The ability to see through the eyes of another holds the key to empathy, and I mean ‘see’ in its most expansive of definitions. And such empathy exists as a quality that might transform the complexion of everything. This film reveals the experience of a world through the eyes of paranoid schizophrenia.
Imagine your life, or your child’s life following its course and then an abrupt and brutal turn. The sudden onset of Schizophrenia. A violent shock to what was. A loss. At a loss. And a soul rendered desolate and alone.
Sir John Whitmore was the pioneer and godfather of coaching in the workplace. He fills these few minutes with many provocative questions concerning a life lived traveling an original path.
As we stand in strange uncertain times, or perhaps as we fall to our knees under the sheer weight of not knowing, did we hear what it is that this age is asking of us?
The 1940s Holocaust might have been one of the lowest points of human existence. These few minutes wonder if we ‘might all hold the capacity to see light in the darkness’. This is a glimpse of the stoic experience of a holocaust survivor.
I made this film back in 2007. It’s a film about many things. A resilient dream being one. Alejandro was running for President of Guatemala. He didn’t win. He won at his fourth attempt and is currently President of His Country, despite having been a quadriplegic.
I listened to the Members of the Inner View Community. And to myself. And to the sky above the horizon. And this is what I heard of what we want. Of what this is. Of what ‘Us’ is here for. I wrote it down as a piece entitled ‘I Want This’.
‘It is like a miracle. I’ve got a son back that I thought I’d lost. We’re probably closer now than we’ve ever been but it did start in a difficult place.’ A film of hope and light from a seemingly dark, endless place.
In the complex landscape of Schizophrenia, I imagine Compassionate Care should not be absent. Care that is unconditional. Care that is full of hope and of possibility.
I was interviewed by Preeta, a former General Counsel to Barack Obama in the White House. And Steve, who has made many films delving into the human condition, and things beyond the veil. This is the recording of that long-form interview.