I just attended the screening of a remarkable documentary at the Institute for Psychiatric Services meeting in San Francisco. The film is called Here One Day. It is an incredibly personal story by documentary film maker Kathy Leichter, about her mother, and her mother’s struggle with bipolar. The film is a tribute to a remarkable woman, who’s bipolar disorder both defined and destroyed her personality.
She was a free spirit, who’s love of truth and creativity was a source of great joy to her family, sometimes moody, sometimes angry, sometimes needy.
As Kathy comments in the film, it is impossible to know where her bi-polar began and where her personality left off. The two were inextricably linked, but clearly at some point in the course of her life, certainly in the last two years of her life, her bipolar became an illness, not just an aspect of her personality.
I encourage people to visit Kathy’s website www.hereoneday.com, where you can purchase the DVD or stream the film.
I would love to get readers reactions, and I am hoping I can interview her for a future “conversation” on this site.