Great Barrington — Long before COVID-19 reared its ugly head, took a toll on our collective mental health, and left a depressed and anxious population in its wake, there was a mental health crisis raging among youth in America. In fact, it was January 2019 when filmmaker Erik Ewers first began following more than 20 young Americans—from all over the country and all walks of life—who have struggled with thoughts and feelings that have troubled and—at times—overwhelmed them. These ostensibly disparate journeys, bound by a single common thread, form the basis of “Hiding In Plain Sight, Youth Mental Illness,” a documentary by Ken Burns. On Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m., Berkshire International Film Festival, the Austen Riggs Center, and the Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention will join forces to “Shine the Light” on mental health during a special community screening and conversation about youth mental illness and suicide prevention at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.
“We realize that there’s a very strong element of hope in these young people telling their stories,” the film’s director and producer Erik Ewers told The Edge, citing a beautiful balance between the adolescents’ “deepest, darkest moments, shared freely without any provocation” and the reason behind their doing so, namely an understanding from, “deep down inside, that their experience could be helpful to someone else—could help someone perhaps not fall in as deep as they did.” He and his brother, Christopher Loren Ewers, endeavored to address the harsh realities of mental illness rather than gloss them over—a seed sown by Patrick J. Kennedy, one of the world’s leading voices on mental health and addiction who suggested the filmmakers talked about the bad first.
“I had no idea how important that message was in making this film,” said Ewers who, bucking the trend to merely emphasize positivity and educational awareness, cut straight to the chase: “Let’s understand what this problem is,” he said, citing the myriad specifics of what mental illness looks like, how it feels, how it affects one’s relationships and daily existence—not to mention where did it come from? “These are the kinds of things that people need to see and hear so that they can better understand not only themselves, but [also] their children as well,” Ewers said.
The brothers’ approach hinged on empowering young people to tell their own story, one that elicits the feeling of a peer-to-peer conversation. “Our job [was] to stay out of the way and to allow each individual young person in the film to have their own voice to tell the story the way they wanted to,” Ewers explained, eschewing any inclination to please parents, be politically correct or employ proper mental health language. This, coupled with what Ewers calls “a stroke of genius” he attributes to his brother (a way of filming using mirrors, one that creates intimacy between the audience and the actual storytellers as if one were looking into the eyes of the other), contributes to the documentary’s wide appeal among younger audiences.
“[The approach] creates this kind of relatability that is just so tangible,” said Ewers who, very early on in the editing process, realized this film is also for parents and grandparents (especially those from a generation inclined to stigmatize mental health issues); for teachers and educators; for mental health experts who may have lost touch with the nature of how young people see this epidemic, one Ewers called, “the other pandemic of mental health crisis in America.” In other words, the film is for everyone.
For Ewers, Saturday’s community screening and conversation (with Ali Borowsky, founder of Find Your Anchor; and mental health treatment experts Jane Tillman, PhD, from the Austen Riggs Center and Brenda Butler, MD, from Berkshire Health Systems) “is a brand new relationship on every level.” Following a segment from the documentary, audience members will enjoy a screening of “Up On The Roof,” featuring Carole King in a nod to her eponymous 1962 hit, recorded by The Drifters, as well as a three-minute PSA produced in the Berkshires by Kate Morris.
As to the youth participants’—and by extension filmmakers’—central message? You can get through this; the storm will clear. In speaking with 23 remarkable young people and weaving their collective stories together, Ewers discovered a remarkable thing: “You [can’t help but] see yourself in the film,” he said, speaking from personal experience despite growing up in an era during which young people knew little about mental health. Ewers knew this: “Mental illness ran in my family, [and] it ran in me,” he said, sharing a fact that, from his perspective, “equipped [me and my brother] to be the right people to make this film… [which], for the first time in my life, gave me the self confidence and the courage to address some of the issues that I’ve never addressed.”
NOTE: This event hopes to provide important information, tools of where to turn for help, and inspiration; tickets are $15 for adults and free for individuals 18 years and younger. For those unable to attend the live screening, “Hiding In Plain Sight” is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
