‘PROTEST PSYCHIATRY – My Newest Film, Free!’ by Daniel Mackler

‘I just made a new film, called PROTEST PSYCHIATRY, on the psychiatric survivor-lead protest of the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in New York City.  And I’m thrilled by how it turned out.  For starters, I filmed it on no budget whatsoever, created the entire film in three days, and have uploaded it straight to Youtube, so it’s freeeeeee!

This film, for me, was an experiment.  I have been feeling lost as a filmmaker for the past year or more.  I think the big reason has been the process:  it’s huge and expensive and time-consuming.  Each film has absorbed months, literally months, of my life.  Well, all that changed five days ago.

Five days ago (May 2) I was hit with the inspiration bug:  to make a film a new way.

My goal:  to film the whole thing in a few hours (on May 4), to give myself a couple of days to edit it (on May 5 and 6), to make it short (it’s 13 minutes long), to do no post-production whatsoever (big relief), and then to share it with the world (on May 7).  And… it worked!! 

So what excites me as much as having a new film (which I love!) is that I have a new template for filmmaking.  I am now confident that I can easily take my little film studio on the road, as everything I need fits within a little backpack — and make more films.  And I want to expand my subject matter…

And so, here’s the film – PROTEST PSYCHIATRY.  In it, please meet some of the most courageous and inspiring people I know.  They sure inspired me!’

Well done, Daniel! Love what you do.