Out of the Shadow - Film to watch!

Susan Smiley’s very personal, award-winning film about her mother is being broadcast nationwide on PBS beginning this month.

Susan intimately and compassionately depicts her mother Millie’s lifelong struggle with paranoid schizophrenia and its effect on her family. In an interview for Schizophrenia Digest, Susan said:

"One of the most confounding aspects of Mom’s illness is that she has no insight about it. No awareness that she has it. She doesn’t understand why over the past 20 years she’s been in and out of 17 psych wards, 8 apartments, 3 boarding houses, and countless motels. She has not been able to hold a job in 30 years. She’s alienated her family and lost touch with every friend she’s ever had."

Filmed over five years, Out of the Shadow uncovers one family’s struggle, but reveals a national plight. More than 2.5 million Americans and 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population have schizophrenia.

Visit the documentary's website to find out when it will air in your community.