Film on borderline personality disorder screens in Ridgefield

Regina is the main character in the documentary film “Borderline.” Regina has borderline personality disorder. Regina is the main character in the documentary film “Borderline.” Regina has borderline personality disorder. Photo: Rebbie Ratner / Contributed Photo Photo: Rebbie Ratner / Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Film on borderline personality disorder screens in Ridgefield 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Regina was just 5 years old when she tried to commit suicide.

Since then she has struggled at times with alcohol and depression, had difficulties maintaining relationships and committing to a career. She was eventually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, a condition characterized by problems regulating emotions, severe mood swings, impulsive behavior, poor self-image and stormy personal relationships.

Despite the disorder, Regina grew into a funny and intelligent woman able to hold down a job and enjoy a 12-year relationship, but it still sometimes threatens to undermine what she has achieved.

Years after her diagnosis, at 45, she agreed to become the main subject of a documentary film called “BORDERLINE.” Filmmakers followed her for almost a year, interviewing her and capturing interactions with people in her life, including her therapist, Gina Pulice, a licensed clinical social worker who now lives in Ridgefield.

“My dream would be if a handful of people who have the illness, whether they know it or not, relate to Regina’s experience and then they realize there is a treatment, that it’s not a death sentence ... and that there is hope for you and it’s not your fault,” Pulice said.

The 88-minute film will be screened at The Ridgefield Playhouse at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

After the screening, the evening will continue with a panel discussion including Regina; Rebbie Ratner, the film’s director; Pulice; and Pulice’s husband, Dr. Aaron Krasner, a psychiatrist who works at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan. Silver Hill is hosting the screening, which allowed it to be free to the public.

An estimated 1.6 percent of American adults have borderline personality disorder, but the figure might be as high as 5.9 percent, according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness.

Ratner herself was diagnosed with the disorder when she was 39, after years of struggling and actively searching for answers about her mental health.

After receiving treatment, Ratner returned to graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where she had been pursing a master’s in filmmaking. She needed to make a film, so she decided to create one about borderline personality disorder.

Ratner posted on Craigslist asking for someone with borderline personality disorder to be involved in her proposed film. That is how she found Regina.

Ratner said the film offers viewers insight “into a misunderstood, highly stigmatized mental health diagnosis whose symptoms express the extremes of everyday human suffering.”

The movie was co-produced by Suzanne Mitchell, who worked for a year at the Ridgefield Playhouse. The film has already been screened across the country, including in New York, Texas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Colorado and Oregon.

“Hopefully it increases people’s emotional literacy, even a modicum,” said Ratner, who is now 44. “I want borderline on the map ... I think it’s the common citizens, not the great clinician, that together will increase awareness and make change.”

For more information on BORDERLINE, visit www.borderlinethefilm.com.