JULY 2022 at the SALON

Long-time Salon members may recall a work-in-progress, presented almost 5 years ago, of a first-person film retracing an adolescent's draconian mental illness treatment.  This month, director Leslie Koren and producer Laura Heberton return with the powerful, fully-transformed feature Now Return Us to Normal.

From the director:

At 16, I was struck by severe clinical depression and, seemingly overnight, transformed from a healthy, socially-active teenager to someone unable to function. I was put on suicide watch. Overwhelmed by anxiety and leery of institutional options, my parents sent me to the Oakley School, an isolated reform boarding program for “problem youth,” near Park City, Utah. Its glossy brochures promised a radical reversal of dysfunctional behavior – a fixed kid. I went to Oakley voluntarily, but others were taken from their homes by adult escorts and were unable to contact anyone. 

 

Twelve years after graduating, I experienced a post-traumatic attack as buried memories flooded to the surface – and this became the catalyst for the film. I began reaching out to classmates, eager to find connections to a shared experience. The deeper I looked, the more complicated the past became. I reunite with four alumni for the first time in over a decade. Intimate character portraits are woven with VHS material, dream-like sequences, interviews with my parents and trauma specialists, and my own search for answers. 

Laura will be present for the screening and discussion to follow, and  Leslie will join us via Zoom.

Wednesday, July 27

6:30p Food & Social

7:00p Screening & Discussion

WQED's Hillman Conference Room

4802 Fifth Ave. Pittsburgh 15213