Locked in the ‘Looney’ Bin: A Survivors’ Doco

Documentary gives voice to psychiatric-hospital survivors.

Mental Notes is the latest documentary from Jim Marbrook, who received a 2011 reTHiNK Grant to help bring this powerful film to the New Zealand public.

Watch the Mental Notes trailer:

Mental Notes Trailer from Jim Marbrook on Vimeo.

The secret, often shameful history of New Zealand’s psychiatric hospitals is laid bare in Mental Notes, a new feature-length documentary by award-winning filmmaker Jim Marbrook.

Screening as part of the upcoming World Cinema Showcase, Mental Notes features the testimony of five survivors of the very bad old days of mental-health care in New Zealand. It “honours their endurance and enables their stories to emerge from the shadows” says Bill Gosden, director of the New Zealand International Film Festival.

With a grant from the Frozen Funds Trust, Marbrook undertook a three-year odyssey during which he crisscrossed the country, visiting every ‘Bin’ ever built, ploughing through mountains of archival material, and interviewing survivors of what was an often inhumane system. The interviews, in which former patients recall their experiences with (in Gosden’s words) “dismay, disbelief and a touch of gallows humour”, form the heart of the film.

Mental Notes enables the voices of people too long ignored to finally be heard. It also provides a prism through which the success or failure of today’s mental health services can be judged.

• For more on Mental Notes, see http://worldcinemashowcase.co.nz/mentalnotes.html

About the World Cinema Showcase

From the organisers of the New Zealand International Film Festival, the World Cinema Showcase is an annual collaboration between the NZ Film Festival Trust and enterprising exhibitors in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch. Now in its 14th year, the Showcase screens an important mix of intelligent features and documentaries in Auckland (from 29 March), Wellington (5 April), Dunedin (19 April), and Christchurch (26 April).

World Cinema Showcase session details for Mental Notes:

• Please note the venues in which Mental Notes is playing have limited seats, so booking tickets well in advance is advised to avoid disappointment.

Auckland

→   Saturday 31 March, 6pm, Rialto Newmarket [click here to book for this session]

→   Sunday 1 April, 1:50 pm, Rialto Newmarket [click here to book for this session]

→   Monday 2 April, 11:30am, Rialto Newmarket [click here to book for this session]

→   Sunday 8 April, 4 pm, Bridgeway Cinema [click here to book for this session]

Wellington

→   Friday 20 April, 12pm, Paramount Cinema [click here to book for this session]

→   Saturday 21 April, 6 pm, Paramount Cinema [click here to book for this session]

Dunedin

→   Monday 23 April, 6:15 pm, Regent Theatre

→   Tuesday 24 April, 11:15am, Regent Theatre [click here for Regent bookings]

Christchurch

→   Saturday 5 May, 5:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre

→   Monday 7 May, 12 pm, Hollywood Theatre [click here for Hollywood bookings]