Through intimate stories of patients, families, and medical providers, BEDLAM is a feature-length documentary that immerses us in the national crisis surrounding care for people with severe mental illness.
Filmed over five years, it brings us inside one of America’s busiest psychiatric emergency rooms, into jails where psychiatric patients are warehoused, and to the homes – and homeless encampments – of members of our communities with mental illness, where silence and shame often compound personal suffering.
The story is told in part by director Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD, whose own life journey has been profoundly impacted by a family member with severe mental illness.
“For centuries, we, individuals and families living with serious mental illness, have suffered in silence and shame. We can no longer be ashamed, and we can no longer stay silent.”
FILMMAKERS
Kenneth Paul Rosenberg
Kenneth Paul Rosenberg (director/producer/writer) has been making award-winning documentaries since medical school. While a medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he also studied film at NYU. He co-produced and co-directed (with Ruth Neuwald Falcon) AN ALZHEIMER’S STORY, a film about a film living with Alzheimer’s Disease, filmed over the course of eighteen months. After his residency in Psychiatry at the Payne-Whitney Clinic at New York Presbyterian Hospital, he did a Fellowship in Public Health, during which he directed and produced THROUGH MADNESS, a film on serious mental illness, for PBS. While a practicing psychiatrist, Ken produced and directed films for HBO, including WHY AM I GAY?: STORIES OF COMING OUT IN AMERICA (Oscar Documentary Feature Shortlist), BACK FROM MADNESS, and DRINKING APART, and executive produced CANCER: EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION (Peabody Award-winner). He is also the editor of medical textbooks and author of popular books including BEDLAM which was published by Avery/Penguin Random House.
Peter Miller
Peter Miller (producer/writer) is an Emmy and Peabody-award winning filmmaker whose documentaries have screened in cinemas and on television throughout the world. His films include A.K.A. DOC POMUS, SACCO AND VANZETTI, JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY, ROBERT SHAW: MAN OF MANY VOICES, PROJECTIONS OF AMERICA, THE INTERNATIONALE, and A CLASS APART. Peter has also been a producer on numerous documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, including the PBS series THE WAR, JAZZ, and FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. More at willowpondfilms.com.
Jim Cricchi
Jim Cricchi (editor) is a Brooklyn-based documentary editor and filmmaker. A co-founder of Twelve Letter Films, Jim directed, photographed and edited the IDA shortlisted and award-winning short documentary LOS LECHEROS (2017) and is in production on a feature doc covering Wisconsin's tumultuous 2018 midterm elections. He has edited documentaries (BEDLAM, ONE BIG HOME), feature films (MILAREPA, I DO AND I DON'T), television (EMMY-winning series Vice on HBO) and short films for The Criterion Collection and The New York Times.
Joan Churchill
Joan Churchill (co-producer/director of photography) Filmmaker and cinematographer Joan Churchill, is dedicated to making experiential films. Churchill began her career shooting on a series of music films, including Gimme Shelter, No Nukes, and Jimi Plays Berkeley, which she directed. Her credits include An American Family, the definitive vérité study of dysfunctional family life, Punishment Park and Pumping Iron, in which the world met Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Churchill with Nick Broomfield have made 10 films together, including Soldier Girls, Aileen: Life & Death of a Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac and Sarah Palin: You Betcha!. With her partner, Alan Barker, she produced and shot two TV vérité series, The Residents and American High. Their recent credits include Last Days in Vietnam, Citizen Koch, Inventing David Geffen and three films about mental health issues: Medicating Normal , Cracked Up and Bedlam.
Churchill is the first pure documentary cinematographer to be accepted into the ASC. Her accolades include the BAFTA, DuPont Columbia Award, Prix Italia, IDA’s Award for Outstanding Cinematography; CamerImage’s Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking; Sundance, Chicago, Tribeca and IDFA festival prizes, Amnesty International Doen Award, and Women in Film’s Vision Award, among others.
Alan Barker
Alan Barker (co-producer/location sound) began film work as a news cameraman at age 17. He later studied psychology at Los Angeles City College and UCLA ultimately graduating from the Motion Picture Division. He has worked as a documentary camera and sound person on hundreds of domestic and foreign productions. In the late 80’s he partnered with Joan Churchill specializing in Cinéma Vérité production. Formerly an adjunct professor at ArtCenter College he now writes and lectures on documentary-related topics. He and Joan Churchill lead workshops on Cinéma Vérité theory and technique and continue to work as freelancers.
Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans
Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans (composers) are award winning film composers. They have been playing music together for over twenty years. In the last eight years, they have completed well over 100 acclaimed film and TV scores.
Before moving to New York in 2001, Danny was raised studying the cello in Europe while Saunder grew up playing guitar in Seattle’s thriving music scene. As a duo, they are known for bold unpredictability, uniqueness, and their ability to interpret a wide range of genres. Drawing from an array of modern classical styles and beyond, their compositions are filled with atypical orchestrations, sensuous melodies, and visceral soundscapes.
One of their first films, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (Dir. Sean Durkin) garnered much attention for its sparse and suspenseful score. Soon after, their sinister score for ENEMY (Dir. Denis Villeneuve) won Best Musical Score at the Canadian Screen Awards. In 2015 they scored Joel Edgerton’s acclaimed suspense thriller THE GIFT.
Branching out also into documentaries, the duo have written remarkable scores for LA 92 (Nat Geo), AMANDA KNOX (Netflix), and THE WOLFPACK (Netflix, Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner).
In TV, Danny and Saunder have scored two seasons of Jason Bateman’s OZARK (Netflix) as well as THE OA (Netflix) and CHEF’S TABLE (Netflix). They were also recently sought out to write a fresh new score for season four of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD (AMC) and have also signed on for the second season of AMERICAN GODS (STARZ).
Danny and Saunder have also successfully ventured into the video game world with their score for Ubisoft’s FOR HONOR.
Recent films include Joel Edgerton’s BOY ERASED (starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe), and Alistair Banks Griffin’s THE WOLF HOUR (starring Naomi Watts).
Currently Danny and Saunder live and work in Los Angeles and New York – they have studios in both cities.
Javier RIVERA DEBRUIN
Javier Rivera DeBruin (Impact Producer) is an impact producer and audience engagement strategist. Recent documentary campaigns include PHILLY D.A. (2021, Sundance Film Festival, Independent Lens), DISCLOSURE (2020, Sundance Film Festival, Netflix), BEDLAM (2019, Sundance Film Festival, Independent Lens), ROLL RED ROLL (2018, Tribeca Film Festival, POV, BBC), and TRANS IN TRUMPLAND (2021, Topic). They participated in the Fledgling Fund’s 2018 Engagement Lab to maximize social impact in film. Prior to this they implemented fundraising and engagement tactics in broadway and national non-profit theatre with Roundabout Theatre Company and Center Theatre Group. Javi holds a BA in Theatre and Latin American Studies from Smith College.
