NZ: Filmmaker highlights government indifference to 'institutionalised abuse'

Nick Grant

AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): The director of a documentary about New Zealand’s psychiatric hospitals hopes his film will encourage the government to publically apologise to the victims of institutionalised abuse.

Jim Marbrook’s Mental Notes tells the often shameful story of this country’s psychiatric institutions, a story that remains largely unknown despite a 2007 report by a government-appointed forum detailing corroborated evidence of poor practice and abuse in government-run mental hospitals.

While the government accepted the forum’s report at the time of its release, there has never been an official acknowledgement of its findings, let alone an apology.

There was further evidence of official indifference about the issue last month, when a Justice Ministry representative declined to say how the government would respond to a letter from the United Nations’ committee against torture.

The committee’s letter enquired whether there would be further investigation into allegations of child torture at the now-closed Lake Alice psychiatric hospital, given police closed an investigation in 2009 without laying charges against any former staff.

“One of the things that led me to make Mental Notes was my realisation that the patients’ stories were missing from the official histories of New Zealand’s psychiatric hospitals. I hope the film goes some way to addressing this absence,” says director Jim Marbrook, an AUT television lecturer.

“What the film can’t make up for, though, is the lack of an official acknowledgement of what went on in those places. I challenge anyone who doesn’t think a formal apology is absolutely appropriate and necessary to watch Mental Notes and then try to make that argument.

Continued silence
“As Kiwis we like to think of ourselves as being the citizens of a fair and just society, but the government’s continued silence on this subject is a real stain on that sense of ourselves and the kind of country we live in.

“What should also be a source of national shame is the way the government is currently trying to buy the silence of some of those who’ve suffered these injustices,” Marbrook says, in reference to recent reports that former patients involved in a litigation process are being approached with cash offers in exchange for indemnifying the government from any potential civil proceedings.

“Not only is this an attempt to sweep these scandals back under the rug, but what about the survivors not involved in legal proceedings? They and their experiences continue to be completely ignored by our elected representatives.”

After screening in the World Cinema Showcase earlier this year, when it attracted large audiences and glowing reviews, Mental Notes is now receiving a limited release at select cinemas around the country, beginning in Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, Gisborne, and Christchurch.

Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand chief executive Judi Clements has endorsed the film as a reminder “of an era that to a large extent has passed but should not be forgotten” and an illustration of how “practices that may be appropriate, or even seen as good practice, in professional terms in one era may be regarded as totally unacceptable, or even brutal, in the next”.

Critics have also been enthusiastic. Dominion Post and Radio New Zealand National film reviewer Graeme Tuckett has recommended Mental Notes as “a stunning film: moving, funny, and – even though I hate this word – important”, while the NZ Herald’s Peter Calder has praised the film for its “measured, unsensationalist tone and its focus on the survivors rather than the historical horrors”, noting that “it’s not simply a catalogue of victimhood; its subjects’ stories are full of humour and hope”.

Mental health documentary showcases ‘disturbing history’