Educational Media Reviews Online

This film shares the day-to-day experiences of a Senegal-born Parisian named Julie as she lives with schizophrenia, an illness she has had for over twenty years. The documentary is written and directed by her friend, Mia Ma, to share with viewers an authentic glimpse into how chronic mental illness permeates every aspect of a life and requires vigilance and endurance to weather the constant ebbing and flowing of symptoms.

Julie on the Line (Fréquence Julie) tackles auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoia, suicidal impulses, psychotic episodes, hospitalization, psychomotricity, childhood abuse, and addiction. But it also highlights the quieter battles, like the management of medications and their potentially debilitating side effects, exhaustion, struggles with self-care, withdrawal from contact with others, the social stigma and internalized shame of having mental illness, and the essential yet unrelenting task of constantly self-monitoring the current state of the affliction. We see Julie over time and in several conditions. Sometimes she opens up about how she feels on a particular day, sometimes we sit with her in silence, other times she is drawn into her memories and tells stories from her life, of her family, and about different periods of health and sickness.

The film is recommended with reservations, only because unless one is fluent in French, the poor quality of the subtitles is an injustice to the accomplishments of the film. It is frequently unclear who is talking off-camera or in voiceover, many individuals are introduced and never explained, there is no location information, and there are entire scenes that feel either out of sync or unaddressed completely.

Talking about the biological causes of mental illness and identifying the various ways it can manifest in others, is easy. Accurately spending time inside the reality of someone who perceives the world through the lens of a disease such as schizophrenia, is a much more significant triumph. The thoughtfulness, love, and bravery with which Julie on the Line achieves the latter, is what makes it an important addition to curricula focused on Health Sciences, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Psychology, Sociology, and Women’s Studies.

Awards:
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2022, Special Mention, International First Feature; Award of the Ecrans Documentaires d'Arcueil 2021; Special Mention of the Students Award (Prix des lycéns)

Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.