At Home in the Dark
17 Short Films on Trauma & PTSD
On July 1, 2013 author and filmmaker Charles Shaw (Exile Nation, The Plastic People) awoke to the news that his younger sister, Suraya, had committed suicide at age 40. She had battled severe alcoholism and addiction for most of her adult life, and her death was not entirely unexpected, but it was a devastating blow nonetheless.
Within the next year another close friend and a cherished mentor would both die by suicide. These deaths would begin a dark four-year journey into our deepest personal and collective shadow.
As a 30-year survivor of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from childhood violence and sexual abuse, and coming off the highly dangerous and traumatic Plastic People shoot in drug war-torn Tijuana, Shaw was compelled to explore trauma and PTSD through film as a means of trying to understand what happened to his sister and friends, to hold himself together, and to heal the wounds from so much pain and loss.
For three years he traveled the globe, alone, with a pair of cameras and an audio recorder, meeting with people who told them about their most intimate traumatic experiences. The result of this work is At Home in the Dark: 17 Short Films Exploring Trauma & PTSD.
The series is a highly personal, creative and subjective exploration of one of our culture's most ignored and misunderstood public health crises. This is not a traditional documentary by any stretch of the imagination; this is an experimental approach to a difficult subject. From the streets of Harlem to the jungles of Peru, At Home in the Dark introduces the viewer to a diverse range of trauma survivors, from former slave-holding blue bloods to suffering veterans, and takes their tragedy and turns it into art with beauty and meaning. The intimate settings and absence of a film crew or other intrusive presences makes for a unique and candid interview and storytelling experience.
#1 Prologue: Suraya
#2 The Malfunctioning Mammal
The meta picture on trauma biology.
feat. Benjamin Fry
#3 What is PTSD?
Looking at the 4 key areas of disruption.
feat. Kathleen Chard PhD
#4 The Historical Origins of PTSD
The four historical phases of PTSD consciousness
Adapted from Trauma & Recovery by Judith Herman, PhD
#5 A Snapshot of Grief
What happens to the survivors in the wake of a suicide?
#6 Invisible Walls
Social Exclusion & the Daily Trauma of Poverty and Addiction
feat. Dimitri Mugianis & Brian Murphy
#7 Manifest Destiny
One Man's Redemption Through The Sins of His Fathers
feat. Cary "Harrison" Sudler
#8 A New Model For Addiction
Ending the reign of the “Disease Model.”
feat. Andrew Tatarsky PhD
#9 Qualified Immunity
A brief contemporary history of police brutality.
#10 The Agony & The Ecstasy
MDMA, Prison and PTSD.
Feat. Julie Holland MD
#11 Ayahuasca in Ibiza
feat. Armando Pazi & Kelsey Gustafson
#12 To Become Human
Musings on the Nature of Power
feat. Andrew Tatarsky PhD
#13 Maja's Home
Surviving incest in one of the world's "happiest" countries.
feat. Maja Dunder
#14 The Drama Triangle
An Alternative Perspective on the Contemporary Jewish Experience
feat. Benjamin Fry & Einat Ran
#15 An Ode To Detroit
Post-Industrial Trauma & The Collapse of Cities
feat. Yusef Bunchy Shakur
#16 Soldiers of the Vine (Parts I & II)
Six American veterans go to Peru to explore a 10-day plant dieta to treat PTSD.
Produced by Mitch Shultz and Dimitri Mugianis
#17 EPILOGUE: Can We Heal?