California Documentary Project
When Medicine Got It Wrong
International Documentary Association
Producer-Director Katie Cadigan
How San Mateo County parents changed how schizophrenia is perceived
Producer-Director Katie Cadigan and Director-Editor Laura Murray chronicle how San Mateo County parents in the 1970s rebelled against being blamed for their children’s schizophrenia, prompting changes in the psychiatry’s understanding of the disease.
The film starts in 1974 and follows the stories of three families whose sons developed schizophrenia in their teens. We learn how the parents became activists, creating an organization to fight for better treatment for the children and to change people’s perception of the disease. Interviews with mental health experts, politicians and psychiatrists reveal the complex origins of the California’s current mental healthcare problems.
“Ours is a story that has never been told in any form,” said Producer-Director Katie Cadigan. “This feature-length documentary speaks directly to one of the most misunderstood and ignored populations in the state – the one in five Californians living with mental illness.”
Filmmaker interview
Filmmaker Katie Cadigan recently participated in an e-mail interview with in which she discusses her film, her background and the challenges of being a documentary filmmaker.
Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up and where do you live?
My father is an Episcopal priest, and my parents were civil rights activists in South Africa when I was in elementary school. Those early years under apartheid impressed on me the importance of living a moral life.
Our family was kicked out of South Africa when I was 10 years old, and we came back to the United States and settled in Connecticut. I received a scholarship to a small Episcopal school structured around the motto, “From each according to their ability. To each according to their need.”
I’ve been in California ever since I finished my undergraduate degree. The diversity, vibrancy and creativity of this coast continue to inspire me.
What were the circumstances that led you to become a filmmaker?
I grew up in a family of natural storytellers and, like them, I love shaping narratives from the events of everyday life. I was raised without much exposure to mass media (television hadn’t come to South Africa), so filmmaking was not initially on my radar. After college I worked for a Silicon Valley public relations firm, where I discovered the power of radio and television and the joy of shaping real-life stories for mass media. The more I developed the practical skill of making complex technologies accessible and interesting to the general public, the more I craved being able to use images and sound to tell much broader reality-based stories about the human condition.
How did you learn how to become a filmmaker? Did you go to film school?
Graduate school was the quickest means I could find to begin establishing myself as a producer and director. I received a master’s degree from Stanford University’s documentary film program. At the time, Stanford had the only program devoted exclusively to nonfiction filmmaking. One of the best things about graduate school was being in a small community where we were all learning from one another’s mistakes. My thesis won the International Documentary Association’s Wolper Award for best student film, a terrific boost to my early career.
How did you come up with the idea for "When Medicine Got It Wrong"?
Having lived as a child under a cruel political regime that believed it was “right,” I am fascinated by the ways that falsehoods embraced by society are perpetuated and ultimately overthrown.
“When Medicine Got it Wrong” grows out of heartbreaking encounters with elderly parents after screenings of “People Say I’m Crazy,” my HBO/Cinemax documentary on my brother’s struggles with schizophrenia. When dramatic scientific advances in medicine occur, there is no opportunity for doctors to go back to all the families and patients they’d misinformed and say “Sorry, we were 100 percent wrong.” With regard to schizophrenia, medicine’s error ripped apart millions of families and condemned them to live in shame and stigma.
The film is also born of family frustration with the steady stream of well-meaning friends, colleagues and even medical professionals who probe for sources of family dysfunction to explain away my brother’s schizophrenia. Why is it that our cultural attitudes about schizophrenia still swirl with misinformation that medicine jettisoned decades ago?
What have been the biggest challenges in making the film?
We are up against time in that most of our subjects are over 75 years old, and we need to get all their experiences recorded before they are no longer physically able to tell their stories. To that end, our primary challenge has been securing the funding fast enough to capture this hidden chapter of California history.
How have you financed the film?
This California Documentary Project grant is extremely important. It is our first large influx of funding. The San Mateo affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness provided a start-up grant, and my partner Laura Murray and I personally financed the rest of the project up to this point. We still need completion funds.
What filmmakers have had the biggest influence on you?
The verité filmmakers Fred Wiseman and the Maysles top my list. I also admire Errol Morris, Michael Apted and Barbara Kopple, who have built careers making compelling films that embody artistic excellence and social relevance.
Visually and ethically I also owe a great debt to Jon Else, who was in residence at Stanford while I studied and then taught documentary filmmaking.
What are your goals for the film? What are your goals as a filmmaker?
I hope “When Medicine Got It Wrong” inspires people to evaluate our collective responsibility toward treating and caring for those among us with severe mental illness. How far has society actually come in understanding that diseases such as schizophrenia are brain disorders with persistent symptoms, not simply behavioral problems that a pill or a few therapy sessions will cure? The film will be a success if it sparks dialogue about the current state of our mental healthcare system.
We just finished shooting our next project, a series that looks at the lives of convicted sex offenders who have completed rehabilitation programs and are released back into neighborhoods after serving their terms. Can they ever truly “recover” and live a “normal” life? Is transformation even possible? I hope to have a long career making films that illuminate dark corners of human existence.