12 Days

(12 jours, Raymond Depardon, France 2017, 87 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)

Rochester Premiere | After Bedlam. Every year in France, 92,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. By law, the hospital has twelve days to bring each patient before a judge. Based on medical records and a doctor’s recommendations, a crucial decision has to be made—will the patient stay or leave? Granted access to these hearings for the first time, celebrated filmmaker/photographer Raymond Depardon captures these extraordinary encounters between justice and psychiatry. Astonishing, enlightening—a film that gives a voice to those who have previously been voiceless.