Isolation - The Writer

"That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward. " Ernest Hemingway

Isolation is a short film about a writer in 1980's Baltimore that is waiting for the reviews of his first published novel. Taking place in one room, we feel the struggle of Timothy Witelee, played by Timothy Lee Depriest, as he wrestles with anxiety, depression and self-doubt.

Anyone working in the creative industry understands the dark side of creativity. The long-standing myth of the tortured genius has endured through time, and new science has added to the validity. While not all artists are tortured, creatives are more likely to suffer from mood disorders than the general population.

This film is for all those that struggle with the creative process and the toll it takes on one's mental health. Clinical studies have found that creatives were nearly 20% more likely to suffer mental illness than the general population. In fact, other studies have also found that people in arts related professions were four times more likely to commit suicide than other fields.

Isolation sheds a light on what few people ever speak about, mental health. It takes a great mental toll to create, and often the bigger the project, the more pressure is on the line and the toll can become too much to levy. We have seen this from the greatest creative minds the world over.

Two of my favorite creatives, Hemingway and Van Gogh, both took their own lives. The statistics are mind blowing. Simon Kyaga led a team of researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and studied 1.2 million Swedes. The study concluded that people working in creative fields including dancers, photographers and authors, were 8% more likely to live with bipolar disorder. Most alarming was that writers were 121% more likely to suffer from the condition. Writers were also 50% more likely to commit suicide than the general population.

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