How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head

In Bridging the Gap, the English filmmaker Nina Ross collaborates with the artist Meg Barrett to explore Barrett’s experience of hearing a male voice, starting at age 18. Integrating footage, personal photos and Barrett’s art, the film traces the evolution of what she came to name VOR, short for ‘voice of reason’ – a presence that grew louder and increasingly hostile, putting her life at risk. After negative experiences with medical professionals who dismissed the voice as a symptom of delusions and tried to quiet it with medication, she came to strike an uneasy peace with VOR, which she now views as a protective response to past trauma. More than just a powerful account of one woman’s experience, Ross and Barrett’s rich audiovisual collage explores fascinating questions about the often hazy border between mental illness and health, and what qualifies as ‘reality’ within the broad spectrum of human experience.