REPORTING. "I am bipolar, take me as I am": aboard the Adamant, a barge that hosts a psychiatric hospital

Post author:California18
Post published:April 19, 2023
Post category:Health
Post comments:0 Comments

This barge, a day hospital for twelve years, is the subject of a documentary by Nicolas Philibert, “Sur l’Adamant”, in theaters on Wednesday and crowned with the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival.

“I’m coming this afternoon to be with friends, at the bar. On Thursday, there’s a discussion group, it’s really great. It’s more intimate, more psychological, we exchange, we talk, we open up a little, it’s nice”. Zodoit has been a patient for two and a half years on the Adamant, a day hospital barge which welcomes patients with mental disorders in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. A documentary by Nicolas Philibert (director of the film To be and to Have), is dedicated to him. Awarded in February 2023 by the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival, On the Adamant releases Wednesday, April 19 in cinemas.

>> “It’s magnificent for me, for documentaries and for psychiatry”, reacts Nicolas Philibert, crowned by the Golden Bear at the Berlinale

Zodoit serves as our guide and shows us the workshops, the kitchen and the music room of this extraordinary barge. “Lhe piano is there, there are people who come to sit, play, sing. There are plenty of books, there is a whole library inside with CDs, DVDs that you can rent!”.

Caregivers and patients saw the film together

We then visit the offices open to all caregivers and patients who can use tables, chairs and computers indiscriminately. “I am the bird whose wings are torn to adjust themsing Frederic, who seeks inspiration in a song by Lucid Beausonge. I squatted in someone’s office. If my imagination is working, I try above all not to interrupt it. She works on her own, I just have to be careful not to disturb her when she is working, so that she can express herself freely”adds the music-loving patient.

Caregivers and patients went to see the film together in a Parisian room. Mamadi discovered himself in a scene where he photographed himself with the psychiatrist following him. “AAt the beginning, I was a little indifferent when the film came out, but afterwards, I found it interesting, after the feedback from my peers, who told me that it was a beautiful scene and so I learned to ‘accept and tell me that it was not so bad, Admit Mamadi. In fact, there you go, I’m bipolar and take me as I am.”

“For a very long time, I was ashamed of my disability because I didn’t want it to be known. It’s as if I had come out!”

Mamadi, patient of the Adamant

at franceinfo

AT the creation of Adamant, the Health Agency had expressed reservations, fearing that a boat moored on the Seine would incite some patients to suicide. Twelve years later, none of them has crossed the balustrade.