The Yale Department of Psychiatry’s Psych & Cinema resident interest group and Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) will co-sponsor a screening of the feature film “Elizabeth Blue” on September 26 at the auditorium at The Anlyan Center for Medical Research, 300 Cedar St., New Haven.
A reception with food featuring the film’s producer, director, and lead actress will begin at 5:30 pm. The film screening at 6:00 pm will be followed by a question and answer session at 7:30 pm.
“Elizabeth Blue” is a drama about a young woman (Elizabeth, played by Anna Schafer) who suffers from schizophrenia. The movie follows her life after she is released from a psychiatric hospital – her continued struggle with schizophrenic hallucinations, her outpatient treatment, and the planning of her wedding to supportive fiancée Grant (Ryan Vincent).
“I’m hoping that ‘Elizabeth Blue’ can shed some light on the everyday experience of dealing with mental illness, and encourage people to talk about schizophrenia in a more normalized way,” writer/director Vincent Sabella wrote in an online essay published by MovieMaker Magazine. “The many preconceived notions and misconceptions people have about mental illness keep me motivated to try to change up the conversation surrounding it.”
Schafer, Sabella and producer Joe Dain will attend the screening at Yale, and will lead a question and answer session. The event is open to the entire Yale community, as well as the public.
The screening coincides with the film's theatrical release on September 22 in select markets including Los Angeles and New York City.
For more information, contact Nora Proops, MD, at nora.proops@yale.edu.