Mariel Hemingway: ‘With darkness there is light’ – Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter’s documentary ‘Running from Crazy’

Mariel Hemingway’s words that “with darkness there is light” should be the words imprinted in the heart of every person that struggles with learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, alcoholism, depression, suicide, or any other one of life’s difficult challenges.

In the documentary “Running From Crazy,” Mariel Hemingway does one of the bravest things any person can do in his or her lifetime – she is facing her deepest and darkest demons.

Mariel Hemingway’s demons of alcoholism and mental illness span, like in many families, over generations. With more than 7 family suicides, including her sister and her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, Mariel Hemingway tries to come to terms with her family’s past and tragedies.

“Running From Crazy” is scheduled to be shown on Oct. 6 during the San Diego Film Festival at the ArcLight Cinemas in La Jolla/UTC. One can only hope that the documentary will be made available nationwide.

In the new documentary from Cabin Creek Films, two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple examines the personal journey of Mariel Hemingway as she strives for a greater understanding of her complex family history.

During an interview with Oprah, Mariel Hemingway says that every family’s line of generations has its own demons.  Mariel Hemingway also talks about the Hemingway curse. “With that comes tremendous creativity, love, fame. But also with that comes the opposite. Because I think with darkness there is light.”

In Mariel Hemingway’s case, she describes her family’s darkness as mental illness, mental instability, and insecurity.

While titled “Running From Crazy,” Mariel Hemingway in fact shows that her documentary is not so much a “running from” her family’s legacy but running towards “her family’s curse.”

It is part of an essential spiritual journey, it is part of making a decision, it is part of understanding that the creative mind does have a choice.