"Levitt's impressive directorial debut sensitively and often humourously sheds light on this little discussed illness."--Sheffield International Documentary Festival
Sunny Intervals and Showers is about changes in a family that are motivated by the father's recent behaviors and diagnosis with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. At the beginning, our main character Allan is suspended from work after his first 'high' episode. But as the film shows, it is often his diagnosis (rather than episodes of illness itself) which causes changes in how he is viewed.
The film presents mental illness as a complex and largely misunderstood social problem that colours every aspect of life. Its complexity is best underlined by the fact that Allan and his wife Jackie are both doctors: Instead of helping them cope, their difficulties are compounded by conflicts between their medical knowledge and actual experiences living with Allan's condition. How can we tell the difference between Allan's illness and his personality?
Other manic-depressives, at Allan's self-help group, offer guidance in interpreting what is happening. But for the most part, viewers are left to judge the truth for themselves, and perhaps to question how Allan's diagnosis with a mental illness is colouring their own judgments. Sunny Intervals and Showers therefore aims to be a more active experience than most films. Different people will often view the characters and events fundamentally differently, and then carry on heated debates after screenings.
While the film is meant to be entertaining, and even funny, these post-film discussions bring Sunny Intervals and Showers back to its origins. As a psychology researcher, I was interested in how emotions, stigma, and unpredictability impact people's identities. And manic depression is a rare subject that encompasses all of these areas. When I shifted careers from academic research to documentary filmmaking, a Fulbright Scholarship funded nine months of research throughout England meeting hundreds of potential 'characters'.
For many manic-depressives, experiencing statistically extreme emotions seems to lead to wisdom that is applicable in everyone's emotional life. Rather than film in hospitals, we follow Allan, Jackie and their children living otherwise normal lives, with which viewers can easily identify. For those without experience of mental illness, Sunny Intervals and Showers offers rare insight into a foreign world--which would then be less foreign if they later encounter it. For the many who have experienced it themselves or in their family, the film offers empathy and the hope that others will more fully understand the challenges they face.
"The case of Allan Levi reveals the complex difficulties people who suffer from manic-depressive disorders can encounter and the inability of modern science to cope with the disease."--One World Human Rights Film Festival, Prague