This three-day film series explores approaches to mental health care rooted in community building, self-management, and creativity echoing the institutional psychotherapy developed at Saint-Alban. The program starts with a short film by François Pain on Félix Guattari and a docufiction by Abdenour Zahzah on Frantz Fanon; Guattari and Fanon were both psychiatrists and political activists trained and influenced by Tosquelles. On Saturday afternoon, the program dwells on the possibilities of schooling the “maladjusted”* through reinvented structures of care and knowledge, featuring a short fiction film by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub and a documentary by Renaud Victor made with special education leader Fernand Deligny. On Saturday evening, a selection of shorts highlights the role of art in counteracting isolation inside and outside of psychiatric hospitals. The program ends with the New York premiere of Mireia Sallarès’s film devoted to the forgotten legacy of Tosquelles in Catalonia, Spain, and beyond.
Co-curated by Mathilde Walker-Billaud, AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement and Sonia Epstein, MoMI Curator Science & Technology.