Revolution #9

Thursday, September 18, 2003 – 7:30pm

USA 2001. Director: Tim McCann
Cast: Michael Risley, Adrienne Shelley, Spalding Gray, Callie Thorne

Jackson (Canadian actor Michael Risley) is a seemingly well-adjusted young Manhattanite, working an anonymous tech-sector job and engaged to be married to cocktail waitress Kim (Adrienne Shelley). But all of a sudden, things are being moved around on his desk at work, cryptic email messages pop up on his computer screen and a 30-second TV commercial for a women’s perfume, called Revolution #9, seems encoded with hidden messages just for him. As Jackson’s grip on reality continues to fray, he quits his job and begins to obsessively seek out the unsuspecting director of the commercial (Spalding Gray, providing some much-needed levity). Meanwhile, Kim’s desperate attempts to get him help are frustrated by the Kafkaesque workings of the American mental health care system – leading to tragic results. A gripping, innovative American independent from writer/director Tim McCann (Desolation Angels), the film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and went on to play at such prestigious fests as Telluride and Toronto. “If we sometimes need comforting fantasies about mental illness, we also need movies like “Revolution #9”, an unadorned, unsparing chronicle of a young man’s descent into a nightmare of delusion. Especially unsettling because it is grounded in a detailed, recognizable world.” A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
Colour, 35mm, 106 mins.

The program will include:

A post-screening discussion with:

Dr. Sean Flynn, a well-known Vancouver psychiatrist, researcher and clinician. He currently works with the Refractory Psychosis Program at Riverview Hospital, and is Assistant Professor within the University Of British Columbia Department of Psychiatry’s Schizophrenia Program.

Evening moderated by:
Dr. Harry Karlinsky Director of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.

Frames of Mind Series programmed by Ms. Caroline Coutts

Co-sponsored by Canadian Mental Health Association, Vancouver/Burnaby Branch