Today a 10½ minute long documentary by my good friend David Zupan airs on Oregon TV. You can see it online for free, details below.
You can see:
- Me tear up my psychiatric label “psychotic”
- Martin Luther King call for us all to be “creatively maladjusted”
- A re-creation of my big fall that broke my neck
- What screwing up your vocal chords can sound like
- Support from my amazing wife and community
- Us protest for global revolution because of climate crisis
Yes, making revolution visible now all over Earth is a great way to be creatively maladjusted to global warming, and this documentary shows that if I can do it, then so can you!
Here is a trailer (about one minute long) for the documentary:
Producer David Zupan said, “Creatively Maladjusted shows how human rights activist David Oaks and his wife, Debra Nunez, creatively respond to tough realities with the help of courage, community and humor.” The piece will be shown on the Oregon Lens series.
Okay, here is the documentary via the Oregon Public Broadcasting site.
You may also view it on David Zupan’s Vimeo site.
After you see the documentary here are some ways to take action:
There are several online places for you to connect with others who are part of Team Love, and/or give to the trust fund that lawyers set up to help me:
Web page for Support David Oaks
Facebook for Support David Oaks
Here are Some Ways That You Can Find Out More:
Utne magazine in 2009 really did call Dalai Lama, me and 48 others “visionaries”
So Why Help Such an Expert, Now?
I remember an experienced psychiatric survivor activist always said, “An expert is defined this way: X is an unknown quantity, and spurt is a big drip!” In other words, we truly are all equal, and even if I ever do become any kind of celebrity, even a minor one, your support is still needed, if possible.
At the moment, the need is for me to make noise. Let me briefly explain.
I have started working with my brother Tony and my friend David Zupan on something we are calling Project Amplify. The point of Project Amplify is to activate my network to find and build a team of experts who can help me address some the technical challenges I face communicating.
Specifically Project Amplify is for when I:
- Email and get on the web (I use a human)
- Use my smart iPhone
- Talk in my van over the road noise
- Use public address systems at larger venues
- Or just plain talk to folks in noisy situations.
So far we have a draft powerpoint and plans for some short videos about my Project Amplify needs. Stay tuned.
* * * * *
This is a slightly modified version of
a blog on David Oaks’ website.
David:
Thanks for all you continue to do to amplify the voices of psychiatric survivors. It will be an honor to help you with your technical needs so you can continue to be heard. The world needs to hear what you have to say.
Thanks to you and David for the documentary and unwavering advocacy against all odds.
As one who is a creative, and “maladjusted” according to numerous psychiatrists, and also as one who shares a birthday with the late, great MLK, Jr., so who has respected his work since I was a young child. And, as one who is also a gingerbread house maker (I noticed one in your video), and a lover of the tale, “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbreadman,” who also escaped the horrendous “psychosis,” “bipolar,” and “schizophrenia” defamatory labels. I give thanks to you for all you’ve done for speaking out against psychiatric oppression. And hope you will continue to “run, run, as fast as you can” because “they can’t catch you.” Your advocacy for human rights, and respect of the planet upon which we live, is invaluable and “visionary” for all of humanity. Thank you, David.
This documentary looks great! I can’t wait to watch it. Mr. Oaks, you are such a positive role model and advocate for Mad people. We greatly appreciate your intelligence, kindness, and trailblazing spirit. You’ve opened the door to a better way of life for so many people who’ve fallen (or who’ve been pushed) into the nearly inescapable hellholes of mainstream and pro-force psychiatry. I can’t identify very much with most of the people I admire, but I can identify with you. Thank you so, so much for giving people like me an example to follow for building some much-needed creative maladjustment into our own lives.
Congratulations, David, on this video. And thank you David for all your efforts. For those of you who are new to the MIA world, David, as director of Support Coalition International, Dendron, and MindFreedom, has been perhaps the GREATEST ORGANIZER in our movement to rehumanize mental health. It was David who first contacted me in 1994 (after noticing something I had published) to inform that a psychiatric survivor/mental health professional dissident movement existed. So again, congratulations and thank you, David — Bruce