The visionary psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles (1912–1994) reshaped institutions of therapeutic care during his time at the Saint-Alban psychiatric hospital in Southern France. From World War II through the early 1960s, the Catalan doctor devised a series of psychiatric practices that came to be called institutional psychotherapy, based on nonhierarchical and collective interactions between patients, medical staff, on-site workers, and neighboring rural communities. At the heart of this “asylum-village” was the Club Paul-Balvet, a cooperative structure whose participants all convened, deliberated on administrative responsibilities, and proposed creative activities like celebrations, plays, dances, and meetings. The hospital had its own printing press, community journal, theater, library, and cinema. This organizational structure, conducive to creative endeavors—like those of Auguste Forestier and Marguerite Sirvins—would impact French artist Jean Dubuffet’s conceptualization of “Art Brut.”

This film series explores approaches to mental health care rooted in community building, self-management, and creativity echoing the institutional psychotherapy developed at Saint-Alban. The program starts with a short film by François Pain on Félix Guattari and a docufiction by Abdenour Zahzah on Frantz Fanon; Guattari and Fanon were both psychiatrists and political activists trained and influenced by Tosquelles. On Saturday afternoon, the program dwells on the possibilities of schooling the “maladjusted” through reinvented structures of care and knowledge, featuring a short fiction film by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub and a documentary by Renaud Victor made with special education leader Fernand Deligny. On Saturday evening, a selection of shorts highlights the role of art in counteracting isolation inside and outside of psychiatric hospitals. The program ends with the New York premiere of a film by Mireia Sallarès devoted to the forgotten legacy of Tosquelles in Catalonia, Spain, and beyond.

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