Conrad's Imaginative Life

Conrad's Imaginative Life

Bruce Von Stiers

There is a short thriller film making the rounds at film festivals. The title of the film is Insane.

Conrad Robertson is a brilliant scientist. He has supposedly developed a vaccine that will help cure cancer. He will be presenting his findings to a large group of people. His wife and daughter are so proud of him.

But suddenly, Conrad wakes up in a room with bars on the window and a locked door. He finds out that he is in a psychiatric hospital. And that the life that he believes he has is, in fact, not his.

This film is almost like a soap opera side project. One of the producers, Steve Dempsey, is the prop master for Days of Our Lives. Allyson Sereboff was one of the other producers. She has over forty acting credits and produced several short and feature films along with a few television episodes.

The film was directed by Sonia Blangiardo. She has been a producer for All My Children, As The World Turns and One Life To Live. The cinematographer was Rodolphe Portier. He was the cinematographer for several short films. His work also includes limited run series, including Viral, Club 5150 and Ladies of Avalon. And the film was edited by Teresa Cicala. An editor on almost four hundred episodes of General Hospital, she also was an associate director for General Hospital and One Life To Live.

Conrad keeps having flashbacks with his wife and daughter, along with his best friend. But these seem to be false memories. The doctor who's attending to him tells Conrad that he has a dissociative disorder. And that, although he is Conrad Robertson, the life he thinks is his really isn't. But is that's what's really going on? The doctor seems competent, but is she telling Conrad the truth?

Eric Martsolf stars as Conrad Robertson. He is best known as Brady Black on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. Brandon Goins co-stars as Jackson Whitley, Conrad's supposed best friend. He has twenty-five screen credits, including episodes of the soap operas, Guiding light, One Life to Live and Days of Our Lives. Goins also co-wrote the screenplay with Sonia Blangiardo.

Elin Correa played Avery Robertson, Conrad's daughter. She appeared in fifteen episodes of Days of Our Lives as well as several episodes of The Baxters. Tiffany Smith was Mackenzie Shire, Conrad's wife. She's appeared in a Guardians of the Galaxy film, guest starred in an episode of Quantum Leap and voiced characters in two Masters of the Universe animated series.

There is a scene where Conrad is being courted by a representative of Big Pharma, trying to buy his formula. That guy was played by Gilles Marini. He appeared in over fifty episodes of Switched at Birth and over ninety episodes of Days of Our Lives.

Two other actors had roles in the film. The first was Paul Telfer. He played the hospital orderly who reluctantly tries to help Conrad. You've seen him as Xander in almost six hundred episodes of Days of Our Lives.

A noted actor in the film was Eva LaRue. She played the doctor. LaRue first caught my eye as Natalia Boa Vista on CSI: Miami. Since then, she has been in a lot of films and television shows. Her stints on soap operas include almost one hundred fifty episodes of All My Children, multiple episodes of All My Children and twenty-five episodes of General Hospital. Like I wrote earlier, this almost seemed like a soap opera side project.

While watching the film, I kept looking for that gotcha moment. That is, where the true story is behind Conrad being in the psychiatric hospital. Was this a conspiracy against him? Was Big Pharma trying to steal his formula by making him seem crazy? Was the wife behind it all? So that maybe she could run off with the best friend? Was the government involved or some unknown dark force?

When the truth about Conrad was revealed, it was a bit of a letdown. I was really hoping for more. But the story was solid and the acting was well done. Of course, with most of the cast logging all of those hours on soap operas, acting in a thriller wasn't too big a stretch.

I mentioned earlier that Insane was making it's way around the festival world. It has been an official selection at the Madrid International Film Festival, the Louisville International Film Festival and the Burbank International Film Festival. It has also been submitted to the Santa Clarita International Film Festival. The film won the Best Short Film award at Milan FFI and Best Director at Edinburg FFI.

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