Series/Festivals

People Say I'm Crazy John and Katie Cadigan. (unrated) Fiction and nonfiction filmmakers have dramatized (and misrepresented) schizophrenia, but People Say I'm Crazy offers a direct alternative: a first-person diary made over several years by the affected individual. John Cadigan lives in the San Francisco area and agreed to "let people inside my brain." An artist, Cadigan carves and prints detailed woodcuts for which he has received national recognition, though his first psychotic episode at 21 caused him to drop out of art school. With his commitment to "to be totally honest and reveal everything," Cadigan documents his struggles with depression and violent fantasies, medication that caused considerable weight gain and devastating paranoia as well as his family's solid support through difficult periods. People Say I'm Crazy is a corrective to widespread cultural misrepresentation through its rare glimpse into John Cadigan's courageous and personal revelations. Screens at 8 p.m. Friday, May 21, through Sunday, May 23, in the Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University, 470 E. Lockwood Avenue. Call 314-968-7487 for more information. (Diane Carson)

Talk to Her Pedro Almodóvar. (R) Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodóvar has favored outrageous female characters in zany plots, so Talk to Her is an unexpected gem with its sensitive story of two distinctly different men: travel writer Marco and nurse Benigno. Each loves a woman who has lapsed into a coma. For Benigno, it's aspiring ballerina Alicia, whom he's watched from his apartment facing her dance studio. After an accident puts Alicia in the hospital, Benigno volunteers for extra shifts and talks to her as though she can answer. Marco has become enamored of courageous matador Lydia, who's been gored by a bull. During repeat visits, Marco and Benigno soon connect. Almodóvar delicately stitches their lives together, granting Marco and Benigno a rare tenderness informed by tragedy and hope, joy and human contact in this immensely moving and profoundly humane film. In Spanish with English subtitles. Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 20, with analysis by Gerald Izenberg, Ph.D., in Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University, 470 E. Lockwood Avenue. Call 314-968-7487 for more information. (Diane Carson)