Synopsis

Through intimate stories of patients, families, and medical providers, BEDLAM immerses us in America’s national crisis surrounding care of people with severe mental illness. Filmed over five years, it brings us inside one of the nation’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. The story is told in part by director Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD, a psychiatrist, filmmaker, and brother of a person with schizophrenia. 2021 duPont-Columbia Award finalist.

Theatrical Trailer

“A damning indictment and a call to action – lucid, harrowing and urgent.”The Hollywood Reporter

A film by Peter Miller

Narrated by John Lithgow

Based on an idea by Antje Boehmert & Christian Popp Written by Peter Miller Director of Photography Antonio Rossi Editor Amy Linton Sound Recordists Rodolphe Begard, Dan Mazur, Andreas Schlueter, Andy Turret Sound Designer Brit Warner Sound Mixer Christian Riegel Color Grader Knut Schmitz Online Editor Reinaldo Almeida Original Music by Eike Hosenfeld, Moritz Denis, Tim Stanzel Archival Research Elisabeth M. Hartjens, Michelle Gordon, David Stumpp Senior Adviser and Story Consultant Ian Scott Historical Adviser Marja Roholl Associate Producers Jonas Schilling, Amy Linton Commissioning Editors ZDF/ARTE Martin Pieper, Türkân Schirmer Producers Antje Boehmert, Peter Miller, Christian Popp

Special Thanks:

Spencer Alcorn, Thierry Barreau, Alessandro Carroli, Carmen Cobos, Ned Comstock, Thomas Doherty, EDN, Uta Eberhardt, Andrea Ernst, Sandra Garcia-Myers, Kay Hoffmann, Katja Jaeckel & Giorgos Christonakis, Martine Labonde, Madeleine Le Borgne, Valerie Marcus, Frank Mehring, Ouest France, Miranda Parry, Stephanie Pasternak, Wolfgang Pinkl, Judy Preminger, Victoria Riskin, Kim Rojas, Marja Roholl, Heiner Ross, Christian Schwalbe, Ian Scott, Steven Wapen

Archives:

Victoria Riskin; National Archives, USA; Allison Collection, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History; BFI National Archive; Bundesarchiv; Conseil Général de la Manche arch. Dép.; Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie; The Cummington Historical Commission; Deutsche Kinemathek; Philip and Amanda Dunne Photographs Collection of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Getty Images; The Huntington Library; Oren Jacoby; Library of Congress; Heinz Meder; MoMA Film Study Center; New York City Municipal Archives; Michel Ollivier; Miranda Parry; Photofest; Klaus Riemer, Margaret Siebner; SPPN Images; Stadtarchiv Erlangen; Cecile Starr and Aram Boyajian; Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz; UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library, Dept. of Special Collections; L.A. Times Photographic Archives; USC Cinematic Arts Library, Fay Wray Collection ; UN Photo Library; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Willard van Dyke Papers, University of Arizona; Yad Vashem Photo Archive

A co-production of DOCDAYS Productions, Willow Pond Films, ZDF in collaboration with ARTE

Distributed by PBS International – Developed with the support of MEDIA