God Knows Where I Am

To the people that ask "Where was her family"?, you have no idea what it is like to have a mentally ill person you love refuse to get help & take meds. No idea. You can't help them, no matter how much you want to. This movie is a perfect example of that. Heartbreaking.

I'm not into documentary's . But this caught my attention .Cause I see my ex wife in this Bishop lady. so many lost souls walking out there with no hope of a happy ending. I think its the best documentary on the subject of schizophrenia. God Knows Where I Am . I recommend you watch this .

It is a very moving, emotional and, frankly, depressing portrayal of how the mentally ill often fall through the cracks and fail to receive the care and assistance that they need. However, I didn't feel that the film really gave enough detail or information about the woman herself. We learned about her childhood and did get some sense of what it was like for her based on her own journal entries, but I still felt like most of the film contained very little about the victim and was mostly just dramatic cinematography which stretched out the length but didn't add any real substance. The whole thing could really have been condensed into a 30 minute length program. So, while I was captivated by the tragedy of this woman's story, it felt too drawn out and left me with so many questions about her illness and the events that led her to that house, that overall I was pretty disappointed.

As a former psychiatric patient who ultimately chose talk therapy over medication, it's important for me to understand that psychiatric drugs are often necessary and therapeutic. I'm not sure, however, that the average viewer fully understands how traumatic psychiatric treatment can be, or the deleterious side effects of the antipsychotic drug therapies that were part of Linda's treatment.

It is heartbreaking how the stress of work, being a single mother, and the fraying of family relationships due to paranoia from Linda's illness all contributed to a loss of functionality and a downward spiral, as the documentary portrays. I do feel compassion for Linda's sister and friends and the owner's of the house where Linda starved to death, unknown to them.

The average viewer may not see God in the tragic story, but I'm not sure He wasn't with Linda. You see, she was losing touch with reality and couldn't deal with the treatment her illness would require. An abandoned house must have seemed the only option. But, something prevented her from harming others. Even her imaginary husband, Steve, was perhaps a reminder of love and family, perhaps because she had seen him being part of a loving couple at the Chinese restaurant while she was waitressing.

The subject matter has been well covered in other reviews, but I just want to mention that the film making's use of conventional documentary tropes such as re enactments, voice over, interviews, and pans over letters, are somehow woven together in a mesmerizing fashion with absolutely beautiful cinematography and lighting of the re enactments, which are shot in the actual house. The shots linger over beautifully lit and composed scenes, without feeling slow. The voice actress that plays the crazy lady is really good. The music is subtle but creepy and melancholy and really adds to the atmosphere. Almost every line is a description of the woman by another person who starts out with the word "she", which at times is almost overwhelming though i'm sure that was the point. "she was this, she was that, she was the other, she did this she did that," imagine hearing sentences starting with the word she at least 200 times. Anyways the production values here really elevate this over the way this type of story is usually handled.