The Yellow Wallpaper is one of my short fiction favorites. When John McCarty sent this news about his film based on Gilman's chilling, bizarre tale, well then, here it is...
"Completed in September, CONFINEMENT was created specifically for the educational video market – to which it is now being pitched – and for film festivals. It is a modern re-telling of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the acclaimed short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) that today is viewed as a significant example of late 19th-century macabre storytelling and feminist fiction, and is taught in colleges throughout the United States for both reasons.
"It is about a woman whose physician husband has determined she is suffering from depression and hysteria, and has shut her in the upstairs bedroom of their rental house to recuperate. There, she becomes fixated on the color and design of the paper that surrounds the room. The film portrays the impact of this confinement on her mental state as well as her eventual psychological deterioration. The original story is semi-autobiographical, and was written after Gilman suffered an acute attack of post-partum depression, another topical women’s issue."
Shot in HDV over the course of seven days in June 2009, the film, which runs 30 minutes, is thus ideal for showing in conjunction with courses (graduate or undergraduate) in women’s studies, American literature, media studies, even communication arts at in schools, colleges, and universities – the reason for our aiming at the educational (versus theatrical or commercial video) market, one that many independent filmmakers often ignore.
The film’s official website is at www.confinementmovie.com.
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