Mental Filmness loves handmade experimental films–and it doesn’t get much weirder or more DIY than Hi! We are Lisé: Sylvia & Sam. Here is a film that seems personal and intimate to the point where I feel like I’m witnessing someone’s private vision or fantasy that will never fully make sense to an outsider. To me, it felt fun and liberating, like accidentally catching your neighbor dancing and singing without abandon through the window. The actress Samantha Hernandez, who plays Sam, is delightful to watch because she seems so committed to her performance.
Chicago filmmaker Lisé Creed states the film is about a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) who gets in touch with a long lost part of herself that she thought trauma had destroyed. The way she achieves this is through dance and body movement, which can access deep feeling and trauma we can’t always voice.
Lisé says “Dissociative episodes are often a matter of slipping away for a moment and not knowing how I got where I wound up. Trauma causes the mind to shield the self from truths that are too painful to deal with.
After years of trauma therapy, the walls between my parts are crumbling, and my hidden parts are starting to feel safe enough to reemerge and become open sides of myself.”
I think for a short film, Hi! We are Lisé: Sylvia & Sam will be rich in conversation, as we do not receive many films about DID, which is a widely misunderstood mental health diagnosis. Good news: Filmmaker Lisé Creed will be able to join us in conversation on Friday evening, 10/9!
Come see the one-of-a-kind Hi! We are Lisé: Sylvia & Sam at Mental Filmness on Friday evening, 10/9, with director Lisé Creed on our panel of talented Chicago filmmakers! You wouldn’t want to miss it.
Get your free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-filmness-film-festival-tickets-2000057532921
