AddictionMoviesPsychology / Self-help

Hiding In Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, A Ken Burns Documentary

By Kindred Media

We don’t talk about feelings, we don’t talk about struggles,
we don’t talk about what’s going on in our head.

— Makalynn, Age 24

It’s taken me a very, very long time to even speak openly about it.
But if I don’t talk about it now, then I’m wasting potential time
where I could help somebody. If I can even reach two people
from everything I say, then I did my part in this world.

— Morgan, Age 26

Mental illness is one of the most significant health crises in the world—as pervasive as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease—but it often exists in secret and is endured in isolation. It’s the place where sadness leaves off, and depression begins; where nervousness becomes anxiety; excitement becomes mania, and habit becomes addiction. It’s the place where simply living becomes painful.

It affects all ages, in families both rich and poor, healthy and dysfunctional. Trauma can be the trigger—from personal crises such as divorce and neglect to environmental disasters, racial injustice, and pandemics. Over time, the symptoms can progress, and lead to increasingly extreme behaviors—like eating disorders, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide.

The issues surrounding mental illness are extraordinarily complex. The risk factors are daunting, the economics bewildering, and the politics contentious. But the most important step—and often the most difficult one—is to start talking about it. Hiding in Plain Sight will bring that conversation into homes, schools, the workplace, and community organizations across the country.

The two-part, four-hour film follows the journeys of more than 20 young Americans from all over the country and all walks of life, who have struggled with thoughts and feelings that have troubled—and, at times—overwhelmed them. They share what they have learned about themselves, their families, and the world in which they live. Through first-person accounts, the film presents an unstinting look at both the seemingly insurmountable obstacles faced by those who live with mental disorders and the hope that many have found after that storm. In the process, they will directly confront the issues of stigma, discrimination, awareness, and silence, and, in doing so, support the ongoing shift in the public perception of mental illness today.

Executive produced by Ken Burns, co-directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, produced by Julie Coffman, and written by David Blistein, Hiding in Plain Sight, the first film of Our Mental Health Crisis, premieres June 27-28, 2022. (4 hours)

Learn more about the documentary and watch the two episodes here.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the Children’s Health Act to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events. This unique network of frontline providers, family members, researchers, and national partners is committed to changing the course of children’s lives by improving their care and moving scientific gains quickly into practice across the U.S.

In response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde Texas, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed resources to help children, families, educators, and communities navigate what they are seeing and hearing, acknowledge their feelings, and find ways to cope together. These resources include:

See the full list.

Kindred Media

Kindred World began as a grassroots, consciousness-raising organization of parents and professionals in 1996, twenty-five years into America’s fifty year decline to the bottom of all developed nations' indicators for family, maternal, infant, and children's health. Today, Kindred World’s nonprofit mission and vision of a Wisdom-based, Wellness-informed Society, are more relevant and important than ever.

During the current climate crisis, pandemic, and political upheaval, Kindred World’s quarter century of investigating and sharing a New Story of Our Human Family is a blazed path to wholeness and wellness ready for others to follow. With a consistent dedication to serve, Kindred World's leaders, contributors, volunteers, and community participants have explored the interconnectedness of the “categories” you will find on this website. This holistic approach – looking for the connections between all of life’s interdependent and diverse forms – has allowed us to discover integrated insights into creating lifelong wellness.

Kindred World, and it's nonprofit initiative, Kindred Media, have explored this New Story from the ground up - in grassroots’ communities - and from the top down - with frontier science researchers and social changemakers. This New Story comes with its own language, phrases like Cultural Creatives, Bio-Cultural Conflict, Grounded Expansion, Harmonic Family Resonance, Phronesis, the Evolved Nest, Original Brilliance and the Ecology of the Child, can be found in our New Story Glossary. If we're going to tell a New Story, we will need new language.

What is needed at this time is a safe gathering place, a sanctuary, created with great compassion to inspire and welcome our imaginations to engage in open dialogue, to create connected community, and to identify resources that support an adventurous exploration of thriving.

Welcome to that safe gathering space.

Visit our parent nonprofit at www.KindredWorld.org
Join the discussion at www.KindredCommunity.org

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