The Living Museum

From Oscar-winning documentarian Jessica Yu (Breathing Lessons) comes this compelling look at the artistic endeavors of the mentally ill. At Creedmor Institution in Queens, "The Living Museum" was conceived as a place where patients could create art, without constraints and with professional support. This film profiles a number of artists whose conditions range from schizophrenic to suicidal. The primary narrator is psychologist/artist Janos Marton, who founded the museum with artist Bolek Greczynski (who died of AIDS at 44). Marton is both mentor and doctor, aware of his patients' limitations even as he marvels at their talent and dedication.

There's Issa, kept at Creedmor by the courts, whose brief bout of criminal behavior was born of drug-induced psychosis. Handsome, articulate, prolific, he's a Jean-Michel Basquiat look-alike whose work is fiercely focused, technically proficient, and amazingly diverse. John, a pragmatic artist who suffers grandiose delusions, creates sculptures that are erotically charged and whimsical. He recently exhibited his work at a SoHo gallery with Helen, a trained artist suffering severe depression.

It's said that the greatest artists hover at the brink of madness and some topple into the abyss. Yu's film does not romanticize mental illness but rather illuminates the continuum of artistic inspiration, from the seemingly divine and otherworldly to the torturously mundane. Consider David, a monk-mannered sculptor of extraordinary talent who has been diagnosed with everything from bipolar disorder to psychosis to PTSD. He loves Beethoven, and his insights can be astounding, as when he says, "Living with mental illness as a bedmate is pretty horrendous, and there may be no hope of a cure. But life is still worth living even with it, life is heaven and we just have to wake ourselves to it." At the Museum of Fine Arts this Sunday, October 17.

-- Peg Aloi