You’ll find it easy to see yourself and your loved ones reflected in Any Given Day.
And it’s easier than ever to watch Any Given Day cause it’s now available to rent and purchase on AppleTV & iTunes. While investigating the treatment of detainees with mental illness in Chicago jails, filmmaker, Margaret Byrne, finds herself on an unexpectedly, personal multi-year journey when she meets Angela, Daniel, and Dimitar, three defendants in the Cook County mental Health Court’s probation program.
Margaret developed genuine friendships with the film’s participants and so they let her in to capture their isolating and painful moments alongside joyful times, too. And Margaret reciprocated. Turning the camera on herself underscores a familiar feeling in the movie that “in some other version of my life, that could have been me”.
Margaret films Angela at a bus stop in Chicago
Sensitive filmmaking aside, everyone knows someone who has experienced what Dimitar, Angela, Daniel and their families have gone through. One in five Americans has experienced mental illness, and one in fifteen Americans has experienced both a mental illness and a substance use disorder (for more information about these stats and how to take action, check out AGD’s Impact campaign page HERE).
And as communities nationwide re-evaluate the role of law enforcement, particularly with respect to crimes of survival and mental health, Any Given Day shows us what life is like navigating the justice system with mental illness.
Big thanks to Cinemaguild for making the Apple TV / iTunes release possible.
Some recent articles about Mental Health Policy
L.A. County on track to join Newsom’s sweeping mental health plan a year early
By some estimates, close to 40% of people living on the streets are experiencing severe mental illness, a substance abuse disorder or both. More precisely, the California Policy Lab at UCLA determined that just over 4,500 people living on the streets of the county have a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia, and that number includes only those who have received outreach services
And in case you missed it, from a few months ago…In Chicago, the 6th, 20th and 33rd wards will pilot a new intervention model that excludes law enforcement presence in mental health emergency calls.