Mad in America affiliate, Mad in Norway, is hosting an international film festival from September 24-26 in Lillehammer, Norway. Each week, we will feature a film. This week is Being in a Film.
Synopsis
Being In A Film is an intimate documentary portrait of Ingrid E. Johnson.
Born and raised in the United States, Ingrid grew up in front of a camera. Her German grandfather, eager to stay connected to the family’s life across the Atlantic, gave her father a movie camera. Ingrid loved being filmed and photographed, and she also felt a responsibility to cheer up her depressed father.
As an adult, while walking through New York City, she suddenly felt as though she were being watched. The world around her seemed artificial. Passersby appeared to be extras, and she felt as though she was being filmed. At the same time, she became convinced that someone had gained access to her phone and was communicating with her through the music she was hearing. Certain songs felt like invitations to dance at specific locations. Her behavior attracted attention, and eventually an ambulance and the police were called.
Ingrid was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in New York, the city she loves and considers her home. After two weeks, she managed to appear well enough to be released. She left carrying painful memories of the use of force during her hospitalization, which had cost approximately $80,000. Disturbed by the fact that psychiatrists in the United States can authorize involuntary hospitalization without prior judicial review, she decided to move to Berlin.
Now living in Berlin, Ingrid revisits these experiences from her perspective today. She questions the frameworks through which they were understood and explores what it means to reclaim her own narrative.
The film follows her search for new ways of understanding her life beyond diagnostic labels, alongside the creation of RECASAS, a space for reading, writing, and shared reflection. Ingrid no longer believes she has a biological disorder. Instead, she understands her experiences as responses to severe trauma and the loss of her father at a young age.
Being In A Film is a story about memory, grief, psychiatric power, and the struggle to define oneself beyond the stories others tell.
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This and many other films will be presented at the Mad in Norway International Film Festival in Lillehammer, Norway September 24 – 26, 2026.
Please visit Mad in Norway International Film Festival’s website at madinnorwayfilmfest.org to find out more about this film, festival programming, tickets, and other information. We hope to see you there!
And stay tuned here each week for more exciting films!
One very important person is missing from this review: Josepha Groner, the young and immensely talented filmmaker who directed Being in a Film with so much love, sensitivity and care. A huge thank-you to Josepha for telling my story and bringing it to the screen so beautifully.
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