Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness’ Takes a Deep Dive on PBS Streaming and DVD

‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness’ Takes a Deep Dive on PBS Streaming and DVD

Last updated on: July 9, 2022 at 6:38 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness’ Takes a Deep Dive on PBS Streaming and DVD 2022-07-09T18:38:23-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Alexis Davis in ‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness’/PBS

Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness premiered on PBS in late June, but it’s still streaming until July 26 at PBS.org and at the PBS app. The four-hour documentary takes an in-depth look at a variety of issues facing today’s youth, through their own voices and those of experts.

Produced by Washington, D.C., PBS station WETA, Florentine Films and Ewers Brothers Productions, the film (official site here) has Ken Burns as executive producer, but the real engines behind it are two brothers, directors and co-producers Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers.

Both have long worked for Burns’ Florentine films, with Erik as senior editor and co-director, and Christopher as cinematographer and co-director.

How did Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness Come About?

In a phone interview, Erik says, “It really began when Ken literally asked us to do it through his broadcasting station in D.C,. the PBS station, WETA. And he does this a lot for colleagues because he chooses his own topics for the most part.

“I think Ken knew to pick us because Chris and I do have had a lot of personal experience. We knew nothing about mental health growing up, but we did know something about mental illness that ran in our family.

“Ken had personally witnessed and acknowledged my mental-health struggles when I’ve been working here with him over the past 32 years. So, I think he intuitively knew that we might be a good fit for it.”

Talking to Many, Because Mental Illness Affects Many

Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness talks to more than 20 young people about their mental-health struggles, along with providers, advocates, family members and friends. The interviews cover a variety of issues in two episodes, called Resilience and The Storm (Spanish versions are also available online).

From KenBurns.com:

It affects all ages, in families both rich and poor, healthy and dysfunctional. Trauma can be the trigger — from personal crises such as divorce and neglect to environmental disasters, racial injustice and pandemics. Over time, the symptoms can progress, and lead to increasingly extreme behaviors — like eating disorders, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide.

The issues surrounding mental illness are extraordinarily complex. The risk factors are daunting, the economics bewildering, and the politics contentious. But the most important step — and often the most difficult one — is to start talking about it. Hiding in Plain Sight will bring that conversation into homes, schools, the workplace, and community organizations across the country.

Says Christopher, interviewing in tandem with his brother: “There’s not a single one of us that isn’t affected by mental-health struggles, on a spectrum.

“And until we’re all able to collectively acknowledge that in ourselves and then be empathetic to that with each other, just like we are when we have the flu or cancer, until we’re able to do that, no real progress is going to be made in that matter.”

The Effects of COVID and Societal Upheaval

Many today are talking about the effect of COVID lockdowns, loss of education and social isolation. COVID affected even the production of the film, and it’s reflected in the content.

Says Christopher, “We refer to it in the introduction when we go through the list of different kinds of traumas that you can experience. And we end with pandemics, and you see two girls in masks looking at each other, like ‘What is going on?’

“And then we have a little section where we talk about the year 2020, with all the political divisiveness in the country, with the racial barriers that had been unfortunately put back up in our country. And then on top of all of that the MeToo movement; on top of all that, COVID.

“So we dedicated a section of the film to acknowledge what kids are going through today and to let our youth explain why they think it’s different from past generations.”

Erik emphasizes that, while isolation can exacerbate mental illness, and mental illness can cause isolation, it’s never treated in isolation.

He says, “Education is so lacking on this topic. That’s why this film we feel is so potentially important to parents and families across the country, because it opens that dialogue. It brings that awareness to both of them.

“And if you can find yourself in this film, which so far, almost everyone who has watched it has said that they see themselves, even Ken Burns himself, that if we can see ourselves in this film, then we relate. And if we relate, we start that path to wellness.”

The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media

The film also deals with the pervasiveness of social media, both the good and the bad.

“We tried really hard,” says Erik, “to balance out that chapter with the negative versus the positive, just to give the viewers: ‘Yes. It can be damaging, but it can also be a place where you find your community.’ There’s a duality to the whole concept of social media.

“I think my favorite part of that whole discussion is what [interviewee] Alexis said, which is, ‘I hate it when parents say, you shouldn’t be spending much that much time on social media.’ She says, ‘What do you think you did to us? You put a laptop or an iPad or an iPhone or a movie in front of us and said, “This is how you play.”‘ I’m guilty of it. I did it to my kids.”

The film also deals with LGBT issues, emphasizing the belief — currently prevalent in psychology circles — that any mental-health issues associated with those are more caused by outside attitudes than by any innate problem.

Challenging Viewers to Listen to the Stories

Overall, the four hours are almost entirely composed of talking-head interviews, so it can seem dense to more casual viewers. But Erik insists this is intentional, with the goal of being comprehensive in depicting a broader swath of ethnicities and backgrounds, along with different illnesses and symptoms.

He says, “We were like, ‘Listen, if this is going to make a difference, we need to make it truly relatable. And we need to figure out a way to bring the stories of these collective youth to the American public so that everyone can find themselves in the film.'”

To anyone who might find the format challenging, Erik says, “To that person, I would want to seriously sit down and say, ‘How committed are you to your own children or to your own community or to yourself when it comes to mental health?’

“When you just want to say, ‘Oh, it’s too dark. I don’t want to watch it,’ I think that’s sad, honestly.”

Going Forward …

In addition to streaming, the film is available on DVD. The Ewers brothers plan events centered on the film in the fall and hope it will continue to be used by organizations, schools, businesses and others to bring awareness to mental-health struggles.

Says Chris, “We’re allowing people to see what it really is. Let’s stop beating around the bush. Our kids are in crisis right now. Many of them are in crisis, and we need to start listening, or it’s going to get worse.:

Images: WETA/PBS

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare.

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a veteran entertainment journalist, Social Media Content Manager for Family Theater Productions and a rookie screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

June 25, 2022

Starz's 'Becoming Elizabeth': A Rare Chance to Get More Than One Side of the Story

Next Post

July 15, 2022 Art, Commerce and Chaos: 'The Offer' and More Explore Making Movies

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz