AURELIUS - After years of living with her mother's mental illness, Susan Smiley wanted to tell her family's story.
It is a story that involves years of psychiatric wards, hospitalizations, temporary homes and medications.
It is a story in which her schizophrenic mother, Millie, tries to commit suicide. A story in which Millie beats her children, doesn't feed them and worries about government agencies spying on her.
And yet it is a story that Smiley, a film producer and director, felt compelled to share.
More than 110 people viewed Smiley's documentary “Out of the Shadow” Tuesday at the Fingerlakes Mall Cinema.
Many of those in attendance were somehow affected by
mental illness, and they shared
their personal feelings during a discussion after the movie.
The screening was sponsored by the local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and funded by Janssen Pharmaceutica.
Before the documentary, Cayuga NAMI president Terri Wasilenko read a letter from Smiley.
“Out of the Shadow” was intended to clarify misconceptions about mental illness, expose the travesties of the public health system and offer families a renewed sense of hope, Smiley wrote.
Smiley filmed her mother at her best - shopping for clothes, commenting on movie stars and joking about her appearance (“I wish my blond hair had stayed blond,” she says as she looks in the mirror. “I'd be jealous of myself”).
Yet Millie is also shown at her worst. At various moments throughout the documentary, she is distant, despondent and depressed. Other times, she's described as isolated, irrational or erratic.
At one point, the usually calm, delicate Millie is shown screaming and cursing at her daughter, her voice in an eerie low pitch.
“When mom's illness takes over, I become the enemy,” Smiley narrates.
Rhonda Zahn, a licensed social worker in Cayuga County,
said that such lashing out at family members - and at doctors and counselors - is common for people with mental illness.
“She was charming at one instant and then would become menacing at the next,” Zahn said. “You never know what to expect.”
Smiley documents Millie for five years, during which time she moves from psychiatric ward to nursing home to group home.
After six months in the group home, she holds down her first job in 30 years (as a dishwasher at a sandwich shop) and appears to be taking the proper medications.
Finally, she had found some form of normalcy, a version of happiness.
Jean Cannizzo, of Auburn, was pleased with the film and the open forum which followed.
“It (mental illness) is a horrific stigma,” Cannizzo said, “and tonight is another step forward to helping families realize they can talk about it.”
Mental illness is not just about one person, Zahn said, noting the conflicts that Millie's illness caused within the Smiley family.
“It's truly out of the shadows,” Zahn said. “Now we can have these conversations.”
It is a story in which her schizophrenic mother, Millie, tries to commit suicide. A story in which Millie beats her children, doesn't feed them and worries about government agencies spying on her.
And yet it is a story that Smiley, a film producer and director, felt compelled to share.
More than 110 people viewed Smiley's documentary “Out of the Shadow” Tuesday at the Fingerlakes Mall Cinema.
Many of those in attendance were somehow affected by
mental illness, and they shared
their personal feelings during a discussion after the movie.
The screening was sponsored by the local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and funded by Janssen Pharmaceutica.
Before the documentary, Cayuga NAMI president Terri Wasilenko read a letter from Smiley.
“Out of the Shadow” was intended to clarify misconceptions about mental illness, expose the travesties of the public health system and offer families a renewed sense of hope, Smiley wrote.
Smiley filmed her mother at her best - shopping for clothes, commenting on movie stars and joking about her appearance (“I wish my blond hair had stayed blond,” she says as she looks in the mirror. “I'd be jealous of myself”).
Yet Millie is also shown at her worst. At various moments throughout the documentary, she is distant, despondent and depressed. Other times, she's described as isolated, irrational or erratic.
At one point, the usually calm, delicate Millie is shown screaming and cursing at her daughter, her voice in an eerie low pitch.
“When mom's illness takes over, I become the enemy,” Smiley narrates.
Rhonda Zahn, a licensed social worker in Cayuga County,
said that such lashing out at family members - and at doctors and counselors - is common for people with mental illness.
“She was charming at one instant and then would become menacing at the next,” Zahn said. “You never know what to expect.”
Smiley documents Millie for five years, during which time she moves from psychiatric ward to nursing home to group home.
After six months in the group home, she holds down her first job in 30 years (as a dishwasher at a sandwich shop) and appears to be taking the proper medications.
Finally, she had found some form of normalcy, a version of happiness.
Jean Cannizzo, of Auburn, was pleased with the film and the open forum which followed.
“It (mental illness) is a horrific stigma,” Cannizzo said, “and tonight is another step forward to helping families realize they can talk about it.”
Mental illness is not just about one person, Zahn said, noting the conflicts that Millie's illness caused within the Smiley family.
“It's truly out of the shadows,” Zahn said. “Now we can have these conversations.”
