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CrookedBeautySaturdayFebruary12GWUHosp

Page history last edited by jerry 13 years, 1 month ago

CrookedBeautySaturdayFebruary12GWUHosp

 


 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

Mental Health movie coming locally to George Washington Hospital

Auditorium (in the basement) THIS SATURDAY EVENING at 7.30 pm.

 

Movie then long discussion afterwards, is announced somewhere

else...  And some advocacy training event too. 

Check with DBSANCA.org for more information.

 

 

Announcement

from DBSANCA email:

 

QUOTE

 

The National Capital Area Chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
( DBSANCA.org )

will present a screening of Crooked Beauty, a film by Ken Paul Rosenthal, on
Saturday evening February 12th at 7:30 PM, in the George Washington University
Hospital Auditorium (basement level).

This program is free and open to the public.The hospital is located at 900 23rd
Street, NW, next to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station.There is a parking garage
at 22rd and I Streets.

The film is a story set to pictures of Jacks Ashley McNamara, a mental illness
advocate, and her experiences of an abused childhood and psychiatric
hospitalization as a young adult, and she explores that blurred line between
brilliance and madness. The film is beautiful, touching, thought-provoking and
prescient.

Ken Paul Rosenthal has been traveling the country presenting screenings of this
film at film festivals and for groups such as DBSA. The screening will be followed
by a lengthy question and answer session with him.


Crooked Beauty Film Synopsis

Crooked Beauty is a 34-minute poetic documentary that chronicles artist-activist Jacks McNamara’s transformative journey from childhood abuse to psych ward patient to pioneering mental health advocacy. She survived trauma from an alcoholic mother and battled her own substance-abuse issues when diagnosed as ‘bipolar’ at age 19 and incarcerated. Destined to overturn the stigmas usually associated with madness and develop authentic healing models for individuals diagnosed ‘mentally ill’, she co-founds The Icarus Project (theicarusproject.net), an international support network and grassroots media project. Jack’s mission becomes an intense personal quest to live with courage and dignity, and a powerful critique of standard psychiatric treatments. Her poignant and revealing testimonials reach beyond the stereotypes of mental health problems to suggest that extreme sadness and sensitivity is not an illness, but a part of human experience to be explored with creativity and compassion.

Crooked Beauty’s lyrical visual style is integral to its subject matter. The film incarnates a new map for thinking about madness by connecting the fissures and fault lines of human nature to the unstable topography and mercurial weather patterns of the San Francisco Bay Area. Montages of urban and natural landscapes convey the fluctuations of mania and depression described in Jack’s narration. Her presence is further embodied through her paintings and collages, and excerpts from her poetry and journals. Thematically progressive and formally beautiful, Crooked Beauty reframes the diagnosis and treatment of madness as a tool of insight and integration for individuals who openly struggle with their mental health, and anyone who might feel ‘crazy’ in today’s chaotic world. www.crookedbeauty.com


Director Bio

Ken Paul Rosenthal is an independent filmmaker, teacher, and a regional coordinator for the Bay Area Icarus Project. His films weave personal and political narratives into natural and urban landscapes. Ken holds an MA in Creative & Interdisciplinary Arts, an MFA in Cinema Production, and has taught film as a means of cultivating personal vision in workshops and universities nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of a Kodak Award for Cinematography. www.kenpaulrosenthal.com

 

/QUOTE

 

 

DISCUSSION

 

Summary of experience or similar:

 

Actually attended this film showing, and long discussion afterwards...

 

First of all, a name conflict with someone from NY.  Harvey...

And then when that was figured out, on to age.

A little older than me, but doesn't really look it.

Advocacy doesn't really keep you young, it is "taxing"...

Radical maybe keeps you young?

(Thinking of an 80 year old married to a 50 year old or so,

that probably works...)

 

The talk and discussion was annoying to me.

Didn't get to ask question until the end,

started talking and someone else did at the same time,

then it was to be raising hands, but even that was ignored,

try doing that in order, but can't see the other people,

so eventually just about walked out,

but it's an S&M group anyway.

 

The DVD was on sale for $10 cash, mentioned a couple times.

[ Not sure what the host rules are on that... ]

 

A lot of talk of The Icarus Project (TIP, or as in "working for tips",

see link above) and generally a poetic word salad, from the speaker,

AND audience.  Nice words, just strung together, couldn't figure

out what is meant, or even what was said...

 

I guess you have to be an art house fan to really get into this stuff...

 

I liked the images, but with the voice and text, together,

it was disorienting, and I could not synthesize both at the same time.

 

Maybe that is the experience of hearing voices???

 

If they are against Walmart (part of Jacks voice over),

and discussion of commercialism, I guessing they would be for having

their DVD on Sale at Walmart...

 

iTunes subscription was mentioned,

as was selling TIP stuff (publications at AKPress, anarchy or similar,

check TIP website), vs free downloads, so money is not entirely bad,

just certain forms, companies, big companies, etc...

 

FWIW: No receipt was offered for buying the DVDs,

so likely under the table...

 

Wasn't like book signings done on site by DBSANCA.org before. 

But stuff before hand, out on the tables, and pay with whatever form available,

credit card, check, cash, etc..  Known ahead of time in the announcement...

One event had a bookstore associated,

and generally the Press and Photography Policy doesn't seem to exist there...

And it wasn't the support group where common sense would prevail,

this was an open event.  Advocates, professionals, family, general public, etc

were welcome...

 

The associated advocacy training would have been painful,

as I had difficulty following the verbage, and the personality,

and maybe because it was Grad School stuff,

or artsy fartsy, but if Mad Pride type people (not necessarily bad)

want to avoid stigma, why separate themselves

from the "Normal" world?  That just perpetuates the distance...

But Artists will be artists, but just don't expect the rest of society

to accept it, or like it...

 

And I'm not anti creativity, just some forms of it...

"We're artists, You're not", exclusionary type attitude.

I don't even mind arrogance, if someone is good,

and knows it, not necessarily bad...

 

But if someone is rude to people coming to see them,

then well, "No Good Review for You".

 

And I don't even have to like people and events I go see,

but Mad can have double, or more meanings,

Mad as in angry at the interaction, encounter, WhatEver...

 

Nature was nice in this stuff,  old houses mentioned,

and an artist who does that was referenced, but I didn't catch the name,

maybe real artists already know, or "Google is your friend",

possibly your only friend?

 

Photographs were interesting, but don't have to be a dick,

the photographer Cliff in a previous posting wasn't a dick,

and he was a published photographer...

 

And it might not even be the Mad stuff, just difficult and

annoying.  Long verbage, not making much sense,

(not that this stuff makes sense...)  but the interaction

was not generally kind/ helpful/ nice/ respectful...

 

Go see Chuck Brown and you are treated well, with respect,

you pay more for the show, sometimes KenCen was free,

but he plays to an audience, knows his craft very well,

and now is a legend, and probably because he is approachable,

talented, and respected icon, "Godfather of Go Go"...

 

I guess Art makes you think or feel,

Advocacy makes you act,

and Radicals just create reactions,

not always good, or pleasant...

 

 

Photos

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/NoVAPeers/CrookedBeauty?authkey=Gv1sRgCMu75O_64c3ptAE&feat=directlink

 

No permissions were obtained for these photos,

but I'm guessing that the there is no release from the birds, trees, water, wires,

etc in the DVD either...

Come to think of it, I don't recall ANY people in the film...

 

Google "Newsworthy".

 

Talking anti psychiatry, anti meds, looking at the TIP website,

I'm thinking that people are not just starving artists...

 

Check links to well publicized events, published books,

seems like major deals going on here...

 

World travel, etc, advocacy, and really not that independent. 

But that would take work to research...

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

Page History

 

20110213 Jerry

  • Adding some impressions and photos from the event.

 

 

20110208 Jerry

  • Jerry created this page to ...

 

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