Lizzie Simon's "Detour" BiPolar Presentation Part 1

Gilles Peress was asked by friend and HBO producer, Anastasia Pappas to work with her to create a powerful and intimate portrait of people living with bipolar disorder.

Two short films would accompany author Lizzie Simon on her tour for her new book "Detour". Knowing that the final product was to be projected on to large video screens Gilles wanted to shoot in a format that he knew would look great on a large screen but would give him the kind of intimacy that would be required to make these films a success.

The participants would be filmed entirely on location in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood and had to be completed on a tight budget and schedule.  He called on his old friend Eric Marciano to assist in this complicated project.

Marciano started by booking a research session at NYC's Abel Cinetech to explore small sized Super 16 cameras. After a thorough review the Aaton Minima was chosen with a full compliment of prime lenses. Shooting with a mixture of Plus X and Tri X black and white film stock and working with an amazing group of participants and crew yielded truly beautiful footage.

The post-production process yielded exceptional portraits that made author Lizzie Simon, sponsor GlaxoSmithKline and Public Relations firm Cohn Wolfe very, very happy.