...That Way Madness Lies.

My name is Sandra Luckow and I need your help to continue my ascent into "Madness."
You think it can't possibly happen to you or anyone you care about. And, certainly, if fate dealt such a blow, it would be more manageable in the shadows. But the odds are not in your favor. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 or older--or about one in four adults -- suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.  Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller portion of about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 who suffer from a serious mental illness.  In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44.  (The Kim Foundation) 
"That Way Madness Lies"... (a line from "King Lear," Act III, Scene IV) is a feature-length documentary film about my brother's rare late-onset paranoid schizophrenia told, in-part, from his point-of-view with a collection of iPhone video clips he made before being committed to 180 days at the Oregon State Hospital in Portland. His illness has been an unpredictable, hellish journey through a landscape including his friends and family.

The Background...

During the spring recesses from the undergraduate film production workshops that I teach at Yale and Columbia Universities, I visited my brother in the high security lockdown ward with the ironic acronym of POSH -- Portland, Oregon State Hospital. Getting a court-ordered involuntary commitment was a tedious, bureaucratic, dangerous ordeal. Duanne told me his iphone had been confiscated because he had been recording on the floor. He wanted me to retrieve it in order to extract the footage and make a documentary film of his experience. What he did not tell me at the time is that the phone contained approximately 250 video clips filmed over the course of 2 years that unwittingly chronicle his ever-loosening grip on reality. The footage is raw, disturbing and includes a scary rant during a suicide attempt the top of Multnomah Falls. His own youthful days as a student filmmaker enhance the quality and substance of the videos even if his intention was not a narrative aesthetic. Since he gave me the footage over a year ago, I have returned to Portland bi-monthly with a camera and recorded our battles with this insidious illness. This is not a film I want to make, but feel compelled to make. The exposure, vulnerability and familial tragedy we feel is compensated by the power this film has to illuminate. My parents, both proud and private people, participate despite the shame and stigma because they have hope that this film might provide insight and understanding. My father's dementia has been exacerbated considerably by the bizarre and frustrating behavior of my brother. We missed all the clues in his young adulthood, perhaps blinded and dazzled by his talents, as well as his adoring parents and loyal friends. The reason for the rarity of the "late-onset" is that we did not know how to read the atypical clues. Doctors have hypothosized that symptoms of the illness did not manifest themselves in his early adulthood because he was tobacco, drug and alcohol free. It is unclear if addiction to these substances exposes the mental illness, or if the mental illness is caused by addiction; it is possible that mental illness is simply more easily identified when one is being treated for the effects of substance abuse.

Medical and Social Insight...

I showed some of Duanne's footage to Larry Davidson, Professor of Psychiatry and Program Director for Recovery and Community Health at Yale University School of Medicine, who feels it is imperative that this footage be used in the context of a documentary film. He writes, "This will be a gripping, disturbing and necessary film. Ms. Luckow provides a window into the subjective experiences of a person with a psychotic disorder in interactions with his family and broader community. This is the only film project I know of that rises to the task of representing the terrors and tragedies of psychosis accurately and with immediacy ... it can truly serve educational and advocacy functions."

Your "Kickstarter" Support kickstarts...

This campaign, intended as startup money for fundraising and continued production, is truly intended to "kickstart" the ability to make the feature-length documentary film, "That Way Madness Lies..."  This initial $35,000 will be used to set up the infrastructure necessary to allow corporate fundraising while continuing to capture the ongoing story as it unfolds.  Fiscal sponsorship through the International Documentary Association and Director Guild of America Signatory Status will legitimize and elevate the project to the highest level of film industry standards.  "That Way Madness Lies" has been professionally budgeted at $750,000 for theatrical/festival release and, with the proper platforms in place, this film is an eminently fundable project through a wide variety of foundations.  It is the old adage that it takes money to make money. Please visit www.madnessthemovie.com for a detailed budget breakdown and letters of support from mental health experts and film industry professionals.  The website is a work-in-progress, so please be patient.There is also a list of potential funding targets: any advice you might have in my approach to them would be greatly appreciated. I have sunk every bit of discretionary (and some non-discretionary income) that I own into capturing this drama as it happens. Until recently, my brother has been very cooperative in the making of this film, even taking part in interviewing family members about his behavior. I have taken an active part in trying to help him as well. But now--refusing to be medicated, absolutely certain that he is not ill, recently tasered by law enforcement, but not "dangerous" enough to provide care--he is spiraling into an abyss from which he can be saved only if he "hurts himself or someone else" (in a city that has a shameful record of law enforcement shooting its mentally ill).  Thank you so much for your consideration. I look forward to collaborating with you.