0.8 Amps of Happiness (0,8 Ampère geluk)

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 – 7:30pm
Netherlands 2015. Director: Saskia Gubbels. 52 min. Blu-ray Disc

VANCOUVER PREMIERE!  “Before I lie down in the snow to die, I want to have tried everything to recover. Because living like this isn’t much of a life.” These haunting words are spoken by Lidwine, a severely depressed middle-aged woman who has come to Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands, for electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. Saskia Gubbels’s unflinching but compassionate documentary portrays the experiences of four patients at Rijnstate, all admitted for ECT — still one of the most controversial psychiatric treatments in use today (in no small part due to its negative depiction in films, notably One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). But for Lidwine, Yvonne, Jan, and Wilma, any risks or fears are outweighed by the hope the treatment offers for some measure of their former happiness.

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Post-screening discussion with Dr. Michael Wilkins-Ho, a Clinical Associate Professor and the Head of the Geriatric Psychiatry Division at the UBC Dept of Psychiatry. Dr. Wilkins-Ho is also the Medical Coordinator of the Vancouver General Hospital outpatient ECT service, and the ECT Medical Lead in the Fraser Health Authority.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.