While stories of sadness, loss, and often horrific abuse are recounted in this documentary, ultimately the larger themes are courage and resilience. The film in no way slaps a smiley face on its subjects'v experiences, but it shows the women as survivors and as---perhaps surprisingly, particularly for some students--"normal" people. Their humor and honesty and their unwillingness to be defined by a diagnosis prove that there is no such group as "the mentally ill"--there is only an incredibly diverse group of complex people with rich lives who suffer from mental illness.

Allie Light, the filmmaker who discusses on camera her own struggle with depression, presents the range of psychiatric disorders, from "simple" unipolar depression to schizophrenia. She also confronts the ambivalence some sufferers feel about their illness; Hannah, whose bipolar disorder has been stabilized by lithium, misses her manic states, in which she felt "intensely alive."

The movie's associate producer, Karen Wong, was raped and murdered before the completion of the documentary, and this shocking and awful event is movingly addressed by Light near the end of the film. But she leaves us with the image of Deedee, who symbolically enacts her fantasy of becoming a fish by walking, fully dressed, suitcase in hand, into the sea--a hopeful and brave conclusion.

Editor’s Note: As a follow-up to the film, it is worth noting that, at this writing, the surviving participants are leading satisfying, productive lives.