Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw

My uncle endured 60 years of schizophrenia that began when he was in the Navy during World War II. He was a gentle soul, a creative artist and musician, but interacted little with others and lived a life of inner turmoil. Aside from medication, he got very little help. I always wondered, why?

I was drawn to Chamique Holdsclaw’s story from the day I read a piece on her in The New York Times in early 2012. She’d been the best of the best, took a great fall, but emerged in recovery as a mental health advocate, remarkably candid about her own challenges. She was fighting the good fight about something very few are comfortable with talking about. Indeed, mental illness comes with great stigma—it is perhaps the final taboo of America’s pressing social problems.

What came as a shock was the turmoil in Chamique’s life that emerged during production. But both she and I stuck with the film and the resultant story, warts and all, became all the more compelling, revealing, inspiring and, most importantly, useful, for its many and diverse intended audiences.