CANVAS
Canvas was shown for the twelth Kampala Mental Health Film Club, a club whose remit among others was to explore the relevance of western films about mental health to patients and staff from Uagndan mental health services. This film was recommended in a review (Owen et al, 2012, Psychiatric Services) that described the film as giving one of the most realistic portrayals of the challenges of mental illness in the cinema, citing its sympathetic approach and detailed study of the impact of mental illness on family dynamics.
Canvas is scripted and directed by Joseph Greco, whose personal experience of having a mother diagnosed with schizophrenia informs a very genuine feel to the film. Mary (Marcia Gay Harden) is a wife and mother struggling with persecutory anxiety and intrusive voices. As noted by one of the audience, Martial Lee, the film does not interest itself with an attempt to develop an understanding of what may have contributed to her persecutory anxiety. Instead, it explores with great sensitivity the effect this has on her husband (Joe Pantolliano) and particularly her son, (Devon Gearhart, in an astonishingly sophisticated performance for a 12 year old actor). Her anxiety for her son’s safety is felt acutely by her son as he negotiates the social obstacles of adolescence: her erratic repair of his favourite T-shirt angers him, her public behaviour embarrases him (“why can you act normal?” he asks her) and provides bullies with material:“ does your mum wear a straightjacket when she’s at home?” Her concern that the family house is under threat undermines an intimate moment with her husband and cause her to accidentally cut her son, leading to her forcible admission by police to a state psychiatric institution.
Her recovery is symbolized by the canvas of the title: the therapeutic act of painting on canvas offers her respite from her intrusive voices. She uses this insight to calm an agitated fellow patient, giving her a brush and a canvas. “Go crazy’, she encourages her. Back at home, the canvases of her obsessive paintings of her attempts to return to the ‘real Florida’ that she holds onto from before her illness accumulate in her sons cupboard. Her husband embarks on a project to build a boat to keep the family afloat and to sail back into the Florida waters where he first kissed his wife. A donated mainsail has holes in it which are patched with her discarded canvasses, finally achieving an importance to the family equivalent to that which they served for her. Although she is too overwhelmed to make the maiden voyage, she rides on the boat to show her fellow patients that she is ready top leave hospital.
The audience were very moved by the film and commented on the both the quality of the film, the writing and the acting. Esther loved the film: “it’s a nice selection. I love the way the story was told: its very emotional and well scripted, directed and acted: The boy has a lot of issues and tries to deal with anything: even when he is not speaking you can see what he is feeling and thinking”. Gregory was also impressed with the casting and the script and the casting, citing the performances of Harden and Gearhart as particularly impressive.
Eddie, a service user, noted that the family can be affected more than the mentally challenged individual: son starts truanting from school and gets into fights with the boys who tease him; husband manages to contain his growing frustration and tries to protect his son from this until his true feelings are vented in argument with his son: “you want your mummy back, I want my wife back. I want the women I loved. I miss her too”.
Juliet, another service user, noted the value and contribution of the mother despite her mental illness: “I liked the mothers role, the husband and boy were taking her for granted, which only became apparent when she was not there”.
Eddie also noted Mary’s ability to help other patients on the ward and related this to his role as a Peer Support Worker: ” the skill and talents of the lady struck me: she passed on her brush to the other inpatient. When we go to patients as peer support workers, we should look for skills and talents of our patients: it can bring them healing”.
A number of therapeutic factors were identified in Mary’s recovery. Moses noted the role of positivity (“good to be positive, being positive means encountering hurdles by behaving well, and not taking offence”) and Benon noted the value of hope in all three main characters and the value of the genuine love that husband had for Mary. Daniel saw the value of small things, “like smiling, small things can make changes. It is upon us to have that in mind, that there are some small things in mind to consider important.”
Trainee psychologist saw the therapeutic value of someone outside the family, freed from the claustrophobic emotional pressures of the nuclear family: “everyone was disturbed and concerned by the mothers mental illness, except the boys girlfriend, who appreciated the mother bringing the cake to the party”, which led to a reappraisal by the boy of his mother and father. The girlfriend had earlier reframed the T-shirt that Mary had mended, celebrating its her creativity: the T-shirt that had been rejected by the boy as a symbol of his mothers abnormality formed the basis of his ability to earn money, support his family and complete the boat project.
Sitting on a rock on the beach where his parents fell in love, his girlfriend asks him what lies beyond the horizon: “Africa, that’s what’s on the other side,” he replies. In terms of the relevance of this film to a Ugandan audience, Africa is very much on the same side.
Dave Baillie
KMHFC, November 2012
Canvas is scripted and directed by Joseph Greco, whose personal experience of having a mother diagnosed with schizophrenia informs a very genuine feel to the film. Mary (Marcia Gay Harden) is a wife and mother struggling with persecutory anxiety and intrusive voices. As noted by one of the audience, Martial Lee, the film does not interest itself with an attempt to develop an understanding of what may have contributed to her persecutory anxiety. Instead, it explores with great sensitivity the effect this has on her husband (Joe Pantolliano) and particularly her son, (Devon Gearhart, in an astonishingly sophisticated performance for a 12 year old actor). Her anxiety for her son’s safety is felt acutely by her son as he negotiates the social obstacles of adolescence: her erratic repair of his favourite T-shirt angers him, her public behaviour embarrases him (“why can you act normal?” he asks her) and provides bullies with material:“ does your mum wear a straightjacket when she’s at home?” Her concern that the family house is under threat undermines an intimate moment with her husband and cause her to accidentally cut her son, leading to her forcible admission by police to a state psychiatric institution.
Her recovery is symbolized by the canvas of the title: the therapeutic act of painting on canvas offers her respite from her intrusive voices. She uses this insight to calm an agitated fellow patient, giving her a brush and a canvas. “Go crazy’, she encourages her. Back at home, the canvases of her obsessive paintings of her attempts to return to the ‘real Florida’ that she holds onto from before her illness accumulate in her sons cupboard. Her husband embarks on a project to build a boat to keep the family afloat and to sail back into the Florida waters where he first kissed his wife. A donated mainsail has holes in it which are patched with her discarded canvasses, finally achieving an importance to the family equivalent to that which they served for her. Although she is too overwhelmed to make the maiden voyage, she rides on the boat to show her fellow patients that she is ready top leave hospital.
The audience were very moved by the film and commented on the both the quality of the film, the writing and the acting. Esther loved the film: “it’s a nice selection. I love the way the story was told: its very emotional and well scripted, directed and acted: The boy has a lot of issues and tries to deal with anything: even when he is not speaking you can see what he is feeling and thinking”. Gregory was also impressed with the casting and the script and the casting, citing the performances of Harden and Gearhart as particularly impressive.
Eddie, a service user, noted that the family can be affected more than the mentally challenged individual: son starts truanting from school and gets into fights with the boys who tease him; husband manages to contain his growing frustration and tries to protect his son from this until his true feelings are vented in argument with his son: “you want your mummy back, I want my wife back. I want the women I loved. I miss her too”.
Juliet, another service user, noted the value and contribution of the mother despite her mental illness: “I liked the mothers role, the husband and boy were taking her for granted, which only became apparent when she was not there”.
Eddie also noted Mary’s ability to help other patients on the ward and related this to his role as a Peer Support Worker: ” the skill and talents of the lady struck me: she passed on her brush to the other inpatient. When we go to patients as peer support workers, we should look for skills and talents of our patients: it can bring them healing”.
A number of therapeutic factors were identified in Mary’s recovery. Moses noted the role of positivity (“good to be positive, being positive means encountering hurdles by behaving well, and not taking offence”) and Benon noted the value of hope in all three main characters and the value of the genuine love that husband had for Mary. Daniel saw the value of small things, “like smiling, small things can make changes. It is upon us to have that in mind, that there are some small things in mind to consider important.”
Trainee psychologist saw the therapeutic value of someone outside the family, freed from the claustrophobic emotional pressures of the nuclear family: “everyone was disturbed and concerned by the mothers mental illness, except the boys girlfriend, who appreciated the mother bringing the cake to the party”, which led to a reappraisal by the boy of his mother and father. The girlfriend had earlier reframed the T-shirt that Mary had mended, celebrating its her creativity: the T-shirt that had been rejected by the boy as a symbol of his mothers abnormality formed the basis of his ability to earn money, support his family and complete the boat project.
Sitting on a rock on the beach where his parents fell in love, his girlfriend asks him what lies beyond the horizon: “Africa, that’s what’s on the other side,” he replies. In terms of the relevance of this film to a Ugandan audience, Africa is very much on the same side.
Dave Baillie
KMHFC, November 2012