Running From Crazy

From two-time Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple and executive producer Oprah Winfrey, RUNNING FROM CRAZY examines the personal journey of Oscar-nominated actress, author and mental health advocate Mariel Hemingway, the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway. The film follows Mariel as she strives for a deeper understanding of the suicide and mental illness that have afflicted so many of her family members, including her supermodel/actress sister Margaux Hemingway, who committed suicide near the anniversary of Ernest's own suicide, and her eldest sister, artist Joan "Muffet" Hemingway, who was diagnosed with manic depression and now lives in Idaho. Recalling a childhood framed by alcoholism, cancer and misery, Mariel admits to a support group for families of suicide, shown in the film, "Knowing that there's so much suicide and so much mental illness in my family, I've always kind of been 'running from crazy,' worried that one day I'd wake up and be in the same position." Intimate verite footage and raw, emotional interviews with Mariel herself are interwoven with stunning, rarely seen archival footage of the three Hemingway sisters and their parents. Mariel also reluctantly reveals a troubling belief she now holds about her alcoholic father, Jack Hemingway, who died in 2000.