PORT TOWNSEND — A film highlighting the effects of one person’s mental illness on a family will be shown free of charge in October.
“Canvas,” which is scheduled to be shown at the Rose Theatre in Port Townsend, is drawn from real life, just like a better-known film, “A Beautiful Mind.”
Like the 2001 movie, about a Nobel Prize-winning math genuis whose grasp on reality crumbles into schizophrenia, “Canvas” has won awards and has name actors.
But instead of a high-profile subject, the story of “Canvas” paints a picture of ordinary people dealing with an ordinary issue: a family member who has mental illness.
“It’s very realistic about how mental illness affects everyone in the family, not just the person with the illness,” said Elaine Nelson, president of the NAMI Jefferson County board.
NAMI Jefferson County, a local, nonprofit affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is sponsoring the showing of “Canvas” in conjunction with national Mental Illness Awareness Week.
