Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Addiction is notoriously hard to treat, which can make drastic measures appealing to both addicts and their families when the fight for a cure seems otherwise hopeless. Internado explores one such extreme approach developed by Dr Martín Nizama Valladolid, a staff psychiatrist at Peru’s National Institute of Mental Health in Lima, who has spent decades treating addiction and developing a radical recovery programme. Once addicts’ families have consented to the programme, Valladolid’s patients are detained by force and entered into a period of ‘involuntary internment’. Eschewing medication except for when he uses it for sedation, Valladolid treats addicts through a regimen that includes strict rules about patient conduct and a focus on teaching values through culture. The process culminates with a lengthy final assignment: a massive, 11,000-page autobiographical ‘thesis’, generally written by patients over several years while under the close watch of family members. Offering an evenhanded look at a controversial method, the filmmaker Josh Izenberg speaks with current and former patients, dissenting colleagues and Valladolid himself to present a nuanced picture of an addiction treatment programme nearly as complex as addiction itself.
Director: Josh Izenberg
Producer: Jake Izenberg
Director of Photography: Wynn Padula
Editor: Stef Sequeira
Associate Producer: Daniel Rodriguez
Website: Only Human Films
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
video
Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
video
Childhood and adolescence
The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order
28 minutes
video
Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
video
Technology and the self
A haunting scene from ‘Minority Report’ inspires a voyage into time and memory
7 minutes
video
Family life
The stream-of-consciousness thoughts and memories that emerge while cooking a meal
5 minutes
video
Family life
The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations
10 minutes
video
Neuroscience
This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
2 minutes
video
Information and communication
Coverage of the ‘balloon boy’ hoax forms a withering indictment of for-profit news
17 minutes