Averroès & Rosa Parks

We become privileged witnesses of the lives, fears and struggles of a variety of individuals whose psychiatric diagnoses are only occasionally spelled out. This is a film about a kind of psychiatry that aims at the whole person, dealing not with cases but highly complex, eccentric, sensitive human beings. In individual interviews and conversations between patients and caregivers, the filmmaker portrays a form of psychiatric work that gives patients a platform to express themselves. Little by little, the doors to their worlds begin to open. The film explores how, given the constraints of a healthcare system reaching its limits, a space can be carved out in society for marginalized people. The people treated here suffer from serious conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety and panic disorders, psychoses, PTSD, or borderline personality disorder, which often make it impossible for them to live without medical treatment. Nicolas Philibert captures them in quietly observed images during individual and group sessions.