Living Crazy

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• Movies
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Poetry, Art, and Songs about moods, depression, mania, suicide…

Movies — Dramas and documentaries

The Bridge

This is a documentary exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide destination in the world, and those drawn by its call. Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two separate locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths in that year (and preventing several others). They also taped interviews with friends, families and witnesses, who recount in sorrowful detail stories of struggles with depression, substance abuse and mental illness. Raises questions about suicide, mental illness and civic responsibility as well as the filmmaker’s relationship to his fraught and complicated material. Written by G. Leggat

Knetter

Bonnie, a nine-year-old single child, is part of a family of three living in Holland. They have a love of elephants, passed on by Bonnie’s grandfather’s grandfather who worked on a game reserve in Africa, and Bonnie feels that she instinctively does things like an elephant as a result. Her single mother, Lis, is bi-polar and at times spends days on end without even getting out of bed. Then there are other times when she will manically do wild acts, such as impromptu dancing in public. As a result, Bonnie’s sturdy and stable grandmother must hold the family together by doing all the cooking, etc. After her grandmother is killed by a car, Bonnie becomes the most responsible family member and struggles with preparing meals and getting her reluctant mother to take her medication. She also must dodge Jorien, a social worker who is attempting to place her in a foster home. When her friend from school, Koos, gets a new brother Bonnie decides that this is the solution to fight the loneliness caused by her grandmother’s absence, and pleads with her mother to provide her with a brother. She starts a search for eligible men to accomplish this mission. Ultimately, the arrival of an elephant in their garden leads to a change in the makeup of the family. Written by Brian Greenhalgh

The Hours

The film concerns three women each suffering from depression. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is starting to write her book ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ in 1923 England. She is coming to the realization of her lesbianism and fighting her pure despair of life and headaches. Virginia receives a visit from her sister Vanessa and Vanessa’s two sons and daughter. The daughter places a strong influence on Virginia’s emotions through the death of a bird. Eventually, Virgnia must face the decision to run away to London, stay with her beloved husband, or move to London where the doctors forbid her to go. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), is a mother fearing her ability to be a mother again. She is reading ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ in 1951 Los Angeles. Laura is trying to throw a wonderful birthday party for her husband. The very pregnant Laura thinks she won’t be an adequate mother to her son and current baby on the way in a few months. Laura must make the decision to run away from it all or live miserably with her happy husband. Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) is a career publisher living in present 2001 New York. Her nickname, given by her poet-friend, Richard, who is dying of AIDS, is Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa is also throwing a party but for Richard who is receiving an award for his poetry. Like Virginia Woolf, Clarissa is also a lesbian but also wonders if she is in love with Richard with whom she once dated. At the end, the whole plot twists and comes together. The basic theme of the film is wondering if it is better to live your life for your own happiness or others. Written by Leftmidder_2000

Wide Awake

Alan Berliner’s memoir and documentary of being an insomniac.

Youtube videos

A wry commentary on being told to just cheer up when you are depressed.

What’s funny about moods?

You know you have bipolar, the joke goes, if you think Robin Williams is too laid back.

• MacMan’s Fab Five
• New Yorker Bipolar cartoons
• Mood cartoons
• A Bipolar cartoon

"Our psychopharmacologist is a genius"