Nise: The Heart of Madness

A miracle happened in Brazil on the 1950's. Renowned modern art museums opened their doors to artists nobody ever heard of. Many critics pointed out that theses exhibitions revealed painters that should be ranked amongst the best brazillian artists of the century. It was written that this explosion of art and beauty was a sign that something comparable to the renaissance was happening in Riio de Janeiro. Behind this miracle there was no art academy, patron or dealer, only a psychiatrist, ridiculed by her colleagues, and a painting studio at a mental hospital, in the outskirts of town. The artists were schizophrenic, poor, hospitalized for several decades, abandoned by their families and hopeless according to their doctors. This film tells the story of this "Miracle" and the life of this rebellious, frail and engaging psychiatrist: Dra. Nise da Silveira.

A miracle happened in Brazil on the 1950's. Renowned modern art museums opened their doors to artists nobody ever heard of. Many critics pointed out that theses exhibitions revealed painters that should be ranked amongst the best brazillian artists of the century. It was written that this explosion of art and beauty was a sign that something comparable to the renaissance was happening in Riio de Janeiro. Behind this miracle there was no art academy, patron or dealer, only a psychiatrist, ridiculed by her colleagues, and a painting studio at a mental hospital, in the outskirts of town. The artists were schizophrenic, poor, hospitalized for several decades, abandoned by their families and hopeless according to their doctors. This film tells the story of this "Miracle" and the life of this rebellious, frail and engaging psychiatrist: Dra. Nise da Silveira. Show more »