Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America

The Bridge

2006 · ★ 6.8

The Bridge is a controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - the world's most popular suicide destination. Interviews with the victims' loved ones describe their lives and mental health.

We Were There to Be There

2021

On June 13, 1978, the punk bands the Cramps and the Mutants played a free show for psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital in California. We Were There to Be There chronicles the people, politics, and cultural currents that led to the show and its live recording.

The Quiet Zone

2017

For those who electrical sensitivity, there aren’t many places to seek refuge. In a remote part of West Virginia, the so-called National Radio Quiet Zone offers one such escape.

Out of Mind, Out of Sight

2014 · ★ 5.9

Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner was granted unprecedented access to the Brockville facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries: the first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community. The second film, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to profile four patients, two men and two women, as they struggle to gain control over their lives so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.

Diam's : De la lumière à l'ombre

2025

Diam's, the beloved icon of French rap, gave up everything at the height of her success. The young woman experienced a real descent into hell: depression, loneliness, and disillusionment in the face of suffocating fame. On the brink of disaster, she found refuge in religion. Rare archives, memorable music videos, and previously unseen testimonials reveal the violence of her success and her vital need to disappear in order to rebuild herself, choosing the shadows after the light.

Bay Street Healer

Toronto psychiatrist Gordon Warme M.D. claims to be a participant in a vital cultural ritual, “one of countless rituals that give relief to humans...the most culture-bound of creatures.”

Trials To Triumph: The Documentary

2023

Follows the story of Freddie Stevenson from his meteoric rise through high school and college football to a chaotic life afterwards that led him to reinvent himself and rise up all over again. This documentary connects similar stories of struggle and redemption from motivational speaker Tony Gaskins, "General Hospital" star Maurice Benard, NFL and CFL player Delvin Breaux, and more. These stories are raw and uncut, just as they want to to tell them.

Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw

2015

Women's college basketball player Chamique Holdsclaw battles mental illness.

Fear

2009

In Fear, documentary filmmaker Michiel van Erp creates a collage of inhabitants of the city of Amsterdam who struggle with various anxiety disorders. Today, more patients with anxiety disorders seek professional help than those who suffer from depression, making anxiety the number one mental illness in the Netherlands. This film will show how a small number of those patients attempt to overcome their fears, in order to get on with their lives in the crowded cosmopolitan city that Amsterdam is today.

The rejected

1982 · ★ 8

A documentary, divided into "chapters", about the life of the inmates of the asylum on Leros. From the point of view that the mentally ill are victims of social oppression, the film turns a harsh light on the psychiatric system and offers pointed criticism of the policies that produce such inhuman conditions.

Arctic Adventure: Ultimate Survival

2026

In the Arctic Circle, Jason Fox and an elite team of military veterans open up to each other about men’s mental health while taking on one of the world’s toughest ultramarathons.

I'm Still Here: The Truth About Schizophrenia

1996

Americans of various walks of live share their experience of schizophrenia.