West 47th Street (2001)

WEST 47th STREET is a feature-length theatrical documentary film. It follows the lives of four people with serious mental illness, over three years. The film provides an unprecedented window on the lives of people who are often feared and ignored, seldom understood. Co-producers Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples enjoyed an extraordinary degree of access to their lives, and shot more than 350 hours of tape: off and on the street, in and out of hospitals and homeless shelters, healthy -- and psychotic. The resulting stories, both warm and dramatic, are about people who approach tremendous obstacles with humor, optimism and grace.