Category: Recommended films

A film about Complex PTSD by Adam Laity 9 minutes Adam Laity is a cinematographer, filmmaker and researcher. Alongside his work as a professional director of photography and producing his own award-winning moving image work, his practice-led research re-conceptualises the notion of the sublime as eco-sublime to reflect the pervasive nature of the climate crisis…

Documentary 2026 UK 96 minutes Language: English Subtitles: English Director: Ton Mazzone The films website: https://www.traumality.com/ Rent film here: https://film.traumality.com/checkout/traumality-2026/purchase «Traumality: The Link Between Trauma and Mental Health Diagnoses» is an exceptional, paradigm-shifting documentary that comprehensively explores trauma’s impact through expert interviews and research-based insights. They praise its transformative reframing from “what’s wrong with you” to “what…

Drama / comedy 2001 Norway 89 minutes Language: NorwegianSubtitles: English Director: Petter Næss Available on Viaplay, Apple-TV, SF Anytime and more When his mother, who has sheltered him his entire 40 years, dies, sensitive would-be poet Elling is sent to live in a state institution. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and woman-obsessed…

Drama based on a true story Brasil 2015 109 minutes  Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m4F6HA1gyE Synopsis:  When she returns to work at a psychiatric hospital in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro after serving her prison sentence, Dr. Nise da Silveira (Gloria Pires) proposes a new form of treatment for patients suffering from schizophrenia, without the…

Drama Denmark 2022 102 minutes Director: Niels Arden Oplev Watch on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/82077968 Summary: Inspired by a true story. The Danish film Rose takes place in 1997, where Inger, her sister Ellen and brother-in-law Vagn go by bus to Paris. Inger lives in an institution and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. After saying goodbye to their clingy…

Documentary Sweden 1977 60 Minutes A film by Bob Foss and H.Å. Gabrielsson Produced by The Swedish Film Institute Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU1XofSupCw Summary In the sixties and seventies, Ronald D.LAING and his colleagues conducted the most radical experiment ever within the field of alternative psychiatry.  A number of Community Houses were set up in different…

Documentary USA 10 minutes Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMZc1MK9yek Summary: The film shows interviews with people who have found community, security, and the path back to themselves and others through their stay at Soteria. Those portrayed convey the importance of having been offered what can be compared to being in a cocoon—no one knew what…

Documentary USA 2018 4 minutes Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi3ZPYRwMzA&t=12s Summary: We are given a brief introduction to Pathways Soteria House in Vermont, which offers a safe, supportive community for people experiencing psychosis for the first time. The Greek word soteria means safety, salvation, and deliverence. The place is run as a home where there are…

Documentary Denmark 2014  59 minutes Director: Katrine Borre Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Iyqil4ULI Summary: We follow Mette, a Danish woman, through four years of her life. She fell ill fifteen years ago. At the time, she was working as a nurse and had also grown up with heavy responsibilities for her younger sister and sick mother. She…

Documentary 2008 65 minutes Language: English Director: Daniel Mackler Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfKc-TknWU More info: https://wildtruth.net/films-english/brokenwings/ Summary:  This 2008 documentary takes an in-depth look at how we can understand schizophrenia, and we meet two adult women who have achieved full rehabilitation without medication. The film documents how research and practice show that drug treatment is…

Documentary Zimbabwe 2023 4 minutes Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udA4aGNKZBg  Other films about Friendship Bench: TED talk by Dr. Dixon Chibanda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cprp_EjVtwA There is a new documentary made about the Friendship Bench.  Dr. Dixon Chibanda website and trailer: https://www.dixonchibanda.com/documentaries Producers website: https://www.sealionfilms.com/ Synopsis from producers website:  In 2006, Dr. Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist in Zimbabwe, was ordered by the government…

  2024 Canada 42 Minutes Language: English Director: Lauren Kennedy West Watch the film on Laurens YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pIs30jDxeo&t=343s Summary:  YouTuber Lauren Kennedy West had been sharing how to live a good life with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder by managing symptoms when she discovered the keto diet. Until then, she had lived believing that she had…

Documentary 2011 74 minutes Language: English Director: Daniel Mackler More info: https://wildtruth.net/films-english/opendialogue/ Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDVhZHJagfQ In the far north of Finland, a stone’s throw from the Arctic Circle, a group of innovative family therapists converted the area’s traditional mental health system, which once boasted some of Europe’s poorest outcomes for schizophrenia, into one that…

Comedy – drama 107 min  Argentina 2025  Watch on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81594315 Summary: The film is a dramatization inspired by real events. It tells the story of Martha Hoffmann, an eccentric and wealthy 82-year-old woman who is forcibly admitted to a psychiatric ward after her daughters claim she is unable to take care of herself. They refer…

Drama, based on a true story 115 minutes  USA 2018  Director: Bille August Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZ2iksMQ-Y Summary: 55 Steps is a compassionate portrait of Elinor Riese (1943-1991), a psychiatric patient who, despite heavy sedation and isolation in a padded cell at a California hospital, manages to call a patient advocate and request a lawyer after…

Documentary Norway 2001 43 minutes Language: NorwegianSubtitles: English Director: Haakon Sandøy Watch film on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/399850363 Summary This is the second film about Arnold Juklerød, the Norwegian man who in the 1970s, due to his political involvement in a school closure, was declared seriously mentally ill and confined to Gaustad Hospital in Oslo. In addition…

Patrick is a warm, open 26 year old man with what seem to be mental health issues. Pills and his mother`s protection is seen by everyone as the sole things helping him from being a threat to himself and others. That is, until he falls in love with Karen, who has another opinion. This is…