Please note: This was screened in June 2016
French documentarist Nicolas Philibert (Être et Avoir, Land of the Deaf) sensitively filmed people suffering from mental illness in 1995 at La Borde, a grand care centre located in a chateau in France. La Borde remains a trailblazer in the field of psychiatric therapy and focuses on the arts. We arrive in the midst of preparations for the summer fete - an annual event in which the patients and the staff put on a play together. The film charts the passage of this magical event and allows the viewer a glimpse at life in a highly regarded psychiatric institution.
Philibert leaves it up to the audience to figure out who are the patients and who are the carers - there is very little discussion of illness itself, and none of the patients discusses their condition. This removes any labels, leaving solely the individual in front of us.
Every Little Thing calmly and compassionately celebrates the work of La Borde and quietly makes us question the distinctions that society applies in classifying people as normal or abnormal. As in Philibert's other documentaries, his uncoercive respect for the participants is apparent - he wants us to get to know them as people rather than as patients.
Introduced by filmmaker Conor McCormack and Simon Downer, Psychosis Health Integration Team. Presented by Bristol Health Partners.