The Recovery Channel (2024)

Randi Isaksen, news-anchor at Recovery Channel, is confronted with the daunting realities of flawed mental health systems as she tries to navigate on behalf of her sister. In THE RECOVERY CHANNEL, filmmaker Ellen Ugelstad blends documentary and narrative storytelling to expose an oppressive system designed to control, not heal, the human condition. Informed by her own family experiences, Ugelstad creates a fictional TV channel to explore the injustices faced by those with mental health challenges, and exposes the use of coercion in contemporary therapy. Through a humanistic lens, Ugelstad explores the negative impact of an oppressive system, while advocating for the recognition of mental health as a human right rather than an illness. The film comments on the media's role, its power and how their scarce form helps to define how we receive knowledge about mental illness, diagnoses and coercion.