Contents

• we don't live under NORMAL CONDITIONS
• Despair
• Voices of Healing

we don't live under
NORMAL CONDITIONS
a feature documentary film by Rhonda Collins

Impassioned discussion drives this stylistically groundbreaking documentary which questions the origins of despair.

With hard-to-find facts disputing the alleged biological basis of depression, we don't live under NORMAL CONDITIONS raises complex issues about how our society is handling depression and other mental "disorders."

The main characters are six individuals who suffer various forms of depression. There are no experts here to explain the medical condition called depression. The individuals themselves discuss their own experiences of depression, societal responses, and their ideas about its causes.

A stunning collage of the personal and the political, this surprisingly inspirational film will change the way you think about "normal."

About Gil Lopez in we don't live under NORMAL CONDITIONS, filmaker Rhonda Collins says:

In an interview with Gil Lopez after a group discussion on oppression and despair, he said,

"I felt the thing that really brought it together for me was the similarities in the pains and the insults we have experienced...and it isn't about who has been the most victimized, its about how we are not accepting victimization anymore."

These have become the closing words in the film.

I feel so fortunate to have had Gil participate in the film. It is much deeper, richer, and more inspirational with his contribution. Gil shared his story candidly; his experience of oppression and the repressed rage that manifests as despair for so many African Americans.

And even more importantly, he shared his analysis on the links between oppressions, the Mental Health systems failure to challenge oppression and thus its "complicity in the destruction of human beings."

for film information go to the website www.aperiofilms.com/wdlunc.html

Despair
produced by Harriet Koskoff
in association with PBS affiliate Connecticut Public Television

Despair is the first full-length American public television documentary about depression to consider the pervasive mood disorder from multicultural viewpoints.

In sensitive personal portraits and riveting interviews with experts from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, the documentary explores depressive illness from traditional and non-traditional perspectives.

Live classical music and jazz, poetry, and art enrich Despair as it unmasks the stigma and denial which veil a misunderstood and potentially fatal illness.

This uncommonly eloquent and inspiring program will be a priceless asset to serious discussion in disciplines which include psychiatry, psychology, sociology, ethnic and multi-cultural studies.This award-winning film has been aired more than 100 times on PBS stations nationwide, and entered international distribution in 1999.

On Gil Lopez in Despair:

In Despair, African-American community activist Gil Lopez talks about his personal and cultural experiences of depression.

"Black people call it the blues," he says, and talks about the blues as a reaction to all-pervasive oppression by the dominant society. The film follows Gil from his community household to Golden Gate Park, where he is practicing the meditative movements of Tai Chi with other members of his class.

In an interview after his passing, film producer Harriet Koskoff said of Gil, who had become a friend:

"Gil Lopez was a man who claimed his mission. His soulful presence shines throughout the film."

Voices of Healing
a documentary film by Maureen Redl

Voices of Healing is a film-in-progress, awaiting funding for completion. The film consists of six personal stories of healing. True adventure stories, they are unfolding journeys of body and soul, heart and mind. Often through unexpected surprises, we begin to discover that in facing the challenges of serious illness, a healing process can occur in which anything is possible even when nothing is certain.

The thirteen-minute Voices of Healing video gives an idea of the longer video to come. Voices of Healing has been described as "a powerful statement about life and death, with the crystalized beauty of a perfect poem."

In the video, a doctor dealing with chronic pain talks about letting go of the idea of mastery and control and opening to life. A woman dying of cancer shares her realization of the all-importance of love. A man with cancer, told he would not live to see his child born, is a joyful father ten years later, and we see him radiant with health, running on cliffs above the ocean.

This video is available to spark discussion groups, and as a fund-raiser for money to complete the longer video, which will show more variations and specific details of the healing process.

On Gil Lopez in Voices of Healing, producer Maureen Redl says:

"I knew Gil Lopez was the man for my film when he came to my Voices of Healing story circle and said he wanted to leave his legacy as part of his own healing and dying process. The film of Gil with members of his support network was shot ten days before Gil's death. Gil was clear but very weak, and throughout the filming he was obviously carried on waves of love by the group around him. It was a living demonstration of the principles of community he talks about in the film."

The completed video will include Gil Lopez and the Support Community. Producer Maureen Redl is currently seeking funding to complete the video.