Documentary portrays criminally insane -- through their own eyes

Whoa, guys! Look at this story from CNN. We can get an inside POV from this documentary. I haven't looked at it yet, but it sure seems to apply to the other thread www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.cnn.com...

The question is not a new one: Where is the line between insanity and accountability?

The courts have spoken in this case. The gunman who nearly assassinated Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people outside a suburban grocery store has been declared mentally unfit to stand trial. The ruling has reopened an old debate over what to do with the criminally insane.

The makers of a little-known documentary would like to shed some light on the subject, from behind the walls of one of the nation's best-known mental institutions. The film, "Saint Elizabeths Hospital: Voices from Within," takes its viewers into the world of the "not guilty by reason of insanity."

"It's unfiltered. It's told through them. It's told through their eyes," said Ellie Walton, one of the movie's co-directors.

This is no reality TV show filmed inside the county jailhouse. This movie was made inside Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington. That's no small task. The hospital does not allow cameras inside its facilities. One of its most infamous patients has been John Hinckley, the man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.

Walton and her co-director, Joy Haynes, obtained permission from Saint Elizabeths to put cameras into the hands of a select few patients.
"This film humanizes them, and we feel connected to them, and so the stereotypes of them disappear," Haynes said.

One of the patients featured in the documentary is Lewis Ecker, who raped and strangled to death a U.S. senator's aide more than four decades ago.

"That's like 43 years that this was my home. This was where I lived. Believe me ... lived and died," Ecker says in the film.

Wanted to get it on here asap....I'm going to look further.

I am not sure if I should bother to watch it since I like to hear input or at least some discussion of what I am looking at before hand. I respect the opinions and views of my fellow ATS-ers.
In fact someone of them right now probably has wanted and intended to post this news themselves but they wasted valuable time watching the thing first and learning a little bit about it before "putting it up here."

They missed an opportunity for the stars and flags you may get for being first.

This should be interesting. I wonder how many of the people there are not actually insane, but just see things on a much grander scale.

reply to post by wildtimes


Hello, wildtimes- more than anything else this makes me think of Manchurian Candidates. The old movie with Frank Sinatra- how "elite" families could sacrifice their own children for a dark "cause". I researched the would-be slayer of Michelle Giffords- a great lady- & found Mr. Loughner to be a young man so off his nut that I can't imagine WHY he wasn't turned in to the authorities long before he did such a terrible thing as to horribly harm an innocent woman who was guilty only of trying to help her community. The movies he posted on the internet on YouTube! I think that they are gone now, but every one smacked of the absurd cyclical thinking typical of paranoid schizophrenia. Why didn't his high school or college teachers get something done?

Was Loughner or his family so highly placed that their actions were "above the law"? Somebody knew that this guy shouldn't be in school, or wandering free amongst more responsible & lucid citizens. Go figure- CincyFreedom

reply to post by newcovenant


I ran across the headline after responding to some questions on the thread I started a few days ago:

(New titleHow are people manipulated by psychopaths?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

It has direct bearing on the discussion there, in which I and several others have been engaged relating to the subject of psychopathy. I am not seeking flags and stars or 'rushing' to beat someone else. I simply wanted to bring it to the attention of those who have participated in our lively and interesting convo about the current understanding of mental disorders.

Feel free to join in... or, not.... As you like. No offense intended, in whatever way I might have offended.

Okay, according to the sites for the documentary, www.kickstarter.com... and www.facebook.com... and www.voices-from-within.com...

This documentary explores the complicated process of rehabilitation and recovery, following these men as they develop, shoot and produce their own stories. Do you ever wonder what happens to an individual who has been adjudicated “not guilty by reason of insanity” and is committed to a mental institution? And, more important, what happened before? Confronting misconceptions and unfair stereotypes about a controversial and stigmatized population, this film reminds us of our common humanity.

It is not simply a "click here to view" thing...but there is a trailer on the film's page:
www.voices-from-within.com...

On the facebook page there are numerous folks asking where they can get hold of it. Not on Netflix, and I don't see an "order form" for a copy on their website, either.

Here is the latest news about my documentary on St. Elizabeth, which went out by e-mail a few days ago.

May 31, 2011

Dear Friends of St. Elizabeth,

Just a quick word, because I am anxious to give you the latest news on the progress of the documentary. I know you must be anxious to hear it.

I am still waiting for part of the score and subtitles to be done but the film is otherwise ready. This gives me a little time to work on other aspects, including DVD extras, the web site and publicity.
The item I most need to do right now is the listing of the DVD for purchase on the Tau Cross Books website and Amazon. I hope to be able to do that shortly, along with announcing the publication date and list price.

subcreators.com...


Here's a "review" a guy posted on their facebook page, who did see it:

Joe Hansard

Although I attended the screening, initially starry eyed by all glitz and glamour of a red carpet premiere, after leaving the theater something bothered me, and I must confess I find myself feeling haunted and upset by the subject matter well over a month later, and it gnaws at me. Who speaks for the victims? I could not help but think of the poor people who were killed by the hands of some of the subjects showcased in this documentary, especially during the Q & A afterwards when the matter was brought up so casually by the patients themselves. Hypothetically, if a victim were a family member or friend of one if the producers, I'm sure these diaries wouldn't be touched with a ten foot pole. But now we celebrate these lovable profiles, exchanging accolades, and all is forgiven. Speaking as the friend of a murder victim whose cold case was just solved after an excruciating three years, I can tell you the pain and hurt never goes away. And so I find myself wondering why Joy chose to spotlight St. Elizabeth's as the focus of a documentary, rather than any of a hundred other DC stories worthy of attention? It is very dark to me, very dark indeed.

Just my opinion and something I had to get off my chest.

(see the facebook page for more Q & Cs)

Has anyone here seen it? ATS?

EDITS to add more details about availability and reviews.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by newcovenant

 

I ran across the headline after responding to some questions on the thread I started a few days ago:

(New title

How are people manipulated by psychopaths?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

It has direct bearing on the discussion there, in which I and several others have been engaged relating to the subject of psychopathy. I am not seeking flags and stars or 'rushing' to beat someone else. I simply wanted to bring it to the attention of those who have participated in our lively and interesting convo about the current understanding of mental disorders.

Feel free to join in... or, not.... As you like. No offense intended, in whatever way I might have offended.

Ok. None taken. My apologies if I seemed critical of your presentation. To date I admit my knowledge of the mental field comes from One Flew Over the Cockoos Nest.
I would like to take part and would like to know if you can explain the raise in the number of psychopaths per capita today versus generations ago? Certainly you are right and they are almost commonplace today. I have a few restraining order stories to share but first I would like to suggest this problem has a blanket cause we are missing. It is sugar in the diet producing a chemical imbalance that spirals out of control or societal or both but there is something in addition to plain meanness or biologically handicapped humans to explain this psychotic epidemic.

reply to post by newcovenant


Recent research indicates it may be a genetic issue. In the past, it was thought it might be part nurture, part nature.

Compared to decades ago, the science has vastly improved, though it is still far from complete. Also, the reporting of it, along with the general increase in population, has something to do with the numbers. For at least the past decade it has been thought that 1-3% of the general population is afflicted with the disorders.

I encourage you to visit the other thread and read through it, if you would like to learn more about what Team ATS (those who have participated, anyway) thinks about the subject.

Cheers!
(It's a fascinating topic, in my opinion).

When I was first practicing as a psychotherapist (barely out of my internship), our staff took a "field trip" to the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St Joseph, Missouri. It was full of old (decades and further back) torture devices that were used to "control" and "treat" the criminally insane.
Here's a write-up about it:
www.roadsideamerica.com...
and here's the museum's website on it:
www.stjosephmuseum.org...

The Glore Psychiatric Museum chronicles the 130-year history of what was once known as the “State Lunatic Asylum No. 2.” The Museum uses full-sized replicas, interactive displays, audio-visuals, artifacts, and documents to illustrate the history of the treatment of mental illness. The museum is recognized as “one of the 50 most unusual Museums in the country.” It is also featured in the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada.”

I highly recommend looking into it, or better yet, visiting the museum. Absolutely "mind-blowing" (pun intended. heh)

Speaking as a medical student, "Insanity" is strictly a legal term, there is no "real" medical definition for insanity & that gnaws at me as there are individuals who know how to play the system & do. That's not to say that there aren't people who have gone over the edge & would benefit more from psychiatric intervention rather than legal means but it's difficult, at best, to prove.

reply to post by wildtimes


Thanks for your reply. Genetic makes the most sense to me, affected and influenced by environment.
I will check out the other link before I write back again. I was reading the post just above mine here and this poster makes me think our sanity is not a fixed matter at all but something that is in a state of flux depending on the life events and circumstances that surround us. Someone with a more reliable mental constitution might fare better under adversity but I don't think there is any guarantee. I have seen unstable people come into themselves and take the reigns so to speak, in emergencies and I have seen "rocks" of sanity crumble into useless wrecks, over the lose of a loved one.