PREMIERED

The Afro-German actor Helen Wendt takes the audience on a journey along her family history between the GDR, Mozambique and West Berlin, while exploring how her identity and personal independence is embedded in the social context of Germany. In a hybrid approach, the film simultaneously follows members of independence movements in Mozambique, South Sudan, Great Britain, Catalonia and Bavaria, asking what it means for people to fight for their freedom. What does independence truly mean and how do colonialism and racism, the causes of many independence movements, define the world to this day?

After her sister died suddenly and unexpectedly while being treated with prescription antipsychotics, director Anniken Hoel begins a global investigation into the crimes of the pharmaceutical industry, the unheralded growth of psychiatric diagnoses and medication, and the corruption of the government regulatory agencies that have failed, repeatedly, to protect us.

Ane-Martha was diagnosed with multiple mental disorders over a fifteen-year period, and prescribed a staggering number of psychotropic medications. Ten years ago, she embarked on the first of many attempts to make a film about living with a mental disorder, but each effort was cut short due to new diagnoses, new medications, and new side effects. Now, having weaned herself off the drugs, and reaching a critical distance from her diagnoses, she is ready to tell her story, and to challenge the need for psychological labeling.

IN POST-PRODUCTION

A hero’s tale is filmed 67 years ago by Dr. Sverre Winge, a respected doctor in a small community in Northern Norway. At that time, no one in the local community knew that Dr. Winge, an authority in the small town, had a passion for filmmaking. Decades later, the film winds up in the hands of filmmaker Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård and journalist Silje-Tamara Røsvassbukt, who together follow in the footsteps of the memories of this film, exploring issues of technology, social roles, status and choices.