GUILTY EXCEPT FOR INSANITY

JAN HAAKEN / PORTLAND
Haaken (QUEENS OF HEARTS: COMMUNITY THERAPISTS IN DRAG), a professor of psychology at Portland State University, returns to the Salem State Hospital, the location of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, and recounts the stories of real patients who live in this famous hospital for the criminally insane. As patients and staff try to make sense of each juncture in the road, from getting arrested and surviving the wards to reentering the community, the stories tell a larger tale of broken lives and raggedy safety nets and reveal the craziness of an American system where you have to commit a crime to get psychiatric help. The film movingly portrays the deeply human dilemmas behind media images of the criminally insane and probes the consequences of the American medical management of madness. (90 mins.)