The final months of a missing woman with mental illness are told through her diaries in God Knows Where I Am. In May 2008, the body of a woman was discovered in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse. Through diaries discovered on the scene, the woman was identified as Linda Bishop, who had a history of schizophrenia and psychosis. Through the recollection of her friends and family and narrated entries from her diaries, the tragic sequence of events leading to her death are revealed.
God Knows Where I Am takes a peak inside the mind of someone suffering from mental illness and how the system in many ways failed her. Linda Bishop never believed that she was mentally ill, which is what indirectly lead to her death, since she refused treatment at the mental health hospital she was admitted to and eventually unconditionally released. However, Bishop was a heavily delusional woman, who believed that she would receive salvation if she waited in the farmhouse until the start of Advent, despite only having apples from a nearby tree to eat.
The ultimate question asked by God Knows Where I Am is what exactly happened to Linda Bishop. The narrated diary entries illustrate what happened to her in the farmhouse, while her friends and family filled in the rest. The result is a very sad story of a woman with mental illness and the delusions that lead to her death. This film can be seen as proof that sometimes people need help, even if they don’t believe it themselves.
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Screenings:
- Saturday, April 30, 9:15 PM – Scotiabank Theatre 4
- Monday, May 2, 12:15 PM – TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
- Saturday, May 7, 9:30 PM – Scotiabank Theatre 13