[a story about Dr. Ralph Arrowsmith and Riverview Mental Hospital]

Lisa G. Nielsen (Director)
Heidi Currie (Film producer)
Anna Tremere (Film producer)
Linnea Jean (Photographer)
Dr. Ralph Arrowsmith (Interviewee)

2012

Lisa G. Nielsen

Vancouver, British Columbia

Tells the story of Dr. Ralph Arrowsmith, a mid-20th century psychiatrist with a life-long connection to Coquitlam's Riverview Hospital [formerly Essendale asylum], a mental institution that opened in 1913 and closed in 2011. Dr. Arrowsmith, who was passionate about the psychiatric movement and deeply committed to his patients, recounts his years of practice with frank discussions of the treatment and perception of the mentally ill at the iconic mental hospital, from the peak of the institutional movement through deinstitutionalization.

Consciousness is part three of the Riverview Hospital Story Project.

documentary film

videorecording

24 minutes

Director, camera, & editor, Lisa G ; co-producers, Heidi Currie, Anna Tremere ; stills photographer, Linnea Jean ; production assistant, Veronica Martell. Cast: Blair Berkner, Lleilah Chernovsky, Nancy Gephart, Oxana Kabardina. Produced with the assistance of Douglas College & Riverview Hospital Historical Society.

Riverview Hospital Story Project
Psychiatrists--British Columbia--Interviews
Mental health facilities--British Columiba--Coquitlam--History
Psychiatric hospitals--British Columbia--Coquitlam--History
Psychiatric hospital care--British Columbia--Coquitlam--History
Mentally ill--Care--British Columbia--Coquitlam--History
Crease Clinic (Coquitlam,B.C.)
Electroconvulsive therapy--British Columbia--History
Riverview Hospital (Coquitlam, B.C.)

Coquitlam, British Columbia

© Copyright (2012). Any reproduction or republication of all or part of this video is expressly prohibited. All rights reserved.