Documentary
I’m one of the subjects of a documentary film titled I Am Still Your Child, dealing with parental mental illness. For those who don’t know, my mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was quite you and my childhood was… different than a lot of other kids. I think that the original writer and director as well as the rest of the film crew have made a pretty powerful film. And one that I hope will get people talking. The film’s website is at http://iamstillyourchild.com/. The IMDB page for the film is at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8228908/.
The poster for the film was designed by the amazing Sara Morley (Design Postimage).
From the film’s website: “More than half a million of Canada’s frontline mental healthcare ‘workers’ are less than twelve years old. They’re called COPMI — Children Of a Parent with Mental Illness — and there are 575,000 of them in Canada.
I Am Still Your Child explores the point of view of growing up with a mentally ill parent through the intimate and touching stories of Sarah, Jessy and Von, but their experiences speak to a much wider issue. We’ve gathered other firsthand stories here in addition to in-depth information and resources about the subject.
Children who grow up with a parent who has mental health difficulties are at risk for a host of grave repercussions, among which a much higher risk of developing mental illness themselves and reproducing a potentially toxic pattern. These children are vulnerable to life-long disability and yet they are virtually invisible to our healthcare system.
Our goal is to shed light on the issue and provide solutions that will help break the isolation in which children of a parent with a mental illness often live.”
Trailer
Streaming
The film was broadcast on CBC television throughout Canada on Saturday, March 31st, 2017 and streamed through CBC Gem for a few years after that.Unfortunately, the film is no longer available on the CBC. I don’t know exactly what has happened, but apparently Catbird Productions (the producers of the film) and CBC could not reach an agreement on a rights renewal, so sadly the film has disappeared from streaming options on the CBC. Worse, no replacement on any streaming platform has ever been chosen. Why? Again, I don’t know. As far as I know, there are not even paid or rental streaming options, though that does exist for the French language version of the film (that can be found at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tonenfantpourtoujours).
So what to do? Well, Catbird Productions has allowed me to share a free screener of the film for those who are interested. If you would like to watch the film, then please email me and I’ll get you set up. Hopefully one day the film will be fully available to stream online, preferably at a site like YouTube, but until then this is the only way, unless you would like to purchase the film (see below).
