God Knows Where I Am

God Knows Where I Am (2016)

Well-educated, New Hampshire mother, Linda Bishop, was determined to stay free of the mental health system after her early release from a 3 year commitment to New Hampshire State Hospital. Instead, she became a prisoner of her own mind, a fate which she documents in one of the most evocative and chilling accounts of mental illness and of our systemic failure to protect those suffering from it.

Date of release
2016-04-07
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (24)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Mystery, Documentary, Drama, History
Director
Jedd Wider, Todd Wider

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $1.1M

God Knows Where I Am is a 2016 American documentary film directed and produced by Todd Wider and Jedd Wider and narrated by Lori Singer.

Production

Filmmakers Jedd and Todd Wider explained why they used film, and why they chose different cameras film gauges for her situation and states of mind: "We wanted the audience to experience and feel a little of what Linda might have felt." When depicting Bishop's release from the hospital and her subsequent travels, they used 16mm on a 1966 Bolex and a 1972 Canon Scoopic, for a sense of her physical action and energy.

An early challenge for the filmmakers was how to present Bishop's story in her own words. While they had no protagonist to interview, they did have Bishop's words, in the form of her diary. Actress Lori Singer spent considerable time with the real diary, even studying how the pen was imprinted onto the actual paper for clues as to what Bishop might have been experiencing. Singer created an entire character arc for Bishop.

Singer's performance has been praised by critics. Greg Klymkiw of The Film Corner praised, "Singer's performance here is astonishing - she captures the pain, desperation and even small joys in Bishop's life during these sad, lonely days with a sensitivity and grace linked wholly to the "character" of Bishop." Andrew Parker of Toronto Film Scene said, "The actress steps inside Bishop so completely that it’s impossible not to sit in stunned silence…

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended