Note: Sorry if previously posted. I couldn’t find it though.
Published on Jan 13, 2014
Silence around mental illness is common around the world, especially in impoverished countries. Documentary filmmaker Delaney Ruston shares her personal experiences of her father’s mental illness, and the discovery that sharing personal stories have the power to inspire compassion and break the silence to create collaboration and action.
Break the silence around mental illness: Delaney Ruston at TEDxRainier
Documenting a troubled mind
Movie helps filmmaker forge connection with mentally ill father
By CAROL SMITH, P-I REPORTER
Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, March 1, 2009
The cyclists rolling by on their way to Green Lake don’t seem to notice the man sitting vigil under the Ravenna Boulevard overpass. The man wears a bicycle helmet over his baseball cap and dark glasses on a dark day. Though he camps in plain sight, it’s easy to overlook those such as Leon Barker, whose minds have long since abandoned them.
Delaney Ruston parks near Barker’s encampment on a recent freezing afternoon. The filmmaker first noticed him a few years ago. The doctor in her made her stop to check on him. But it’s another role from her life that keeps her coming back to visit.
Ruston, 42, is the daughter of a man who had paranoid schizophrenia. His illness caused her so much shame and frustration as a teenager and young adult that she unlisted her phone number and hid from him for a decade while she built a career in medicine and started a family.
When her own son started asking questions about his grandfather, however, she realized she was the one who needed answers.