News
God Knows Where I Am
June 30, 2017
 

God Knows Where I AmThe body of a homeless woman is found in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse. Beside her lies a diary that documents a journey of starvation and the loss of sanity, but told with poignancy, beauty, humor, and spirituality. For nearly four months, Linda Bishop, a prisoner of her own mind, survived on apples and rain water, waiting for God to save her, during one of the coldest winters on record. As her story unfolds from different perspectives, including her own, we learn about our systemic failure to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Directed by Todd & Jedd Wider.  Runtime: 97 minutes

What the critics are saying:

"God Knows Where I Am—beautiful, haunting and supremely moving—is one of the most powerful documentary films I have seen on America's flawed approach to mental health and homelessness. Essential viewing for anyone seeking to understand the systemic failings of our mental healthcare system, it is at once a work of art and a clarion call to end our neglect of people with mental illnesses.  The film powerfully conveys how an empty commitment to individual liberty has been substituted for a genuine system of mental health treatment and leaves us with one unavoidable conclusion: "we can and must do better.""

-Paul S. Appelbaum, MD
Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, & Law, Columbia University, Former President of the American Psychiatric Association

"God Knows Where I Am is an extraordinary film that portrays brilliantly the inner reality of an intelligent and creative human being suffering from a serious and life threatening mental illness. The viewer will come away with not only appreciation of this amazing person but also the dysfunction in our system of mental health that allows for preventable tragedy after tragedy. We must do better."

- Steven S. Sharfstein, M.D., President Emeritus, Sheppard Pratt Health System,Former President of the American Psychiatric Association 

“A film of great beauty and tenderness that gradually reveals a confounding mental illness, this film is a human story at its heart. Ultimately, it illuminates a hidden problem of vast proportion with an epic yet intimate cinematic vision.” 

– Jury, Hot Docs