Mad As

Currently completing an application form for a small amount of funding from a trust which dispenses money for mental health projects. And yesterday I began discussions with a national organisation which helps to destigmatise mental illness.

The Insatiable Moon is a story, not a 'message' film, thank God. But it is set in the context of the attempt to integrate psychiatric patients into the community - a situation which is common to the whole of the Western world. The hero of our story is, after all, classified as a psychiatric patient.

I've been fascinated by 'madness' ever since I worked among the psychiatric community back in the 80s. I was intrigued by the spirituality of the people, the directness of conversation which transgressed notions of 'politeness', and the mutual nurturing that went on among survivors. To be honest, I also enjoyed what is commonly labelled as madness. It has a fascination and aliveness about it.

Director Akira Kurosawa has said "In a mad world, only the mad are sane". If ever there was a mad world, it is the one we have inherited. Moon explores this territory where notions of sanity are inverted.