12 Days

Screenings

2018 Season
London

Every year in France, 92,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. By law, the hospital has 12 days to bring each patient before a judge. Relying on little information beyond doctor recommendations, a crucial decision must be made: will the patient be forced to stay or granted the freedom to leave? Focusing primarily on these public hearings, renowned filmmaker and photographer Raymond Depardon captures the raw and vulnerable interactions at the border of justice and psychiatry, humanity and bureaucracy. Absorbing and thought-provoking, 12 Days gives a platform to those whose voices are so rarely considered. Golden Eye Prize, Cannes Film Festival 2017

Filmmaker(s): 
Raymond Depardon, Produced by Claudine Nougaret
Year: 
2017
88m
Language(s): 
French
Genre: 
Documentary
Filmmaker Bio(s): 
Raymond Depardon
Director

Born in 1942, Raymond Depardon has directed twenty feature-length films and more than fifty books of his photography have been published. Depardon’s oeuvre is regularly the subject of major exhibtitions and film retrospectives, from Paris to Bogota.

Distributor: 
Wild Bunch
Film Website: 
12 Days Wild Bunch website

“This is really a wonderful film, and every character has a unique story to tell. I was reminded of several people I met while investigating this issue as a follow-up to our Croatia report, ‘Once You Enter, You Never Leave’, on how people with disabilities, once admitted to an institution or psychiatric hospital, have little chance of leaving despite having never consented to their confinement.” - Emina Cerimovic, Researcher, Disability Rights Division, Human Rights Watch

To learn more on this topic visit HRW.org