Boy, Interruped TONITE on HBO!

I met Dana Perry, director of "Boy, Interrupted," last June 26 at the HBO premiere of the documentary in Chicago, IL. I looked into her eyes and saw a mother's pain. She is still working through the interruption. It's only logical.

The documentary film, which will be on HBO tonight with an accompanying DVD release tomorrow, tells the story of Evan Perry, Dana Perry's son, who at 15 decided prematurely to end his life. This is a story of a mother's struggle with a bipolar child. This is a story of how silence and denial doesn't out live the truth. Mental illness is real. It's genetic. Its treatable, but only if discussed. It teaches that responsibility and stigma matter. It speaks the vigilance of parents aware of a history gone unspoken.

Regina Weinreich did a very poignant interviewed of Dana and her struggles making this film. It was the Chicken Soup for her soul, yet the truth is that one never truly heals from a passing such as this.

When seeing the film, I found that stigma played a much larger part than discussed. It goes back again to the simple basics of helping people understand what it means to suffer from a disease such as this. Evan, being a manic case, on one extreme, while other milder cases hide in the shadows.

The film is a personal story. But I can't help but wonder about the millions of people who have to deal but lack the resources with which the Perry's were blessed. However, the film is definitely a start and illustration of an open wound.

I hope enough people see it and start to learn what it means to live and to die. And how an interruption affects those left behind.

The Afterw@rd