Seven women, including the filmmaker, describe their experiences with manic depression, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, euphoria and recovery. Academy Award winner Allie Light creates... Read allSeven women, including the filmmaker, describe their experiences with manic depression, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, euphoria and recovery. Academy Award winner Allie Light creates dream-like reenactments to capture the revelations of women who have witnessed the dark s... Read allSeven women, including the filmmaker, describe their experiences with manic depression, multiple personalities, schizophrenia, euphoria and recovery. Academy Award winner Allie Light creates dream-like reenactments to capture the revelations of women who have witnessed the dark side of the imagination.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 1 nomination
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Storyline
Allie Light films a total of seven interviews including her own. The other women interviewed in the film are: Dee Dee, Mairi, Karen, Susan, Hannah, and R.B. These women suffer from mental illnesses ranging from depression all the way to schizophrenia and multiple personalities; however, there are common themes that can be seen within their interviews. Unfortunately, child molestation and sexual assault can be seen in a lot of the interviews, and all of the women can be considered survivors from what they have experienced in their pasts. It does seem that a lot of these women were abused and oppressed because of being a woman, and that is where an outlook on a feminist perspective comes into play.
This film is about women and does not include male interviews for a reason. The men talked about in this film were generally family members and doctors who abused these women and added to them developing these mental disorders. In the film, Dee Dee mentions how a psychiatric ward is the one place where you "should not act crazy." This was an interesting statement because it would seem that you would be crazy in a psych ward because that is why they go there in the first place. However, Dee Dee and other women make it very clear how they were treated by the staff in these different mental institutions. Whether they were being abused by the doctors, counselors, or the drugs, not one of the women had a positive experience in a mental hospital. The "crazier" a woman acted, the more excuses the staff in the hospitals had to tie the women down and sedate them with drugs.
Something I really enjoyed about this movie is how creative and unique it is. Though the main focus are the interviews, the women reenact the stories they are telling for us to see, and there are also scenes to bring their feelings to the film in different ways such as rain, sunlight, and water. When some of the women are talking about the mental hospitals, it does look like there is some real life footage from an actual hospital of women with manic symptoms; however, I'm not sure whether it is reenacted footage or not. If it is reenacted, it is very realistic and interesting to watch. The women speak with great passion and truthfulness during their interviews, and it is nice to hear such real stories that are not sugar-coated or scripted. These interviews are raw, and the stories and images can be triggering at times; however, that is what brings so much more to the interviews and the film as a whole.
One thing that I was not very fond of at first is how much the film jumps around from person to person. When I was trying to figure out who each woman is, I found it difficult to keep each of their stories straight. As the film goes on, this gets easier when I found out more and more details about each woman and their lives. As I mentioned above, another thing that struck me by surprise during this film were some of the reenacted clips because they were not something I was expecting. For example, a woman named Susan talks about not feeling like a woman, and a scene of her nude is quickly shown, or when she is talking about having an abortion at a young age, a clip of blood from an abortion being done is shown. These clips are very brief, but they are striking, and it was something that I had to adjust to.
I think that this documentary did a very good job at bringing real emotions and real stories to film. There are many films out about mental illness; however, they are not first hand accounts told by those who are actually suffering, and they are not always well depicted. I think that this is a good film to watch in a classroom to learn more about women with mental illness because of the different approach the film is coming from. Something that is sticking with me about the film is the title itself because what does it mean to be a "mad woman?" Aside from the experiences they share in the film, these women do seem pretty "normal," and there is the even deeper question of what draws the line between what makes someone "mad vs. normal." The documentary shows the reality of how our society, family, personality, culture, religion, etc. can lead women into harmful states of being. Then these women are considered mad and out of touch with reality, but then again realities are different for every single human being. Therefore, this film ultimately does a good job at helping someone understand these different realities brought about by severe mental illness.
- elbow-38850
- Apr 17, 2017
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- Also known as
- 狂気を語る女たち
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Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $77,789
- Runtime1 hour 35 minutes