A deeply personal documentary about a Canadian filmmaker’s brother’s struggle with mental illness opens May 19 at Imagine Cinemas in Tecumseh.
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Insanity: The Mental Health Crisis, directed by Calgary resident Wendy Hill-Tout, details her brother Bruce’s battle with schizophrenia 25 years ago and how the justice system fails those with mental health problems.
Told from Hill-Tout’s point of view, the film chronicles the tragedy of how her brother ended up on the streets of Florida and living in garbage cans.
“It was difficult to watch my brother’s gradual deterioration after the onset of the illness,” Hill-Tout said for her family in a statement. “When a crisis hits, the only option really is to call the police and go to a ‘mental ward,’ which has been humiliating for many, including my brother, given the stigma attached to mental illness.”
More than 50 percent of Canada’s prisons are occupied by people with a mental illness, Hill-Tout said. “We have moved from the institutions of the past to the institutions on the streets and in prisons.”
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
The growth of tent cities and the increasing number of homeless people in prison showed the need to invest more in services for people with mental illness, she said.
“Our failure as a society to deal with mental illness has resulted in healthcare being left to the justice system. And the judiciary is not equipped for this.”
According to the Internet Movie Database website, Hill-Tout’s has produced 25 films, directing five and writing the screenplay for four.
Her films include Marlene, a feature film about Marlene Truscott, who campaigned for the release of her husband Steven Truscott, Shattered Dreams, about a family’s experience with schizophrenia, which was nominated for a Gemini Award, and No Place To Go”, about homeless people on the streets and in prisons.
“Travel aficionado. Twitter scholar. Writer. Extreme coffee guru. Evil pop culture fanatic.”