FEATURED MEMBER: LINDA MONTEITH GARDINER

*Support Linda’s campaign to finish The Valedictorian here!*

Linda Monteith Gardiner is a photographer and a nascent filmmaker. She grew up in small town Ontario and did a degree in French literature and linguistics. She also studied piano for 10 years through the Royal Conservatory of Music. She is working to finish her first film, The Valedictorian. She has just completed a graphic novel depicting her psychotic episodes, Me, At Home With The Cameras. Linda finds inspiration in artists like Monet, Dufy and Vivian Maier.

More from Linda on her Current Projects…

The Valedictorian
This story begins in the first year of my undiagnosed psychotic mental illness and documents how it suddenly erupted.  At the age of 19 as I stepped onto the stage to give my high school valedictory address (and to receive several academic honours) the illness took over and my behaviour left the audience in a state of shock and confusion.

This film, made with the support of the Creative Works Studio, takes you back to that moment, as I attempt 39 years later to undo the damage I believed I had caused on that critical night of my life. It catalogues the impact of this crisis on the next four decades of my life, how I tried to survive its devastating impact on my career and personal relationships and how the process of diagnosis and treatment finally began.

The film is almost complete but we need YOUR help to fund a few more days of shooting and post-production.

Please click on the link below to watch the video explaining the importance of this project, and consider a contribution. Absolutely every dollar counts so please don’t feel like a small amount isn’t enough. We’re certain that together we can change the discussion around mental illness to be more open and accepting in the very near future.

Thanks so much and see you at the premiere!!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-valedictorian

Me, At Home With The Cameras
Me, At Home With The Cameras is a series of depictions of how I see or saw hallucinations and delusions or visions (depending on your point of view) as part of my schizoaffective illness. In the book, I have tried to situate them in time to give them some context. Even though I am on therapeutic doses of two anti-psychotic medications, I continue to experience these departures from reality. I hope this booklet will help people understand what it is like to experience a psychotic episode and chip away at the stigma which continues to harm those with mental illnesses.

Purchase the book through Blurb at this link: http://www.blurb.ca/b/5149253-me-at-home-with-the-cameras. And check out the preview below.