ZAAD tells the autobiographical story of Dries Meddens. After the death of his mother, the care for Dries' bipolar father falls on his plate. He discovers how crudely and ruthlessly society and psychiatry treat patients. His father eventually dies in solitary confinement. While emptying his parent’s home, Dries discovers an old letter from his grandfather. The man appears to have led a busy, productive life. He is the founder of an internationally renowned seed breeding company and still has time to paint, write diaries and conduct intensive correspondence. Dries finds similarities between his grandfather, his father and himself. Slowly the fear grows that his father's psychiatric illness might be hereditary. Strolling through the family’s film and photo archives, with dramatic and sometimes hilarious finds, Dries tries to find answers. He also consults a psychiatrist. Together the consultations and reviewing of his archival material help Dries look at bipolarity with new eyes.
Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport. People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.
In the documentary Nola, we follow the 24 year old Daniëlle and her psychosocial assistance dog. Daniëlle has been struggling with her anxiety disorder for years and has tried many forms of therapy to no avail. Therefore, assistance dog Nola is her last hope for recovery.
With nearly three million followers and several celebrity endorsements, rapper Akintoye is an internet sensation. Through his vulnerable art, he inspires young people to use their voices to bring awareness to mental health struggles.
Six California kids test their brains and talents against students in Odyssey of the Mind, a problem-solving competition requiring mechanical, creative and intellectual skills. With little money and zero adult participation, the teens build a robot to tell a story about bullying, exclusion and mental health. But how does their solution measure up?
Too Young To Die
Departing from peripheral details of some paintings of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator unravels several stories related to the economic, social and psychological conditions of past and current artists.
Starring Sigmund Freud is a video memento for Sigmund Freud's little-known film career. Based on an essay John Menick published in Frieze in 2011, the video collects the dozens of appearances that the character of Sigmund Freud has made on small and big screens. After the 1950s, when pill vials replaced analytic couches, the father of psychoanalysis found a second career impersonating himself in everything from a John Huston clunker to a Star Trek episode. The video suggests that maybe it is in front of the camera, alongside surgically enhanced starlets and CGI chimeras, that “Herr Doktor” will find his final resting place. This video was produced by the Kadist Foundation and commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13).
There is a strong link between singing and mental illness. This documentary tries to break down some prejudices by focusing on the music industry environment. To achieve this feat of awareness, without falling into moralization, popular artists from here lend themselves to the game of this therapy.
Recently diagnosed with ADHD, a symphony conductor uses the career shutdown of the 2020 pandemic to dive into her mental health. She looks for ways to face the challenges and honour the gifts of being neurodiverse.
Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.
Based on Elizabeth Swados’ picture book of the same name, this animated short film charts one woman's struggle with depression.
A Southern Indiana man endures a fatal night of torture after being arrested for a routine traffic stop.
Do you REALLY know what OCD is? Dig beyond the stereotypes in this documentary, profiling multiple people who deal with this mental illness in all its known and often unknown forms every single day.
David Harewood had a psychotic breakdown and was sectioned in his 20s. David traces his steps, meeting young people living with psychosis and the NHS professionals who treat them.
Alastair Campbell candidly talks about his experience living with depression and explores if radical new treatments can make a difference.
In this one-off documentary, Nadiya Hussain sets out to find the cause of her anxiety, exploring the most effective, available treatments.
Animated short documentary following a young woman's diagnosis of bipolar: a journey of self-acceptance to challenge everyday stigma. In "Trust Me", a genre-bending short documentary, a young woman uses humour and compassion to share her moving and deeply personal story of coming to terms with her mental health condition. When she starts exhibiting atypical and extreme behaviour, her loved ones trick her into hospitalisation against her will. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder which starts her challenging journey of self-acceptance, confronting internalised and societal stigma, and learning to trust herself and others again.
A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.
Little Mix star Jesy Nelson goes on a journey of rehabilitation as she opens up about abuse she has suffered at the hands of cyberbullies and its effects on her mental health.