From its title alone, you may very well think that you're in for a good time with Miranda Siegel's Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril, a 16-minute doc short screening at LA's Slamdance Film Festival. 

Think again. 

This is quietly bold, refreshingly brave filmmaking by Siegel. It's a video diary of sorts as we're introduced to a young woman experiencing a psychiatric health crisis secondary to Bipolar Disorder. Fighting to overcome her body's deeply ingrained stress response, she fights and loses and fights and loses and yet maintains something raw and miraculous along the way. We follow her into a 10-day hospitalization, a severe bout of benzodiazepine withdrawal, and a six-week outpatient treatment. 

In a mere 16-minute running time, Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril mesmerizes with its uncomfortable vulnerability that is both admirable and occasionally difficult to watch. As someone who has had bipolar disorder in my life more than once, these scenes feel achingly familiar and yet absolutely necessary. For those who've experienced bipolar disorder, this will feel achingly familiar and yet bridge-building in the way it reaches out for connection. Siegel's work here is brutally honest. There's not a moment of glamorizing or histrionics - simply raw truths impossible to ignore. 

While Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril may not be the best film you'll see at the Slamdance Film Festival, it may very well be one of the most unforgettable films of the unique and always inspired film fest. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic