Sandpoint –NAMI shows "Canvas"

May is National Mental Health Month. NAMI Far North will present the movie "Canvas", a touching story inspired by a real family living with mental illness.

The movie will be shown on Tuesday May 26 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 601 South Lincoln Street, Sandpoint at 7:00p.m.

Admission is free, contributions to NAMI far North are appreciated.

This debut feature from director Joseph Greco is the semi-autobiographical tale of a 10-year-old Florida boy who returns from a summer in Alaska to find his mentally ill mother hearing voices in the walls again and his dad up to his neck in debts and distress. Greco’s script was spruced up with input from the actors who live and breathe these roles. Marcia Gay Harden is alternately sweet, scary, and sad as the mother. Pantoliano blends seamlessly into the role of a working class dad sanded smooth by domestic hardship, and newcomer Gearhart is able to convey deep emotion behind a facade of stoic kid resolve.

NAMI Far North is the Bonner and Boundary County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of those with mental illness and their families. NAMI Far North meets the third Wednesday of each month at the classroom in Bonner General Hospital from 6:00-8:00p.m. Each meeting features a special interest program relating to issues dealing with mental illness.

For more information, call Ruth McKnight, President of NAMI Far North at 208-597-0477 or visit www.nami.org/sites/namifarnorth.