The Mental State

On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 adults and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

That evening, I was shooting a college short film about an hour away in Norwich, CT. We were filming in an active, raucous bar. Late in the evening, then-president Barack Obama's national address came on causing the entire bar to fall silent. Then, they showed Adam Lanza’s picture. He was a frail, mousy-faced kid with adrift, unfocused eyes.

Nearly ten years later, the tragedy has solidified itself in our collective consciousness. The event was so unbelievably horrific that conspiracy theorists continue to claim it was a “false flag operation.” Yet, when one dissects the truths behind the event, one could see that Adam Lanza was someone who slipped through the cracks of a broken mental health system in a country whose gun culture allows unprecedented access to firearms.

Unfortunately, Sandy Hook was only one of several mass shootings like this and hardly a sliver of the deaths caused by gun violence in the US. Both of which have seen a spike and steady increase since the infamous shootings by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine High School. However, after these tragedies our focus has been to try to “defend ourselves against another attack” rather than address the often “perfect-storm” of core causes.

Post Columbine, my school experience was littered with drills for lockdowns in the event of an active shooter. My standard, teenage mid-class daydreams were less focused on winning an Oscar and more focused on how to escape a classmate with a gun. Even as a child, something about this thinking seemed off.

For half of my life, I have volunteered for children and adults with severe disabilities and mental illnesses. After meeting these kids, adults, and their family members, I have come to realize that very few - often lucky - life circumstances or acts of science separate myself from them. I have seen what happens when a kid or adult with severe mental illnesses gets the help they need and I have had glimpses of what happens when they do not. The idea of a person with such an illness and their family being failed by the greater system leading to a tragedy was a thought that often ran through my mind. It’s a simple concept, but their success or failure came down to the empathy and support around them.

Near the end of my time at film-school, I wanted to push myself into a story that would encapsulate a very American experience. My now fiancé introduced me to her former drama teacher’s recent play, The Mental State. Josh Adell, the playwright, wrote the piece for his high school students to perform in hopes to spark a dialogue between the students, parents, and faculty about themes revolving around a school shooting event. The play has since been preformed in high schools all across the United States from California to Texas to Connecticut.

Set in rural Kentucky, the story follows Andy Cady, an artistic loner in high school, whose severe mental illness causes him intense hallucinations and delusions of his deceased, former-Navy SEAL uncle, Dylan. Dylan convinces Andy to believe destructive conspiracies. Andy’s battle with his illness and the lack of resources for his impoverished mother, Angela, crescendos when he brings a gun to school in the midst of his mania. All of which ends in an unspeakable, but unsurprising tragedy.

The relationship between Andy and Angela echoed so many families I met over the years of volunteering. Andy’s artistic endeavors as a teen soon going into college mirrored my own hopes and dreams at his age. The town that the story takes place in was not too dissimilar from my small hometown. Even the uncle’s status as a veteran seemed like a callback to the short film that I was working on at the time of Sandy Hook.

Reading through the play felt like being struck by lightning. It captured so much of the American experience that I wanted to tell. The central idea was that it takes a village to raise a child. Within that were sub-themes of American poverty, veteran life, gun violence, and teenage mental health.

Within months of reading the play I had the rights to adapt it for the screen. This final iteration has some core changes from Josh Adell’s original play that do not affect the heart and soul of the story, but merely character and plot points. I have spent years dedicated to adapting this piece and addressing this sensitive subject matter. After all that work, all I can hope for is that the audience feels the same empathy and compassion for the characters involved in this tragedy and any future tragedies we may come to witness as I do.

While our schools begin to open up again, families dig themselves out of the financial crisis caused by COVID-19, and mental health continuing to be a persistent issue in our society this story will undoubtedly continue to hold its relevance.

Sincerely,

James Camali
Director