The Other Side of Joy (2003)

The Other Side of Joy looks deep into the lives and minds of Sarah and Joy. Sarah is obsessed with forcing Joy to acknowledge their past relationship, whereas Joy is determined to leave that past, one of mental illness and hospitalization, far behind her. Their spirits, once united, unravel in a sea of denial. The Other Side of Joy is dedicated to an amazing actress Susan Benenson, who passed away shortly after the completion of this movie. Her real life illness conveys an honesty and eerie frailty to her role that is truly haunting. The ten years that elapsed between filming the past and present tenses captured the devastating effects of time on Sarah's face and figure, and contributed in a subtle and powerful way to The Other Side of Joy. sweet marie productions feature film: THE OTHER SIDE OF JOYWhile The Other Side of Joy is fictional, its characters are drawn from real life, and the hospital scenes were faithfully re-enacted from scenes depicted in a psychologist's detailed diary. The film captures both the monotony and episodic fits of excitement that characterizes many psychiatric wards, and also expresses the pain and terrible beauty of mental illness.