Hot Docs 2021 | The Strength in Perseverance Through "Any Given Day"
10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars
One of the subjects in the documentary Any Given Day, Dimitar—a man struggling with schizophrenic tendencies and bi-polar disorder type-1—works to keep himself on track and “moving forward” by writing and self-publishing a novel. Any writer can tell you how hard this undertaking can be even when you are of sound mind, but add to this the hurdles and depths that a mental disorder presents on any given day, and you can only begin to imagine what someone like Dimitar is wrestling with.
Directed by Margaret Byrne—a woman who herself experiences throes of depression—Any Given Day is an uncomfortable and sometimes uncompromising but always empathetic film about three individuals working with the mental health court program in Cook County, Chicago, to rehabilitate themselves and reclaim their lives following incarcerations related to their illnesses. Dimitar, along with Angela—who grapples with PTSD, depression, and psychotic disorder—and Daniel—who is schizophrenic—side closely with Margaret and form a tight-knit circle of support. Margaret visits them to get footage for her film, but primarily to check on them as they commit to their routines, work to maintain their relationships, and sometimes crumble under the pressure when all of the commitment contorts to conspire against them. All three also have their issues with substance abuse, and the film goes to starkly grim places as it follows them in their downward spirals.
Excluding the moments when her subjects retreat or disappear, Margaret is there for them through it all with camera in hand - not to challenge or tell them they are wrong, but to encourage honesty and understanding. Margaret turns the camera on herself for instances in the film in what feels like her own form of therapy. Even she spends a stretch of the film in the hospital recovering after a rough experience with her medication. Any Given Day ultimately becomes about laying yourself bare, and both Margaret and her subjects should be commended for their strength and perseverance in sharing an especially tumultuous and taxing five-year period of their lives. One wonders what the experience must be to watch yourself in a film like this when you get in your states of delirium and self-loathing; but then, it is this exact mirror where comprehension and healing begins.
If there is an aspect of Byrne’s film that takes me out of the experience, it is the overly sugary and chiptune-sounding score from composer Eric Andrew Kuhn. Paired with the constant “bling!” sound effects that accompany every on-screen text message, Any Given Day can at times sound like a hokey video game, and this can take you out of the subject matter depicted. Of course, some levity will undoubtedly help audiences better stomach the darker moments, and Kuhn does hit other emotional notes when they are needed.
As Dimitar quotes to Margaret (maybe from his own writing), depression can feel like “being buried alive with a pack of cigarettes and one match left.” All mental illnesses can get this grave, and by the end of Any Given Day, there is no assurance that the grave moments are over. There is success, though. Margaret says that “success does not just look like one thing; success is a journey.” Any Given Day is affirmation that these journeys are being taken – every single day.
