Saturday, November 7, 2009 East Central Illinois

11th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2009

'Canvas,' a film on coping with mental illness, to be at Ebertfest

By: Melissa Merli
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

'Canvas,' a film on coping with mental illness, to be at Ebertfest

CHAMPAIGN – You might think that a person with schizophrenia would not excel in the parenting department. That is not the case for many, including director Joseph Greco's mother.

In her early 20s she developed paranoid schizophrenia. Yet she was a terrific and loving mother to her only son – so much so that he wrote and directed "Canvas," his first feature film, about a family grappling with mental illness.

"The movie is part of my childhood," Greco said last week in a telephone interview. "The film is a love letter to my family. It's a love letter to my mother."

Greco will bring "Canvas" to Roger Ebert's Film Festival at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Virginia Theatre. After the screening, he will speak along with producers Adam Hammel, Lucy Engibarian-Hammel and Bill Erfurth.

Greco, now 35, said "Canvas," told from a young son's point of view, had a long gestation period, during which he worked as an assistant director to James Cameron on the blockbuster "Titanic" – before the young actor, Devon Gearhart, who plays the son, was even born.

Greco believes the long fermentation of "Canvas" ended up helping the movie.

"In addition to being a film that entertains people, it's actually having a profound impact on the mental health community," he said. "We just had screenings at Yale, Tufts and UCLA, and I've been brought in to speak at mental-health screenings like the one on Sunday."

That screening, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Virginia, is sponsored by the Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance, a group that challenges discrimination against people with mental illness and other disabilities. The screening is free and open to the public.

Another benefit of "Canvas" is that Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Pantoliano, who plays John Marino, the father, publicly disclosed that he has suffered from depression and believes that his mother suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

As a result, Pantoliano founded the nonprofit organization, No Kidding, Me Too!, of entertainment industry members united to combat the stigma associated with mental illness.

The name of the group stemmed from "Canvas" viewers telling Pantoliano and others involved in the film that they have a family member or have suffered from mental illness too.

"The goal is to tear this stigma out of the closet and de-isolate it so that these people will be surprised to find millions of others like themselves and say, 'no kidding, me too!'", says the group's Web site.

No Kidding, Me Too! will give its first NKM2 Award on May 28 to actress Sally Field. The award was established to honor entertainers who advocate on behalf of people with mental illness.

Greco speaks to legislators too – he was to attend a Congressional briefing today – and will speak at the Democratic and Republication national conventions.

As for his mother, she is doing well and continues to take psychiatric medication. However, she and her husband are divorced.

"My parents are still together metaphorically speaking," Greco said. "The mental-health system is so broken. My father had to divorce my mother so he could get adequate care for her. Ironically, she's getting better care because they're divorced.'

His parents continue to live in Florida; Greco grew up in Hollywood, Fla., and now lives in Los Angeles.

"For me it's hard being away from family, especially my mother," he said. "Being an only child, I go home frequently. My mother is supportive of my filmmaking endeavors, and I'm really honored that both of my parents are alive and have seen the film."

In fact, Greco's mother loves "Canvas" and actress Marcia Gay Harden, who portrays Mary Marino, who Greco based on his mother and two other people with mental illness.

"She likes to joke she had an Academy Award-winning actress playing her," Greco said.

His mother met Harden at one of the screenings of "Canvas" but not before. Greco made a conscious decision not to have cast members meet his parents before or during production.

"I wanted them to not feel they had to mimic anyone but instead realize full characters," he said.

"Marcia ended up doing things uncannily similar to my mother. There's a moment in the film when Marcia's character starts laughing uncontrollably for no reason at the dinner table, and my mother would do that all the time."

Greco, Harden and Pantoliano researched schizophrenia before making the film. One thing that Greco learned was that schizophrenics most often have auditory, rather than visual, hallucinations.

To help develop their characters, Pantoliano and Harden both spent time at a New York City clubhouse for people with mental illness.

"They achieved the essence of my parents, and those remarkable similarities came from a real organized place," Greco said.

Other festival stories