The cinema Moviemento in Berlin is bursting at the seams.
More than 200 people have come to the world première of the PatVerfue cinema commercial hosted by the Association of Psychiatric Survivors of Berlin and Brandenburg on Tuesday night (01/31/2012). Among the moviegoers is, as announced, the internationally known star, Nina Hagen. Surrounded by cameras, she eagerly awaits to see for the first time on the big screen the PatVerfue commercial, in which she herself played a major role.
Nina Hagen surprised the audience with a huge bush of curly hair crowned by a bright red lacquered cap with the message of the PatVerfue:
Insane? Your own choice!
So the singer and actress reveals at first glance what it is all about here: the right to self-determination. Each year more than 200,000 people in Germany are forcibly detained in psychiatric hospitals and given compulsory treatment for alleged „therapeutic“ reasons as a result of arbitrary psychiatric „diagnoses“. Furthermore, in Germany there are currently over 1.2 million people who are deprived of their rights to self-determination by a court-ordered „custodianship“. Despite this serious violation of human rights and dignity which, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is a crime, the number of assaults is still increasing.
Human dignity is inviolable? That is now the case: With the PatVerfue!
„For 62 years the constitution was in force but only in the last year the German Supreme Court recognized that the torture-like compulsory treatment experienced by the victims of psychiatry are incompatible with fundamental rights – which are themselves human rights“ says René Talbot from the Association of Psychiatry Survivors Berlin-Brandenburg. At the beginning of his introductory speech he explains to the audience the history of the PatVerfue, the clever advance directive.
The PatVerfue uses the possibility to forbid in advance medical examinations as expressly allowed in the 2009 law on advance directives. By preventing unwanted psychiatric diagnoses, the trapdoor to psychiatric deprivation of rights as well as humiliation and abuse, is legally closed.
Yet few know about this „global revolutionary“ opportunity to protect oneself from imprisonment, assault and torture by coercive psychiatry using the free, one-paged PAD: the PatVerfue. That is the reason for this broad-based campaign to inform citizens about their rights, starting with the première of a commercial.
Dim the lights, roll the film!
Excitement, shock, relief – the nearly two minute non-profit commercial puts the audience at the première in a roller-coaster of emotions. When in the commercial the nude couple dancing in the street is forcibly led away by the police and coerced into psychiatric treatment, outrage spreads in the audience. But then the film rewinds and suddenly, thanks to the PatVerfue, it has a happy ending: with the comment „Next time put on some underwear, OK?“ the policeman leaves the scene, providing for spontaneous cheers and applause. All those involved in creating the commercial, the actors and the crew of the film producer, then come onto the stage and are also warmly applauded. This commercial was sponsored by „Aktion Mensch“ and made on behalf of the Association of Psychiatry Survivors Berlin-Brandenburg.
While all participants receive a bouquet of flowers, Nina Hagen reaches for her guitar and sings the song „Ermutigung“ („Encouragement“) by Wolf Biermann, this being the appropriate music for the evening.
Nina Hagen is the patroness of the PatVerfue
Nina Hagen, who is not only a witness to serious human rights violations as an actress in the commercial, but also privately has friends who were „forcibly abused by psychiatrists,“ noted that „it was a very personal matter to point out that there is now a new law and that people can protect themselves with the PatVerfue against the encroachments of the psycho-industry!“ Before the assembled audience at the première, with the ceremonial presentation of a certificate in XXL size, Nina Hagen is officially named as patroness of the PatVerfue. She expresses her thanks with a song and admits: „I had goose bumps when I saw the commercial, and over and over again whenever I see it.“ Because twice as many visitors came as could fit into the auditorium, the commercial is unceremoniously shown again for anyone who had to remain outside during the first screening.
Shortly thereafter the première of the commercial is also announced on the new PatVerfue website, and there everyone can watch it as often as they want*. On 5 February in a cinema in Bochum a second prelude was celebrated and it is now shown in over 50 cinemas in Germany.
* This Youtube video already has subtitles in: English, French, Hebrew, Dutch, Polish, Spanish, Hungarian. To view the subtitles, please click on the „CC“ button on the control bar below the video, see here marked with a red circle:
In case your language is not included, see the translating option at the top of the subtitle language list. Of course we welcome a correct translation of any new languages, assuming it is your mother tongue.