Movies Like Asylum: An Empty Nest For The Mentally Ill?

Echo Of The Past: The Terrence Tower

2012

A historical documentary documenting the rise, function, and abandonment of a 17 story building that once housed The Rochester Psychiatric Center. This film tells the story of the building through historical footage, interviews of former staff and patients who recount their memories of the behemoth facility while also exploring the abandoned building as it is today.

L'albero storpio

1982

Reimagining A Buffalo Landmark

2019

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

Psychiatric Nursing

1958

Psychiatric Nursing: The Nurse-Patient Relationship is a 1958 American documentary film directed by Lee R. Bobker. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The Next Right Thing

Movie

Four peoples’ lives are brought together by the opioid crisis in a small Georgia city. A seasoned firefighter saves the life of a young woman looking for purpose, while grieving parents fight to provide the support their son struggled to find.

On the Edge

2023

Things are busy at the Paris hospital where young psychiatrist Jamal and his colleagues work. The place is run down, the staff are exhausted, budgets are constantly being slashed. You know the story, but you’ve rarely seen it conveyed as engagingly as in ‘On the Edge’, which employs a handheld camera and meaningful, artistic interventions to observe the daily routine at the psychiatric ward. The deeply sympathetic Jamal is an everyday hero with an exemplary, humanistic disposition, for whom the most important prerequisites for mental health – and for a healthy society in general – are good relationships with other people. He puts his philosophy into practice by listening patiently, giving good advice and organising theatre exercises based on Molière. Realism and idealism, however, are in balance for the young doctor, at least as long as the institutional framework holds up.

Fit to Be Untied

1975

This documentary was distilled from a 3 1/2-hour television film Nessuno o Tutti, to make the point that many inmates now in mental hospitals could be released without harm to society, and to their advantage.

Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King

2020

A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.

Human Resources

2010

Documentary film exploring the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the exploitation of human beings under modern hierarchical systems. Topics covered include behaviorism, scientific management, workplace democracy, schooling, frustration-aggression hypothesis, and human experimentation.

John Candy: I Like Me

2025

Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy

2018

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital in Crownsville, MD.

Night Will Fall

2014

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

Unit of Difficult Patients: What Future for the Criminally Insane?

2017

With unique and exclusive testimonies from doctors, nurses, loved ones, and patients we go behind closed doors to examine a high security psychiatric facility that takes care of some of the most dangerous patients.

Stutz

2022

In candid conversations with actor Jonah Hill, leading psychiatrist Phil Stutz explores his early life experiences and unique, visual model of therapy.

The Irishman: In Conversation

2019

Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in conversation about The Irishman.

The Menendez Brothers

2024

Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.

Titicut Follies

1967

A stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists.

Marwencol

2010

After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in "Marwencol", a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard.