and artistic courage.

Generation C

February 2022 •Dutch

Due to the measures taken by the government, students have fewer and fewer prospects for a meaningful future. Life is on pause and society is kept in fear. The confidence in a bright future is gone. Even after 18 months, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. The many promises have not yet changed this situation. In this moving documentary, young people give an idea of the impact of the measures on their lives. Is there still hope or has the damage already been done?

We Are Not Done Yet

November 2018 •English

Follows veterans and active-duty service members from varied backgrounds who come together to combat their traumas through the written word in a USO-sponsored arts workshop at Walter Reed National Military Hospital.

Shipbuilder

January 1985 •English

This film recreates the true story of Tom Sukanen, an eccentric Finnish immigrant who homesteaded in Saskatchewan in the 1920s and 1930s. Sukanen spent ten years building and moving overland a huge iron ship that was to carry him back to his native Finland. The ship never reached water.

The Distraction

February 2020 •English

A short form exploration of the very visceral and disorienting world of living with severe anxiety and depression, the world’s biggest health problem.

Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America

January 1989 •English

The complex and controversial history of the mental institution in the U.S. through a detailed study of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.