For Shadows
2013, Regular 8mm, HD video, color, sound, 26 minutes
A contemplative, multi-layered memoir that explores the process of coming to terms with one’s shadow while unraveling the tangled roots of self-harm. The home movies of a child’s formative years and an interior landscape of traumatic domestic memories are excavated and re-constructed alongside sound clips from archival mental hygiene films. Original music by cellist Zoe Keating and Terry Riley & the Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble.
Endorsements
For Shadows, In Light, In!, & Crooked Beauty comprise the Mad Dance Mental Health Film Trilogy.
“The Mad Dance Trilogy is intensely personal, yet successfully communicates broad truths of what it means to suffer in today’s world. These profoundly beautiful films peel back the layers of untruths that deem certain aspects of human experience as ‘psychiatric disturbances’, and thus renew our sense of hope.”
- Brent Potter, Ph.D., Author, Elements of Self-Destruction
“The Mad Dance Trilogy resonates with our sense of human dignity. The films gently disarm the innocent and guarded, and clear a compassionate exit path from stigma. I use Crooked Beauty in educational presentations, and if you have seen it, you know Mr. Rosenthal’s brilliance and spirit of hope.”
- Jacek/Jack A. Haciak, Psy.D., Consultant, Activist
“The Mad Dance Trilogy is poignant and barrier breaking. “
- Jannika Nyberg, Co-founder/Project Coordinator, ArtQuake