Brett Story’s critically acclaimed documentary The Hottest August raises the specter of climate change without ever mentioning it, spotlighting ordinary New Yorkers as they share their anxieties about what the future holds while bracing for what could be one of the hottest months on record. 

In an effort to get to the bottom of the current mental health crisis in the U.S., psychiatrist and documentarian Kenneth Paul Rosenberg M.D. chronicles personal, poignant stories of those suffering from mental illness, including his own family, to bring to light this epidemic and possible solutions. Shot over the course of five years, Bedlam … READ MORE

In this excerpt from The Hottest August, two New Yorkers — an artist/designer in his studio and a naturalist on his boat in Jamaica Bay — are asked about their futures and the planet’s. The designer talks specifically about issues facing the African American community for whom the future “becomes less important than actually trying … READ MORE

by Rooney Elmi Kenneth Paul Rosenberg MD’s Bedlam profiles of one of the most pervasive and stigmatized public health crises: mental illness. Taking its titular inspiration from the infamous English “madhouse” founded in the 13th Century (and inspiring Rosenberg’s book of the same name), Bedlam mixes archival footage of psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, protest demonstrations, … READ MORE

In his film Bedlam, Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD follows the lives of three patients who find themselves with a chronic lack of institutional support, while he also weaves in his own story of how the system failed his late sister, Merle, and her battle with schizophrenia. As Rosenberg wrote in a powerful op-ed for the … READ MORE

Looking for your next great read? Bedlam: An Intimate Journey into America’s Mental Health Crisis by Bedlam filmmaker Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD, sheds light on the mental-health-care crisis in the United States. The book “has the depth of an encyclopedia of psychiatry but told by a fine writer and storyteller,” says Psychology Today. The documentary Bedlam … READ MORE

By Lennlee Keep The film Bedlam explores mental illness from the perspectives of physicians, politicians, parents, and patients themselves. The power of documentary film is that it generates conversations about more than what is on the screen. After I watched Bedlam the first time, I wanted to watch it again with my friend “Pete.” [We … READ MORE

America’s three largest jails — New York City’s Riker’s Island, Chicago’s Cook County Jail, and LA County’s Twin Towers — are also its three largest psychiatric treatment facilities. In this excerpt from Bedlam, while one person with mental illness faces a long wait in jail before finding treatment, California Gov. Gavin Newsom tours the Twin … READ MORE

China’s one-child policy forever changed the lives of mothers and children. Inspired by the birth of her first child, filmmaker Nanfu Wang returns to China to speak with her family and explore the ripple effect of this devastating social experiment. At its core, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning One Child Nation is a riveting personal … READ MORE

Brian and Long Lan Stuy are a Utah couple who have adopted three daughters from China: Meikina from DianBai, Meigon from Guangzhou, and Meilan from Luoyang. After discovering that documentation for one of their adopted children was fake, Brian and his wife created their home-based company Research-China, with the mission of reuniting adopted children with … READ MORE

Taking risks is nothing new for Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang. Her previous documentary I Am Another You, which was a SXSW Jury Award-winner and aired on Independent Lens, involved her having to live on the streets with the homeless subject of her film, and prior to that she became a target of the Chinese government … READ MORE

In this excerpt from One Child Nation, Brian Stuy, Utah-based co-founder of Research China and father to three adopted girls from China, explains how a “recruiting network” worked to find and bring children into orphanages, children that were later to be bought and sold — trafficked. Filmmaker Nanfu Wang then wonders about each baby’s story, … READ MORE