First Screening – Tuesday, November 10 – 6:30pm @ TIFF Bell Lightbox

When the filmmaker Michel Negroponte (Jupiter’s Wife) received an e-mail from a woman who thought she might be a promising subject for a documentary, a process of collaboration began that would result in one of the most revealing self-portraits of living with mental illness ever made. Michelle Maren, this movie’s titular subject and eventual co-director of the movie, has lived enough lives to fill several movies: she’s been a professional actress, go-go dancer, nightclub performer and porn star. But she also suffers from borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, clinical depression, childhood trauma and a daily struggle just to get by. By handing her the camera, Negroponte effectively empowers Maren to tell her own story – or stories – and what emerges is as compelling and unfiltered an immersion into a complicated mind as any you have ever seen.

Filmmakers Michel Negroponte & Michelle Maren as well as Dr. Shelley McMain, Head of the Borderline Personality Clinic, & Clinical Psychologist will be in attendance for a panel discussion at the end of the film.

– Rendevouz with Madness Film Page