Response to persona 1966

 This movie honestly made me quite angry just based on the fact that in true 1966 fashion they did not portray mental health very well. It was quite frustrating and I had many negative feelings throughout the movie. Sometimes I find that we romanticize the idea of a film due to its claim to being very artistic and people aren't critical enough about the content and the portrayal of vulnerable populations. Because the movie did a horrible job at depicting mental illness I decided to take it upon myself to do some of the work in depicting mental illness in a way that was more realistic. 

I decided to write my own disclaimer for the project:

"Persona" (1966) contains representations rooted in misogyny and misinformation, which may now be seen as outdated or insensitive. Be aware of:

1.  Mental Health: Depictions may not reflect current understanding or compassion.

2.  Hysterical Woman Trope: An oversimplified dramatization of women's emotions.

3.  Psychotic Lesbian Trope: Problematically equating non-heterosexuality with mental instability.

Approach with a critical mind, acknowledging its historical context and limitations in representation.

I think moving forward this movie should have a disclaimer for students. 

There are three photos that I will share on this blog the first one is a woven photo where they are both self portraits, one is of
me screaming and the other one is me further away smiling. This piece is a representation of how I felt about the movie. How I almost needed to hide that I hated it due to the reputation that the movie has within the art community. The movie made me want to scream in a way that we need to be more critical of it. There are little to no recent bad reviews of this movie and I was very surprised by that. 

The second photo that I would like to share is a collage of clocks. I find many people with mental health issues can struggle with time and how time works. This is just tying into that piece of how to deal with time issues and understanding that mental health can be as little as struggling with time and that most of the time people who are mentally ill are victims of violence rather than the other way around. Which is not what the movie depicts. 

The third photo that I would like to share is just one of two negatives stacked on top of each other. This photo shows how I felt presenting this project to the class. That I had a hard time being alone in my thought process and that it seemed like I was on display for everyone to see.