Documentary
Western culture treats mental disorders primarily through biomedical psychiatry, but filmmakers Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson reveal a growing movement of professionals and survivors who are forging alternative treatments that focus on recovery and turning mental “illness” into a positive transformative experience.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
First Daughter and the Black Snake
Out of Mind, Out of Sight
Matimekush
Sparni
Sweetheart Dancers
Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide
No Word For Worry
Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier
Ainu Neno An Ainu
For Love
This Beggar's Description
Beyond Silence
Cidadão Jatobá
Club Native
Uapishka
Baraka
A Pinto for the Prince
The Invention of the Other
Ikátena
Borderline
SIMILAR MOVIES
First Daughter and the Black Snake
IMDB 5 | Apr , 2017
The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.Out of Mind, Out of Sight
IMDB 5.7 | Apr , 2014
Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner was granted unprecedented access to the Brockville facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries: the first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community. The second film, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to profile four patients, two men and two women, as they struggle to gain control over their lives so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.Matimekush
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2025
Matimekush is landlocked in the former mining town of Schefferville, 700 km north of Sept-Îles. It was founded in the 1950s, when the Canadian government and Iron Or forced the Innu to settle down. In Canada’s Far North, there is a dire labour shortage. At Kanatamat School, the heart of the community, most of the high school teachers are from Africa.Sparni
IMDB 10 | Dec , 2023
It’s the second semester of junior year for Pierce “Sparni” Sparnroft, a gifted jazz vibraphonist studying at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Sparni’s prospects on the vibes were rejuvenated by their new professor, the world-renowned Steve Nelson, and are to be showcased during a student-driven recital in May 2023. But all the while, Sparni must face a crisis within.Sweetheart Dancers
IMDB 9 | Feb , 2019
Sean and Adrian, a Two-Spirit couple, are determined to rewrite the rules of Native American culture through their participation in the “Sweetheart Dance.” This celebratory contest is held at powwows across the country, primarily for heterosexual couples … until now.Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide
IMDB 5 | Jun , 1971
A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.No Word For Worry
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2014
As a sea nomad, Hook grew up with the ocean as his universe. Now he must make a courageous voyage to salvage the remains of his dying cultureWarrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier
IMDB 0 | Nov , 1991
An intimate exploration of the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of murder in 1977, with commentary from those involved, including Peltier himself.Ainu Neno An Ainu
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2021
This documentary started as part of a photography project about the indigenous Ainu population in northern Japan, portraying people from tightly knit communities. They feel deeply connected by their culture and tradition. With gorgeous pictures, the directors explore how different generations of Ainu reflect on their identity after centuries of oppression.For Love
IMDB 7.5 | Sep , 2022
In this searing documentary, Indigenous people share heartbreaking stories that reveal the injustices inflicted by the Canadian child welfare system.This Beggar's Description
IMDB 0 | Jul , 2006
It's a sensitive, moving doc chronicling the life of Tétrault's brother Philip , a Montreal poet, musician and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. A promising athlete as a child, Philip began experiencing mood swings in his early 20s. His extended family, including his daughter, share their conflicted feelings love, guilt, shame, anger with the camera. They want to make sure he's safe, but how much can they take?Beyond Silence
IMDB 0 | Feb , 2017
The lives of Jeff, Lauren and Lloyd—three very different people who share one common experience—have been transformed by speaking up for mental health. These inspiring stories depict what mental health in America really looks like and highlights just how important it is to speak up and seek help.Cidadão Jatobá
IMDB 0 | May , 1987
Two Lawalapiti young men from Alto Xingu learn to build a canoe from the bark of the jatobá tree, a quick and simple technique that leaves the tree still rooted and alive, and that has ceased to be used and is only known by the oldest Lawalapiti men.Club Native
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2008
With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve, Mohawk filmmaker, Tracey Deer, reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy to expose the lingering "blood quantum" ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community.Uapishka
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2023
North of the 51st parallel, where the dense boreal forest opens onto an arctic islet, the snow-capped peaks of the Uapishka Mountains watch over the Nitassinan of Pessamit. In the heart of winter, a group of Innu and non-Innu adventurers attempt to cross this vast mountain range on snowshoes, completely independently. Faced with the vastness of the territory, the rigors of the northern climate and the impetuous breath of the tundra, they discover each other in a different way, form friendships and unite to better chart their course. Over the kilometres, the adventure reveals a space for meeting, sharing and reconciliation.Baraka
IMDB 8.2 | Sep , 1992
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.A Pinto for the Prince
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1979
In 1977, Prince Charles was inducted as honorary chief of the Blood Indians on their reserve in southwestern Alberta. The ceremony, conducted in the great Circle of the Sun Dance, commemorated the centennial anniversary of the original signing of Treaty 7 by Queen Victoria.The Invention of the Other
IMDB 8 | Nov , 2022
In 2019, the Brazilian government coordinates the largest and riskiest expedition of the last decades into the Amazon rainforest to search for a group of isolated indigenous people in vulnerability and promote their first contact with non-indigenous. Bruno Pereira, who would later be murdered in the same region and turned into an international symbol in favor of the indigenous and the forest, leads the expedition.Ikátena
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1983
Borderline
IMDB 6 | Apr , 2016
The first time Regina tried to kill herself, she was 5 years old. Now she's 45 and hell-bent on trying to live.