Free Film in Eugene 6/30: Little Brother, Big Pharma

[Lane County announcements about human rights and alternatives in mental health from www.MindFreedom.org.]

Free Event - Eugene, Oregon - Public Service Announcement
To download and distribute PDF of one-page color flyer of below event,  
click here:
http://tinyurl.com/green-mind

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Free Film!

The Green Your Mind Film Series Presents:

"LITTLE BROTHER BIG PHARMA"

Sponsored by: VALID, MindFreedom and Opal Network

When:  Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 6:30 PM

Where:  Eugene Public Library Bascom-Tykeson Room, Eugene, Oregon

Free popcorn, beverages and other snacks!

Immediately following the film showing will be a discussion with film  
director David Heine and a panel including mental health  
professionals, psychiatric survivors/consumers and family members,  
with audience participation.

About the film "Little Brother Big Pharma":

Danny was first put on powerful psychiatric drugs -- starting with  
Thorazine -- when he was 12. Now in his 50's, Danny has never, until  
recently, envisioned a life without psychiatric drugs.

This film is about Danny's journey and his struggle to get off or  
reduce his psychiatric medications. Along the way we hear from his  
family members, psychiatric survivors, psychiatrists, authors and  
mental health workers. Each thoughtfully considers the current mental  
health treatment paradigm in America.

Part of the film was shot in Lane County with local mental health  
workers and activists.

For info about The Green Your Mind Film Series contact MindFreedom  
International, a nonprofit coalition united to win human rights and  
alternatives in mental health care.

Phone: (541) 345-9106

E-mail: office at mindfreedom.org

Web: http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/lane/opal/mtg/green-mind

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please save this date and forward this announcement.

Please download and distribute PDF of one-page color flyer of below  
event, click here:

http://tinyurl.com/green-mind

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the first of three films in the Green Your Mind Film Series:

The next two films in the series are described below:

July:

Take These Broken Wings

Producer/Director Daniel Mackler

Take These Broken Wings is a feature-length documentary film showing  
that people can recover fully from schizophrenia without psychiatric  
medication. The film features the untold story of bestselling author  
Joanne Greenberg, whose fictionalized memoir of her recovery from  
schizophrenia, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, rocked the mental  
health world.

The film also features Catherine Penney, whose gripping tale of  
unmedicated recovery was chronicled by her therapist, Daniel Dorman,  
MD, in the book Dante's Cure: A Journey Out of Madness.

Their accounts are interwoven with interviews of internationally  
renowned giants in the field of schizophrenia recovery. These include  
Peter Breggin, MD (author of Toxic Psychiatry), Robert Whitaker  
(journalist, author of Mad in America), and Bertram Karon, PhD (author  
of Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia: Treatment of Choice).

The result is not just an arc of a healing story, but a challenge to  
the current model of schizophrenia treatment - that schizophrenia is a  
lifelong, incurable "brain disorder" treatable only with anti- 
psychotic drugs.  The film coherently portrays an alternative view, in  
which "schizophrenia" may be an understandable response to life stress  
and trauma, and that recovery is possible in the context of healing  
relationships.

Trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnzIlwLDBY4

August:

The Doctor Who Hears Voices

Producer/director:  Leo Regan

This film tells the true story of Ruth, a junior doctor, who has begun  
to hear a male voice telling her to kill herself. Suspended from her  
job, she turns to clinical psychologist Rufus May who is known for his  
unconventional approach to treating people with severe mental health  
problems.  (Rufus  has a special expertise on the subject:  he was  
himself diagnosed with "schizophrenia" at age 18.)

Although she admitted feeling depressed and suicidal to her employers,  
Ruth knows they would have sacked her immediately if she had told them  
about the voice.

The film follows Ruth's unorthodox journey with Rufus as she strives  
to combat the voice and regain her job.

Trailer at http://tinyurl.com/doctor-who-hears-voices