The Wild Girl of Brushvalley Township

Directed by Heather Cassano

THE WILD GIRL OF BRUSHVALLEY TOWNSHIP chronicles the story of Minnie Adams, one of the estimated one million people who died in American mental institutions. The film reconstructs her life and illness through interviews with historians and genealogists, a visit to the local historical society, and the newspapers from the early 1900s that sensationalized her institutionalization in graphic detail. Through speculative animation drawing from documentary material, the film reclaims Minnie’s story from sensationalist public gossip imagining an alternative history for a woman who was failed by her family and society.