CFF60: ILLUMINATE review - DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE by Mark Aitken

MARK AITKEN finds hope in the most unlikely of places - a neglected mental institution in an empoverished Mexican town. DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE screened at the ILLUMINATE strand of the 60th CORK FILM FESTIVAL, dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues.

It is a sad but true fact that mental illness and marginalisation often walk hand in hand, whether in cinema or in real life. For his latest documentary DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE, filmmaker MARK AITKEN takes his camera to an establishment that stands as an ultimate if not downright extreme testimony to this fact. A mental asylum in an empoverished Mexican town named Juarez, not far from the Mexican border, which is run by the patients themselves. 

Here, the patients are literally cast out of society and dumped in the shabby establishment, left to fend for themselves. Despite the obvious substandard conditions of the place, however, AITKEN seeks humanity and praises the resilience and compassion of its people, and allows this to be the driving force of his documentary. This place is, after all, a shelter that is much safer than being out in the streets of Juarez, where they would be exposed to dangers and abuse. 

In exposing this particular side of the story, DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE clearly distances itself from being, a loud voiced exposè of a social plague, nor is it a film that boasts expertize on the matter.

At the same time, it is not a romanticized account. While sometimes the cinematography is used creatively, perhaps in an attempt to convey the personalities of the single individuals more than attempts to enter their minds, the feature is not a shallow romanticized account. In fact, it is far from being that. Some sequences are obviously tough to watch. While there are moments of warmth that highlight the surrogate family like atmosphere of the place, other sequences are incredibly tought to watch, whether graphic or not. Sometimes the camera is left lingering on subjects to an uncomfortable point, and other times it does not shy away from being all too close. 

This hint at provocation, however, is simply part of the school of a style familiar to the wave of direct cinema, which AITKEN is sometimes keen to employ in this film. It also reveals the atmosphere for what it is, remaining true to it and while sometimes some music choices, or sound effects appear to be ill advised, DEAD WHEN I GOT HERE never feels exploitational. 

Furthermore, while there is no true expert voice in the film, the documenatry is driven by its central subject, named Josuè, who is the carer of the asylum, and was once a patient himself. When he had entered it years previous, he had been cast out by society himself, and infested with gangrene. It was in this establishment that he found his will to go on. His detailed description of those dark days is painful, but his words are also full of hope and warmth, especially powerful because they come straight from the source. 

It was through this documentary that he was reunited with his daughter, and his meeting with her after decades is an emotional highlight of the film that follows in its positive and hopeful ethos.