Asylum Arcanum: A Wolf Descends into American Madness

A Native American man, Wolf, still trying to understand his childhood trauma of being placed in a mental asylum, works to tell the history of asylums in America through his art and stories. Wolf completes this history while struggling with homelessness, police abuse, jail, and being forced to take psychotropic drugs. During the 17 years covered by this documentary, Wolf's life is transformed and the impact of the modern world takes a physical and mental toll. "A Wolf in the Asylum" started off as a collaborative documentation of abandoned asylums between the director, James Lilly, and the story writer, Wolf Cummings. This collaboration was eventually published as the book "Asylum Arcanum. " In time this collaboration evolved into a cinéma vérité perspective of Wolf's life and being a Native American struggling with homelessness, mental health, the legal system, and violence on the streets of America over the course of almost two decades. Shot on location in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Detroit, Michigan, New York, New York, and a dozen abandoned Kirkbride Mental Asylums.