I kinda feel sorry for documentary makers. I'm sure there's some good ones out there, but knowing which ones are good is another problem.

I suppose if you got them to sign a contract stating that you would be allowed to preview, and then be able to make the decision if your interview was to be included or not, it couldn't get too bad, but what documentary maker would agree to that.

I had someone pushing me to to a CCHR documentary...I refused that too.

but I would by no means refuse all documentaries...

watch Take These Broken Wings...awesome documentary...would involve myself with that director any day...in fact I already have...wrote a chapter for a book he's compiling.

Take These Broken Wings --short synopsis:

Take These Broken Wings, a feature-length documentary film by director and psychotherapist Daniel Mackler, shows that people can recover fully from schizophrenia without psychiatric medication. According to most of the mental health field, and of course the pharmaceutical industry, this is not possible. How little they know – or want to know! The film centers on the lives of two women – heroes of mine – who both recovered from severe schizophrenia. The film traces the roots of their schizophrenia to childhood trauma and details their successful psychotherapy with gifted clinicians.

The first woman is Joanne Greenberg (fully recovered for fifty years), the bestselling author of I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. The second is Catherine Penney (fully recovered for thirty years), a mental health nurse in California whose healing tale was chronicled by her therapist, Daniel Dorman, MD, in the book Dante’s Cure: A Journey Out of Madness.

I sobbed throughout a good part of it!!

and Philip I offered to mail you a copy and you never got back to me!!

or maybe I sent you one anyway?? did I? you never said anything if I did...I can't remember now.

I feel similarly about journalists. I have almost never (with one exception I can think of)been interviewed by a journalist who didn't stick words in my mouth that I would never have considered uttering, twist what I said into an unrecognizable shape, or just plain make stuff up that made it sound like I was saying the opposite of what I really said.

Philip Dawdy responds: well that sucks. i apologize for my alleged colleagues' behavior.

I don't agree with this at all. While most journalists and doc makers do their work with their own personal and political slant, I have to say the documentary makers I worked with were highly professional and totally committed to the cause of breaking the stigma of mental illness. Nothing else. They are hero's in my mind....

I've had mostly positives with reporters or tv people. They may get the story wrong or have an attorney sitting over their left shoulder (the first and only Zyprexa story in the Indianapolis Monthly comes to mind) but in general, good.

Only once fooled or lulled by someone I met at the now famous 2005 protest in Lafayette Square. A woman I vaguely remembered meeting there called a month or two later asking to do a doc. No red flag went up until all the equipment was set up and rolling. Then I was told that the clip would only be shown in the little Scientology House of Psyc. Horrors in L.A. I honestly didn't know how to get out of it, but the next day there I was front and center, rolling film, on the Scientology Daily Blat. So, springing into action through connections, that little thing was removed that very day.

Philip, it may be time for you to make a documentary yourself.

sorrowful,
I've been meaning to tell you how glad I am to see you here. I missed you during your hiatus a while back.

Re interviews: I was told by a telly news anchor to never let anyone set up a camera in front of me without asking what questions I would be asked. She made it clear we have the right to know exactly what we're getting into. I should think that would make for a better interview for an ethical journalist (and yes, they're out there).

Sherry

Re: a comment above about journalists; Philip is a rare gem in that regard, with ethical reporting and integrity. He wouldn't twist words like news reporters are known for (at least my experience has taught me never say one word you don't want to stand alone from an interview). I'm pretty skepical that way, and would trust Philip with my story, which speaks volumes based on my own personal values.

I wouldn't take part in a documentary, too sketchy. I've been approached by a book author, and I'm even skeptical of that person. It's about trust in the end.

I am so sorry some of you above has such negative feelings about documentary film makers and journalists.

Everyone is not the same.

Thank you for welcoming me back, Sherry. My first posts were anonymous and I may go back to that if I get pounced on too hard.

If I feel I am risking my own emotional health or even my physical safety in my remarks, you can bet I will have a different name and sorrowful will fade away again.

sorrowful,
Protecting yourself comes first. Hopefully I'll recognize your sweet voice under other names. I can be awfully dense, unfortunately.

I'm really glad you're back and was quite perturbed to hear you'd had troll troubles.

Sherry