2016 (Release) (Austin Film Festival)

2017 (Academy Award)

English (Original)

Frank Stiefel (Documentary (Short Subject) Winner)

Short

United States

Anxiety
Art
Depression (Mental state)

This is a portrait of a brilliant 56-year-old artist who is represented by one of Los Angeles’ top galleries. Her body of raw, emotional work reveals a lifetime of extreme depression and anxiety. Mindy Alper has suffered through electro shock therapy, multiple commitments to mental institutions and a 10-year period without speech. Her only consistent means of communicating has been to channel her hyper self-awareness into drawings and sculpture of powerful psychological clarity. Through an examination of her work, interviews, reenactments, the building of an eight and a half foot papier-mache bust of her beloved psychiatrist, we learn how she has emerged from a life of darkness and isolation to a life that includes love, trust and laughter.

-- Summary per Studio System

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