Educational Media Reviews Online

Crazy Wise is a documentary that partially follows the narrative experience of two people, Adam and Ekhaya, who have both survived and suffered through diagnosis in western medicine where there is existing criticisms of over medication or reliance on treatments to fully cure ailments. Adam and Ekhaya are said to have found themselves a solution through holistic means or self-transformative practices. In addition, and interspersed within the storytelling narrative of these two individuals, filmmakers have interviews with counselors, professionals, community advocates, doctors, friends and family. The subject of indigenous cultures and how mental health is regarded was introduced. People who have a stigmatized identity in the west are more revered in indigenous cultures. They can become shaman, wise men or spiritual leaders. One of the filmmaker is a photographer, so stilled portraits of people from indigenous cultures were featured. This demonstrates professional and smooth cinematography techniques.

This documentary ambitiously introduces and encapsulates the subject of mental health. It does introduce continuing issues for how mental health is regarded in western civilization, but it also brings up other questions such as can mental health conditions be easy to live with, is spirituality, meditation or alternative treatments the new solution for people from very different socioeconomic backgrounds? People watching this documentary can benefit more with having prior awareness to issues that pervade western mental health community.

Crazy Wise can be a benefit in adding to a public library where there is an existing collection of mental health resources, or it can be recommended to an academic library where this DVD can be viewed by students studying the subjects of nursing, psychology and social work. For every individual who suffers a mental health condition, there is a difference on how they will recover, live on or persevere. An interesting tidbit is that this documentary was partially funded on the crowdsource funding website of Kickstarter.