Running From Crazy

The Hemingway family claims one of the most distinguished and complex legacies on the U.S. cultural landscape. Though patriarch Ernest Hemingway established a reputation as the single most brilliant American writer of the 20th Century, his life was marred by violent inner turmoil that ended with the shocking act of suicide. In successive years, two of Hemingway's granddaughters, Margaux and Mariel, achieved fame in their own right - the former as a fashion model and actress, the latter as an actress. But the siblings experienced much different levels of success; while Margaux floundered in B-budget, direct-to-video pictures such as They Call Me Bruce, Mariel earned acclaim for her outstanding work in such contemporary classics as Star 80, Personal Best, and Manhattan. This schism drove a rift between the sisters, and in time, Margaux began to experience severe emotional problems of her own, that, in an eerie echo of Ernest's fate, led to a tragic suicide in 1996. In Running from Crazy, acclaimed documentarian Barbara Kopple etches out a portrait of the Hemingway family, reflects on Margaux's life via family documentary footage, and, most significantly, focuses on Mariel as she struggles to overcome the tragic legacy of her grandfather and sister by living a healthy lifestyle that will steer her as far away from depression as possible. In the process, we see Mariel gradually coming to terms with her family and studying them with a new, fresh perspective.