DER Documentary
Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia Series
click here to preview Shadows and Illuminations
by Robert Lemelson
color, 3hrs, 2mins, 2010/2011
Pricing information and conditions
Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia is a six-part series of ethnographic films on severe mental illness in Indonesia, based on material drawn from 12 years of person-centered research by writer/anthropologist Robert Lemelson. The series, which follows six individuals of different ages and backgrounds, explores the relationship between culture, mental illness, and first-person experience.
The films may be purchased individually, as a complete series, or in two sets organized by theme:
Volume 1: Psychotic Disorders
Shadows & Illuminations (35 minutes, 2010) explores how non-normative mental events and behavior can be understood or interpreted in multiple ways outside the confines of Western psychiatric diagnostics.
Memory of My Face (22 minutes, 2011) illustrates how the residues of colonialism and the pervasive influence of globalization affect the subjective experience of mental illness.
Ritual Burdens (25 minutes, 2011) questions how communal spiritual obligations may be folded into personal schemas of stress to trigger episodes of mental illness.
Volume 2: Neuropsychiatric Disorders
The Bird Dancer (40 minutes, 2010) focuses on the social stigma of neuropsychiatric disorder and the human suffering it entails.
Family Victim (38 minutes, 2010) examines bi-directional influences between an individual considered to have a disruptive or troublesome personality.
Kites and Monsters (22 minutes, 2011) follows a young Balinese from boyhood to manhood, discovering the influential and protective aspects of culture that may guide developmental neuropsychiatric processes.
“...these three films by Robert Lemelson represent a significant contribution to ethnographic film as a whole and to the cross-cultural visual representation of mental illness in particular. As the culmination of over a decade of close and continuing interaction with his informants, the films show cultural and visual anthropology at their best.” — Karen Nakamura, American Anthropologist, Vol. 113, No. 4
See individual film pages for available study guides
Films in the Afflictions series
Bird Dancer
Family Victim
Shadows & Illuminations
Kites and Monsters
Memory of My Face
Ritual Burdens
Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Society for Visual Anthropology Media Festival, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2010
Nominee, Best Limited Series, International Documentary Association's IDA Awards, 2010
Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival, Paris, France, 2011
Globians world+culture Documentary Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2011, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011
Winner, Award of Merit, 2011 Indie Fest Award, 2011
Winner, Golden Eagle Award, Spring 2011 Cine Awards, 2011
Society for Psychological Anthropology Meeting, Santa Monica, CA, 2011
University of Chicago Clinical Ethnographic Seminar, Chicago, Illinois, 2011
McGill University Global Mental Health Research Workshop, Montreal, Quebec, 2011
Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, 2011
World Psychiatric Association Thematic Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, 2011
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Conference, Toronto, Ontario, 2011
Cal State University, Long Beach Academic Screenings, Long Beach, California, 2011
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