With a strong history of mental illness on both sides of his family (but particularly his fathers' - his paternal uncle suffered from depression and committed suicide at 20), Evan grew up with bipolar illness almost all of his life. His parents filmed him constantly, as I'm sure filmmaker parents are wont to do, but once he started exhibiting suicidal tendencies at age 5, they would film and take photos for documentation purposes. And it's really quite fascinating; there is footage of him singing songs he wrote about wanting to cut his throat and die, photos of him showing his mom a noose he made and hung from his bunk bed (including a photo of him IN the noose, showing her what he planned to do), and footage of a play he wrote - at age 10 - about a depressed boy who dies and how everyone gathers around his grave to talk about how much they loved him. It's eerie - but interesting (especially when you consider the repercussions on the rest of the family, like Evan's younger brother. Poor guy.) Of course, the subject matter is sensitive and sad so it may not be your cup of tea... but I do recommend catching a showing if you think you'd be interested. It's quite good.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Boy Interrupted
I stumbled on to this documentary on HBO on Monday night after coming home from an appointment. I honestly don't know what made me stop on this particular show - especially since it was already almost 20 minutes into it before I started watching - but something about it just sort of drew me in. I was home alone and I watched the entire thing, just riveted to the TV. When Robert came home and the show finished, I babbled on at him about how interesting it was and set the TiVo up to record the next showing so I could catch the beginning moments I'd missed. Robert and I always like documentaries (The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it!) and this was a particularly moving one about a 15-year-old boy who committed suicide. His mother put the film together with her husband - both are filmmakers - and what makes the documentary SO interesting is that there is just oodles footage of the boy, Evan, all through his life. You really get to see so much and get a feel for just how extraordinary and sad his life truly was.
With a strong history of mental illness on both sides of his family (but particularly his fathers' - his paternal uncle suffered from depression and committed suicide at 20), Evan grew up with bipolar illness almost all of his life. His parents filmed him constantly, as I'm sure filmmaker parents are wont to do, but once he started exhibiting suicidal tendencies at age 5, they would film and take photos for documentation purposes. And it's really quite fascinating; there is footage of him singing songs he wrote about wanting to cut his throat and die, photos of him showing his mom a noose he made and hung from his bunk bed (including a photo of him IN the noose, showing her what he planned to do), and footage of a play he wrote - at age 10 - about a depressed boy who dies and how everyone gathers around his grave to talk about how much they loved him. It's eerie - but interesting (especially when you consider the repercussions on the rest of the family, like Evan's younger brother. Poor guy.) Of course, the subject matter is sensitive and sad so it may not be your cup of tea... but I do recommend catching a showing if you think you'd be interested. It's quite good.
With a strong history of mental illness on both sides of his family (but particularly his fathers' - his paternal uncle suffered from depression and committed suicide at 20), Evan grew up with bipolar illness almost all of his life. His parents filmed him constantly, as I'm sure filmmaker parents are wont to do, but once he started exhibiting suicidal tendencies at age 5, they would film and take photos for documentation purposes. And it's really quite fascinating; there is footage of him singing songs he wrote about wanting to cut his throat and die, photos of him showing his mom a noose he made and hung from his bunk bed (including a photo of him IN the noose, showing her what he planned to do), and footage of a play he wrote - at age 10 - about a depressed boy who dies and how everyone gathers around his grave to talk about how much they loved him. It's eerie - but interesting (especially when you consider the repercussions on the rest of the family, like Evan's younger brother. Poor guy.) Of course, the subject matter is sensitive and sad so it may not be your cup of tea... but I do recommend catching a showing if you think you'd be interested. It's quite good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment