Movies & Documentaries About Recovery
Here are a few recommended watches for our Discover Recovery Scavenger Hunt:
The Anonymous People is a feature documentary film about the 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. Deeply entrenched social stigma and mass participation in widely successful anonymous 12-step groups have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades.Just like women with breast cancer, or people with HIV/AIDS, courageous addiction recovery advocates are starting to come out of the shadows to tell their true stories. The moving story of The Anonymous People is told through the faces and voices of the leaders, volunteers, corporate executives, and celebrities who are laying it all on the line to save the lives of others just like them. This passionate new public recovery movement is fueling a changing conversation that aims to transform public opinion, and finally shift problematic policy toward lasting recovery solutions.
Crazy…or wise? Indigenous cultures address “mental illnesses” quite differently from western societies. Are symptoms a ‘calling’ to grow or just a ‘broken brain’? The documentary CRAZYWISE explores what can be learned from people around the world who have turned their psychological crisis into a positive transformative experience.
When television-casting professional Darnell Lamont Walker started noticing that black people around him, either friends or associates, were committing suicide at an alarming rate, he wanted to open up a dialogue about mental-health issues in the black community.
There’s a saying in the black community that what goes on inside the house shouldn’t be taken outside the house, and mental health has always been the secret many black people didn’t take outside. In Darnell Lamont Walker’s documentary Outside the House, he’s breaking down the barriers and stigmas when it comes to black people discussing their mental-health issues, and confronting the problem head-on.
Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated
The documentary chronicles Lovato’s life and career up until 2017, including her upbringing and early career as a child star on Barney & Friends and later as a teenager on Disney Channel, as well as her first stint in rehab in 2010 for an eating disorder and emotional issues and her subsequent struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction.
At age 19, Kevin Hines attempted to take his life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Seventeen years later he is on a mission to use his story to help others find hope and stay alive. This film is part of a global mission to help reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts around the world. Through sharing stories of survival and recovery we are creating significant awareness of this health crisis, while helping people find the support they need to stay alive, heal and #BeHereTomorrow!
