"Brainstorm" World Premiere Preview • Bipolar Documentary • March 20

Rotary continues our efforts to raise awareness of mental health issues in our communities. To that end, our members are invited to attend the world premiere preview of Brainstorm, a new PBS documentary based on the book BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum written by Sara Schley. Register here
BrainStorm the Film is an unprecedented initiative that combines inspiring stories of people with lived experience of bipolar, cutting-edge science, and breakthrough treatments in one coherent narrative. It tells a story of hope, substance, and beauty. The screening takes place on March 20 at 7:00pm at the Hummingbird Bookstore, 55 Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill. There will also be a simultaneous virtual session. Please register here for the in-person event as seating is limited at Hummingbird Books. Sara will sign and give away copies of her book to the first 20 people who register. If you're unable to attend in person, register here for a simultaneous Zoom livestream. 
 
The evening will begin with a brief reading by Sara Schley of her memoir BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum– the inspiration for the film. Then film director Bonnie Waltch will show our preview of the upcoming documentary for the first time! These will be followed by a conversation and Q&A about the bipolar spectrum and the making of the film. As a special treat, one of the film’s main characters, Major General Gregg Martin, will be in attendance.
 
District 7910's Environmental Action Group has been working with Bonnie Waltch and impact producer Melanie Wallace for nearly two years on a project based on the PBS documentary Climate Emergency which addresses the phenomena of feedback loops that contribute to climate change. These films have been seen by millions of viewers worldwide, and we know that their new film Brainstorm will have a similar impact for those struggling to understand bipolar and other mental health issues.
 

About Sara Schley:

Sara Schley, Co-Producer, Co-Writer, and Author of the memoir BrainStorm, is a business consultant, social change entrepreneur, speaker, and author who has led systemic transformation at renowned companies around the world. She is a mother, grandmother, community leader, and has been married for twenty-six years. She also has a bipolar II brain on the bipolar spectrum. Sara has kept this mostly secret for four decades. Until now. In her memoir, BrainStorm: From Broken to Blessed on the Bipolar Spectrum, the inspiration for BrainStorm the Film, she tells her riveting story to save lives, end the stigma, and maximize healing. Sara has a BA from Brown University and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.

About Bonnie Waltch:

Bonnie Waltch, Director, Producer, and Writer, is the award-winning senior producer and writer of the one-hour international broadcast documentary, Earth Emergency, and series of five short films, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. She has been involved in numerous PBS science series, including The Secret of Life (NOVA/BBC), Scientific American Frontiers, Out of the Past, and The Ring of Truth, as well as programs for the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. She directed and wrote Super Reefs: The Future of Coral for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and has produced exhibit media for museums around the U.S., including Niagara Falls Visitor Center, Pikes Peak Visitor Center, the Tennessee State Museum, the Nebraska State Museum, the Mob Museum, and the National World War II Museum. Bonnie has an BA in Semiotics from Brown University.