Documentaries on Mental Institutions
In 1967:
Titicut Follies:
Research from documentary:
The documentary begins with a play, the play’s name is
Titicut Follies. The director Federick Wiseman named this documentary on that
play. The documentary is about the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State
Hospital for the criminally insane, a Massachusetts Correctional Institution in
Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
The documentary shows how the inmates are treated inhumanly
and shows how inmates of varying degree of mental illness are treated with the
same indecency. The patients have nothing in their cells and they are deprived
of clothes because that is cheaper and makes security easier. One inmate was
not eating so he was force fed by one of the doctors of the faculty. While force
feeding him with a tube, the doctor is smoking a smoking
a cigarette while the ashes are mixing with the water and other liquids he is
giving him smoking a cigarette while the ashes are mixing with the water
and other liquids he is giving him.
The documentary highlights
the challenges of separating the mentally ill from normal human experiences.
Aftermath of the documentary:
The Massachusetts court ordered all copies of Titicut
Follies destroyed. The film inspired a study in 1968 that found the courts committed
30 inmates illegally. And many stayed long after their prison sentences expired
because they didn’t have the money or the legal skills to get out.
Just as the film was about to release the government of Massachusetts
tried to ban its release claiming the film violated the patients’ privacy. Although
Wiseman had received permission from all the people portrayed, Massachusetts claimed
that this permission could not take the place of release forms from the
inmates. The movie was banned and was only allowed only shown to doctors,
lawyers, judges, health-care professionals, social workers, and students in
these and related fields.
Finally in 1991, Superior Court Judge Andrew Meyer allowed
film to be release to the general public but on a condition that “A brief explanation shall be included in the
film that changes and improvements have taken place at Massachusetts
Correctional Institution Bridgewater since 1966”.
The film did improve the
treatment some after Titicut Follies. The population of the inmates reduced
from 900 to 300. In 2017, the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York
University performed Titicut Follies as a ballet. That same year, a private
company took over management of Bridgewater State Hospital.
Impact of the Movie:
Fred Wiseman highlighted
an issue that no one thought was important enough. Those people were forgotten
by the world and no one knew what was going on in there. Wiseman wanted to be
the voice of those inmates and wanted to do something for them so they are at
least treated with human decency and there should be someone held responsible for
the inhumane behavior. If he hadn’t pointed this issue out no one would have
bothered to look into this matter and no one would have found those people
worthy of having a voice.
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/titicut-follies-documentary-film-madhouse-shocking-banned/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies
In 1972:
Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace.
Research from documentary:
This documentary uncovers a horror story. The reporter
Geraldo Rivera visits the state-supported institution for children with
intellectual disability. The documentary starts with an interview with Robert
F. Kennedy in 1965 as he walks out of one of the wards and is asked about the
patients and he says and describe the way they are living as he calls the institute
a “snake pit”. He took the responsibility for the betterment of the institution
but did absolutely nothing.
The reporter got contacted with a Doctor who was fired because
of suggesting patient care which was not asked for. He invited him to give the
ward a surprise visit and see the truth himself. The clips of the visit to Willowbrook
are completely horrifying. The patients had nothing to do but to sit and look
at the floor from day to night. The doctor told the reporter that the patients
who were admitted were endangered of contracting hepatitis within 6 months. The
patients weren’t fed, cleaned or simply taken care of.
The attendants weren’t to be blamed because they were understaffed.
The ratio of patient to attendance was 30 or 40 patient to 1. So the attendants
were doing the best they can. The documentary further puts light on other
institutions who have the same budget and circumstances but they provide proper
care to their patients and treat them like human beings. It shows that the
conditions in Willowbrook can improve but they choose not to or care not to. This documentary shows that Willowbrook can’t
just be helped by money. It can only be truly helped if the patients are
treated like human beings and not like human vegetables.
Aftermath of the documentary:
Nothing could be done for this place no such improvements
came and the patients were treated the same way. This documentary showed people
what was happening under their noses and how they were part of the problem by
doing nothing to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. The expose got
national attention. Thankfully in 1987 Public outcry led to its closure and
gained federal civil rights legislation protecting people with disabilities.
In 1983:
Children of darkness by Richard Kotuk and Ara Chekmayan
Research from documentary:
This documentary tells the story of the children that were
born with any kind of mental disability and they were simply abandoned by their
loved ones because they were too much of a burden for them or too much to deal
with. The life that they live is lonely and the only thing to accompany them is
their mental disease. The children are admitted to institutes and this documentary
uncovers how they are treated under different mental institute
In the Beginning of the documentary a state institute is shown and a there is a kid
in the institute, his name is Brian and he is shown in the bus going through a psychotic
episode and then in his room and when it’s asked that what is wrong with him
they have no idea. You can see the pain he is in and what kind of hell he is going
through. The best they can do for him is to inject him with needles to keep him
calm. The patients are given drugs that alter their chemicals in the brain
forever just to keep them calm and they are given not given any therapeutic treatment.
Some patients’ family don’t have any other choice but to put their loved ones
into the institutions because they aren’t equipped to deal with them.
Next Elan treatment Centre is shown and how kids are treated
that don’t fit in, in any specific mental disorder or they don’t have a medical
reason for their behaviour. It is a private residential treatment centre for out
of control teenagers. There is a practice in this institute that if someone
breaks a rule or has the wrong attitude, they are yelled at by everyone, basically
to change behaviour by confrontation. They are children who don’t belong in a psychiatric
hospital. All the children belong to upper middle class and their parents spend
a lot on them. The children that are present there have acted out violently towards
their parents or someone else. There are no private sessions, and everything is
out in the open. What you see in the documentary is pretty much children
yelling and punishments. If anyone tries to runaway they are tracked, caught and
are punished and basically treated like prisoners.
20,000 children are admitted to state hospital every year because
it is too expensive for their family to fulfil their necessities. It also shows
a different part too as there is a consultant who does everything, he can to
make the life of autistic children better by doing as much as he can, but 1
person can’t help the whole nation.
Then there is a patient Billy who is in bad shape and he has
done everything to harm himself. Billy is kept tied up all day. The doctors
have tried everything but nothing has worked and now they are thinking of
treating him with shock therapy. When asked to the doctor of making him better
he simply said he couldn’t do it.
Most of the children shown in the documentary will end up in
more institutions and have no hope of getting better. There are children that
die in the institutions for reasons that are questionable or unexplained. The stories
that are uncovered in the documentaries about how children were treated are
completely shocking and nothing can be done about it because no one is going to
listen to them or believe them. The parents of the kids are completely kept in
dark about their kids about what is wrong with them and how they are treated,
they are basically kept in secrecy.
Under mental health the so called patients were treated as
experiments. The parents entrusted the institute to take care of their children,
to provide the care they couldn’t and their children end up dead. All the
parents can do is blame themselves and feel guilty for the rest of their lives.
At the end the documentary concludes that how the patients
that are shown in the documentary are doing in the future. Some of the children
suffer from bad fate and some are lucky enough to have a good future.
Impact of the film:
The film has quite an impact as it shows how these children
are treated and they have no one who is
looking after them. Everyone is busy living their own lives and not giving a
second thought to people who might need their help more than anything. The children
are treated badly and some of them die because of drug overdose. There are some
people who do take care of those patients and provide them the necessities they
need but there is long road ahead and we need to work on it if we have an ounce
of humanity.
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