The first thing Germans ask is: What do you do for a living?
What am I saying?
I am a high functioning alcoholic.
My goal is to become mediocre.
In a mobile performance through four private apartments in Neukölln, director Christiane Mudra provides insight into the lives of mentally ill people and describes the situation in Germany’s psychiatric institutions from the Nazi era to the present day. The intimate setting allows us to sense the loneliness and isolation of city dwellers behind the façades of the meritocracy. In each apartment, a person affected has his or her say, reporting on their everyday life and how they deal with their illness. They tell how they themselves experience their depression, their schizophrenia, their anorexia or alcoholism, how they learn(ed) to deal with it, how their environment reacts to them and what they wish for. A patient file from the years 1939 to 1984 also illustrates the embattled reform efforts in Germany’s psychiatric hospitals as well as stigmatization and shame in the direct environment of those affected.
The theater research shows the normality of widespread illnesses and asks about the connection between the increasing number of mentally ill people and the demands of the so-called performance society lies. In doing so, »Selfie & Ich« exposes en passant the systemic deformation of our oh-so-happy society.
investigative
stands for journalistic long-term research that is based primarily on original sources and also uncovers unknown facts.
theater
plays out the research specifically in different formats. investigative theater experiments with digital tools and seeks interaction with the audience.
