The Virtues of Non-Compliance (MHC Online Film Festival)

The current-day mental health system has been shaped around the idea that people who have been given psychiatric labels suffer in a way over which they have no control and that often results in an inability to care for one’'s self. It is an approach that encourages the idea that professionals need to step in to be the experts and determine someone'’s human potential. These beliefs have also influenced other aspects of our culture to the point where news, movies, friends and family tend to perpetuate the message that we are chronically sick and need to re-adjust our hopes and dreams.

In some instances, people have been told they won’'t be able to handle living on their own, going to school, working, getting married or having children. Many have been told they need to take medications, even if they leave them numb, and participate in programs that treat them as if they are children.

‘The Virtues of Non-Compliance’ talks back to all those ideas in the voice of people who have ‘been there,’ who have been told they can'’t, and who have gone on to live their lives on their own terms.

  • Evan Goodchild
    Director
  • Sera Davidow
    Director
    Beyond the Medical Model
  • Sera Davidow
    Writer
    Beyond the Medical Model
  • Evan Goodchild
    Writer
  • The Western Mass RLC Films
    Producer
    Beyond the Medical Model
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 53 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 23, 2013
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Mad in America International Film Festival
    Cambridge MA
    October 11, 2014
    North American Premiere
    Best Short Film
Director Biography - Evan Goodchild, Sera Davidow

Evan Goodchild and Sera Davidow are Co-Directors of ‘The Virtues of non-Compliance,” winner of Best Short Film at Mad in America’s International Film Festival in 2014. Both are relative newcomers to the film world, though Evan has been working in creative-based advocate roles for the past five years, and Sera previously produced the film “Beyond the Medical Model” (since screened in multiple locations in the United States, England and Germany).

Together, they work at the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community making films that challenge the mental health status quo and creating space for the voices of people who have been affected by a struggling system. They were inspired to develop ‘The Virtues of Non-Compliance’ when Sera was invited to give a keynote talk of the same name at the 2013 National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA) annual conference.

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