Crazywise

Hearing voices and having visions are two things that are likely to get you committed to a mental hospital, or at the very least, medicated. But in many non-Western and indigenous cultures, a psychotic episode can be interpreted as a spiritual experience, or as a higher calling to be a healer. Crazywise follows Adam and Ekhaya, who have mental health crises as young adults, and suffer the painful consequences of medications, suicide attempts and homelessness as they become estranged from their friends and families. This film by Phil Borges asks: What if a mental health crisis was viewed as an expanded state of consciousness instead of something that needs fixing? What if mental health issues were treated with peer support groups? What if, instead of being dismissed as crazy, Adam and Ekhaya were revered as crazy wise?