“A new independent film called ROCKS IN MY POCKETS deals with depression in a fresh, witty and charming way. THIS IS THE FILM-OF-THE-YEAR FOR PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY. You won’t want to miss it!” —National Alliance on Mental Health, Massachusetts |
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Film info: 2014 - USA - 88 mins - Color - IN ENGLISH
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In the new animated film Rocks in My Pockets, Latvian-born artist and filmmaker Signe Baumane tells five fantastical tales based on the courageous women in her family and their battles with madness. With boundless imagination and a twisted sense of humor, she has created daring stories of art, romance, marriage, nature, business, and Eastern European upheaval—all in the fight for her own sanity. What People are Saying About “Signe Baumane has produced a powerful and effective film that deals with mental illness across three generations of one family. In doing this she has highlighted not only genetic contributions to illness but also the effects of repressive, constricting roles on the lives of women. Her film highlights issues of meaning and connections—topics of great importance to all. She is a brave filmmaker.” “In the fascinating animated feature ROCKS IN MY POCKETS, artist Signe Baumane searches for deeply personal truths about the women in her family who lived in Soviet-controlled Latvia. She and the audience discovers a compelling history lesson in true stories of bravery, depression, and suicide, which Baumane presents in brightly-colored, surreal animation imagery filled with dark humor and vivid emotions. The film is a fine example of the power and range the medium of animation is capable of.” “Boasting a narrative of extraordinary complexity and density, stuffed with irony, humor and tales-within-tales, the imaginative animated memoir...provides a fascinating and very personal look at mental illness, as well as familial and societal dictates and dynamics.”
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THE HORSE BOY An intensely personal yet epic spiritual journey, The Horse Boy follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in an attempt to find healing for him. When two-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care, but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals—particularly horses—and the family set off on a quest that would change their lives forever. |
I REMEMBER ME Fueled by the same rage at an unresponsive system that has inspired many a great social documentary, filmmaker Kim Snyder has taken up the fight for the more than 800,000 people living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in the U.S. today. CFS has recently received much high-profile media discussion due to Seabiscuitauthor Laura Hillenbrand’s longtime battle with the disease. Investigating the baffling malady once maligned as “yuppie flu,” Snyder interweaves her own four-year battle with the disease with the stories of others facing the same challenges; soccer star Michelle Akers and legendary Hollywood director Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther) are among the participants. More than an account of an epidemic unfolding, I Remember Me speaks to universal themes of loss, human perseverance and the difficulties in grappling with uncertainty. |
TIERNEY GEARON: Celebrated photographer Tierney Gearon’s work has been labeled manipulative, disturbing and even perverse. Gearon came to notorious fame in 2001 when photos of her own naked and masked children in the I Am a Camera show at London’s Saatchi Gallery had authorities threatening child pornography charges. Filmmakers Peter Sutherland and Jack Youngelson follow this exceptional artist over the course of three years as she assembles her most daring and emotionally complex body of work to date: a series on her manic-depressive schizophrenic mother, who resides in Grey Gardens squalor in the frozen suburbs of upstate New York. The mixture of art and family can almost be too close for comfort, but like much of Gearon’s photographs there is a subversive beauty that emerges from the incongruity between ordinary moments and madness. Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project is a moving and intricate portrait of an artist, her inspirations and unconventional family relationships. |
