Throughout the history of cinema, documentary films have been a potential record of real and untouched life, and thus filmmakers, perceiving the possibilities these films provided, put them into a major cinematic category.
Documentaries have their specific language and audience; however, they have become an educational and enlightening instrument, broadening its reception in modern society. Documentary films are currently one of the best ways to assimilate both the cinematic aspects and the questions raised, becoming increasingly popular, even in classrooms.
Psychology documentaries provide great examples of problems, conceptions and theoretic principles, based on real human experiences. They compose a remarkable medium for psychology content and indicate an outstanding resource for complex notions that are not simply explained or described.
The documentary films presented here are illustrations of human issues and conflicts, especially concerning stigmatized people in an incomprehensive environment, documented in these films as psychiatric institutions, the patriarchal society, intolerant families and extremist cultures. Their intention is to broaden the audiences mind concerning mental health and social coexistence, for as Isaac Asimov once said, “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
1. Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (2006)
Living with mental illness can be a difficult and often dangerous journey; nonetheless, today’s health system presents a campaign for psychological awareness that attempts to end the intolerance against people suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. British actor Stephen Fry proposes to do a similar job, adding his personal experience as someone with manic depression.
“The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive” is a revelation about the intimate details of the highs and lows of bipolar personalities. Produced in the format of a video-journal, Stephen Fry exposes his struggles (and a suicide attempt after performing a well-known play in the West End) with both mania and depression, as well as raising questions about the role of the disorder in his career and in others’ lives.
Fry does not restrict his critic’s observations over famous cases (e.g. Carrie Fischer), but also over ordinary people suffering from an incomprehensive disease. In the expedition, the actor encounters men and women with whom he sympathizes and discusses the problematic sides of the disorder, the emotional cargo the family has to cope with, the enormous amount of medications, the early diagnosis, and the fear and apprehension from both the manic depressive person and their family.
Stephen Fry produced a delicate and sincere film about the most intimate and terrifying experiences manic depressive people go through, but manages to present them with encouraging and positive perspectives while trying to understand the origins and the different consequences it can have in children, adolescents and adults in Britain and America.
2. Boy Interrupted (2009)
Born to filmmaker parents, Evan’s life was always recorded. At the age of seven, he started acting differently and expressing depressive and suicidal behaviour. It was just the beginning of their arduous journey. Evan Perry comes from a family that holds a record for bipolar disorder and suicide, and producers Dana and Hart Perry (the boy’s parents) explored their similarities and differences cleverly, approaching their fears and worries about the connection Evan and his deceased uncle Scott maintained.
The Perry's organized the documentary in chronological order, which allows the audience to follow Evan’s and their family’s conflicts and also reflect on their decisions and actions, while sharing the touching emotions family and friends are expressing through their interviews.
This documentary does not intent to clarify the origins of the bipolar disorder or explain the suicidal ideation Evan kept his whole (and short) life. It may be described as the pursuit to overcome the misunderstood loss of a beloved person in an artistic and flourishing way while it produces a significant debate about the subject.
Evan Perry was a talented, emotional, affectionate, brilliant and misjudged boy. Through the lens of his parents’ camera, the audience becomes involved with his outstanding personality and problematic mood swings, perceiving also the artistic and intimate side of the young but exceptional child. With these records, Dana and Hart are able to tell Evan’s story, presenting his progression in the “rollercoaster” of life, intensified in his situation.
This inspiring tale exists to present a family’s struggle to make sure their son is loved and cared for and to keep him from taking his own life. It is the realization of the family’s regrets, sorrows, memories, and their attempt to reinterpret their own meaning as a family.
3. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007)
What can happen if a young group of military police exerts unnecessary authority on war prisoners? This is what director Rory Kennedy approaches in the HBO documentary about the Abu Ghraib prison during the war in Iraq. The film revisits the happenings at the prison through interviews from military police who were in charge at the time (from 2003-2004) and from the surviving prisoners.
Kennedy builds a documentary questioning how far human nature is able to go to inflict pain on others and to keep their sanity. The director approximates the Abu Ghraib event to the Milgram’s experiment, in which the psychologist observed that people would torture others without hesitancy if they were receiving orders from a legitimate authority.
This experiment determines what had already happened over centuries of human history and describes that conditions observed in an extreme and aggressive environment, especially in war, are an extension of social maintaining behaviour.
Although social psychology offers explanations (of the reasons) for this behaviour, the documentary focuses on the humanistic side of the militaries and the prisoners, presenting declarations of great regret from those involved in the tortures. These declarations confirm the incomprehension of this aspect of human nature, for most soldiers interviewed affirmed they did not know why they performed the torture or why they could or would not question their ethical actions.
“Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” tries to acknowledge the features social psychology proposed itself to study: the social interactions and its consequences. It is the recollection of a specific type of interaction that questions normal behaviour and will always haunt its agents.
4. Best Boy (1979)
Director Ira Wohl portrays mental illness and its stigmatization in an intimate and beautiful way, focusing on his cousin Phillip “Philly” Wohl’s struggles. Philly is part of the exceptional society, people who suffer from mental handicaps or any impairment in cognition, and spent all his life being overprotected by his family. The problem Ira depicts in the documentary is the constant concern Philly’s parents go through: how is he going to live after they have passed away?
The documentary follows the everyday interaction between Philly and his parents over three years and focuses on Philly’s process of becoming independent. Ira chose to highlight the humanistic aspects about his cousin’s illness, analogous to a development of maturity (some sort of puberty for Philly), in which he goes to school, visits a zoo, and tries to be familiar with those environments, and create a safe place similar to what his parents represent to him.
In the production of the documentary, Ira captured the vital moments that would determine Philly’s future, as a son and as a citizen stigmatized for his illness. The director, therefore, presents not only an intimate and individual experience but also introduces a relevant problem in society: these mentally handicapped people have no support from the state, no laws that prevent them from situations similar to which Philly had gone through.
The grim reality Philly is showing the audience is that mentally handicapped people have to spend a lifetime secured from the real and incomprehensive humanity, and when their caregivers can no longer play their role, these people have to fight on their own to survive a discriminatory system that will not offer the assistance they need. But Philly is actually breaking the paradigms of mental illness and introducing his human and sensible life, for he is, in fact, capable of becoming an independent 52-year-old man living with his difficulties.
5. Journey Into Self (1969)
This documentary feature produced by Bill McGaw presents a group therapy based on the principles of humanistic psychology that was developed prominently from the approaches of Carl Rogers. The documented group therapy session, coordinated by Rogers himself and his lifelong colleague Richard Farson, involved eight unknown and disparate members that would tell the participants personal issues and the group should try to intervene in their self-evaluations, therefore creating new perceptions of the self and the other.
The process presented by the participants of the 16-hour session reveals the ideas defended by humanistic psychology, and specifically Rogers, about a client-centred methodology that reassures self-awareness and mindfulness, prompting different and healthier reactions to situations and relationships. Through humanistic-existential therapy (influenced by phenomenological psychology), people reach a greater understanding of their limitations and potentiality, for the client’s individuality is the main aspect into consideration.
The documentary displays brilliantly this freedom of expression, for the participants are willing to listen to each other’s problems and are open enough to be touched by their personal and intimate questions. This “contact” (a perfectly established interaction between two parts that are affected by each other’s personalities, so that the internal contemplation is influenced in some way that incites a self-reflection, allowing them to grow together), as Fritz Perls defined, is what allows the emotional exchange beautifully observed in this 1968 film.
6. The Bridge (2006)
The Golden Gate Bridge, opened almost 80 years ago, has become the background to a great number of suicides (being recognized as the second place to witness most of the suicides until today). Eric Steel, with that information in mind, recorded hours of video of the “victims” on the bridge, and interviews parents and friends of the deceased ones, collecting as many documents as possible about their lives and deaths to raise awareness on the matter.
Although Steel tried to delicately address the topic, he actually produced a documentary that violated the privacy of those who jumped while the crew was recording, as well as the family of these “jumpers”. However, this violation does not disqualify the material. It is a touching film for the people who remain on Earth and have to deal with their losses. Steel actually highlights these statements, including those from people who witnessed the scenes.
However, the producer forgot to present the social aspect of suicide, referring to the works of Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, concluding a pretentious and “pro-life” film, when he chose to ignore the bad aspects of the “jumpers”’ lives, for they had psychological problems and needed great support from the families. None of the interviewed showed any disposition to help the “jumpers” seek professional help.
This can raise even more awareness about not only the personality of the “jumpers” and the safety of high and famous places, but also the precautionary approaches one could take to secure that the loved one would feel safe and cared enough to relieve the suicidal thoughts.
7. Children of Darkness (1983)
This American documentary produced by Ara Chekmayan and Richard Kotuk presents the usual language expected from documented settings: clear perspective and purpose, pretentious and distorted observations about reality and its subject, and an offer about a social act, generally against the situation it is presenting.
Although it might seem a lot like a poor depiction of human inquiries, the producers actually feature relevant questioning about mental illness and the state’s inability to handle their welfare. The narrator exposes throughout the film the dreadful conditions children and young adults have to cope with to survive society’s prejudices and their personal medical conditions.
Despite the fact that the producers displayed institutions that care about their patients and have indeed helped them overcome their disabilities, controversial detention centers like Élan School, a private residential behavior modification program that are contrary to the humanistic perspective of rehabilitation, treat their “detents” (not patients) with aggressive behavior and over-controlling impositions against their privacy, liberty and intimacy.
This contradistinction, presented in the types of institutions that shelter those marginalized for their mental illness, is the premise that comes up about the lack of quality concerning the treatment these children and young adults need. Although the 1980s had already witnessed the emergence of positive psychology by deconstructing the discriminatory outlook of mental health conditions, the documentary indicts the outdated conducts that harm the patients and obstruct the assistance for those in care.
8. Thin (2006)
Filmed in the style of cinéma vérité, “Thin” presents the routine of women struggling with eating disorders at The Renfrew Centre in Florida, where they would be in constant vigilance about their weight and behavior toward their bodies. The women accepted at Renfrew suffer severe anorexia and bulimia, and in the treatment center they would have the opportunity to improve their body images and redeem themselves for their families.
Lauren Greenfield, in her directorial debut, decided to focus on the difficult recovery of four girls (Shelly, Polly, Brittany and Alisa), but the documentary followed a strict direction, presenting them as their own enemy. The critics highlighted this pretentious direction, maintaining that Greenfield did not present a positive view on the recovery itself, but intended to denounce the increasing cases of eating disorders as part of the new mindset of developing girls in America today by exposing just one side of the situation.
Although extremely depressive and obstinate about these girls’ disorders, Greenfield succeeds in exposing the extension of her long work on the exploration of body image and of how American women cope with the judgements about their physiques. She argues that “the female body has become a tablet on which our culture’s conflicting messages about femininity are written and rewritten”, and her effort to document this statement resulted in photography works, books and documentaries, of which “Thin” is a part.
The eating disorder shown is just a fraction of their suffering, for depression became part of their lives. The depression feeds a cycle in which the girls skip meals or begin purging. Afterward they feel guilty about their actions but cannot stop seeing themselves as “fat” (a reflection of the materialistic society’s expectations). Therefore, they have to fight two disorders that significantly affect their personal lives and self-acceptance.
“Thin” is all about exposure and cognizance. Greenfield is not trying directly to encourage the recovery of anorexic or bulimic women, she is aiming to a greater target: the idealistic imagery of women’s bodies. By producing the documentary, Greenfield is questioning if this image has a good impact in young women and if it can change with awareness of its risks.
9. Matter of Heart (1986)
Carl Gustav Jung, the precursor of analytical psychology, was a prominent academic of the 20th century who influenced the fields of psychology, philosophy, anthropology and literature. His separations from Freud’s psychoanalysis opened a space for a new field of knowledge and allowed Jung to develop his own concepts about human consciousness and the idea that both the conscious and unconscious mind are integrated into the psychological process of individuation.
“Matter of Heart” marks the relevance of Jung’s life as a psychiatrist, presenting the reflexes he left on his patients, friends, relatives, colleagues and the academic society. The interviewed analysts depicted Jung as a sensitive, interested and ingenious, manifested in his abilities to expose his groundbreaking concepts and reformulate society’s understanding of the essential nature of humanity.
The documentary elucidates the theoretical background that directed his work on the human functioning individually and collectively, illustrating his theories’ eclectic approaches. This portrayal of Jung’s complexity, presented by the fragments of his personal and professional life, corroborates the popularity Jung experiences even in cultural references, for his ideas of mythology, archetypes, consciousness and unconsciousness, God’s image, anima and animus concept and the renowned collective sub-conscious.
“Matter of Heart” is not an ordinary documentary but rather the evidence that Carl Gustav Jung contributed immeasurably to men’s self-perception and its reproduction in communication and art. The documentary explores the main features of his thoughts and penetrates Jung’s intimacy, turning the film into a truly timeless record of his personality, his works, statements and uniqueness.
10. The Mask You Live In (2015)
Masculinity in present society plays a role of repression for women, for they are regarded as weak, sensitive, passive and dependent, but what is frequently happening with growing boys is the opposite of personality construction. Boys are developing insecurities, mental disorders and even suicidal behaviour, all because of the institutions’ (school, family, government, healthcare) narrow-minded understanding of the male character.
Director and producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom tries to reproduce the boys’ struggle against these institutions’ demands and their attempts to keeping true to themselves. Besides, the documentary shows evidence to authenticate these affirmations, that boys are also victims to this “masculism” society dictating the segregation from emotional aspects of life (considered as feminine, therefore, vulnerable and frail).
The experts in the fields of education, psychology, sociology, neuroscience and the media argue that with the help of empirical evidence exposed throughout the documentary, this and the next generation of children and teenagers need support to overcome these gender stereotypes that drift them apart from their real personalities.
Rather than encouraging them to follow the expectations of language related to masculinity, such as “man up” or “be a man” (synonyms for be mature, be tough, be active/aggressive), psychologists offer arguments to contest this perspective and find satisfaction on oneself.