Holding the Sun

A One-Hour Documentary About Schizophrenia

Production stills: Click to view full-size.
  

On May 30, 1997, in Victoria, British Columbia, Ruth Millar stood in the kitchen of her middle class home drying the dishes after a quiet family dinner. Her 24-year-old son, Aaron, silently walked in and plunged a ceremonial sword through her back, instantly piercing her heart. Aaron was arrested without incident a short while later as he sat on the pier one block from home, looking out to sea.

"Holding the Sun" is a story of the Millar family's desperate attempt to save their beloved son from a serious mental illness - schizophrenia; of their endeavour to access the mental health system; of the failure of the justice system, and, ultimately, of a father's unswerving devotion to his son.

During the two years leading up to Ruth's death, Aaron began to show early symptoms of schizophrenia. The Millar family searched for help and tried to cope. Three months prior to Ruth's murder, Aaron was arrested in Victoria for cutting satellite cables at CHEK TV and at the Time Colonist newspaper office.

He was dressed in camouflage gear, wore a gas mask and was wrapped in tin foil to stop the incessant alien messages that played in his head. While at the Wilkinson Road Jail, a court-ordered psychiatrist determined that Aaron was delusional and paranoid but that he was not having thoughts of violence. As there was no treatment facilities available to him, the court released Aaron to his mother's care.

Ramsay Millar, Ruth's husband of 28 years, believes that Ruth forfeited her life to a system that insists that violence, or the imminent threat of violence, is the essential prerequisite for medical treatment. The macabre irony of the Millar story is that Ruth got what she had desperately sought - proper medical treatment for her son - but the price was her life and the destruction of her family.

"Holding the Sun" is a story of the surviving family's ongoing attempt to reconcile their grief and anger at Ruth's loss, and their belief that the only way to bring meaning to Ruth's premature death is to actively advocate for the rights of the seriously mentally ill.

Status:

- Production completed and aired on CBC Roughcuts May 13, 2000

Broadcast Schedule

"Holding the Sun" will be broadcast on CBC Newsworld as part of the RoughCuts documentary series. Broadcasts are:

Tuesday, May 9th at 10 p.m. Eastern Time/ 7 p.m. Pacific Time

Saturday, May 13 at 10 p.m. Eastern Time/ 7 p.m. Pacific Time

Synopsis of the Film

HOLDING THE SUN is the story of the Millar family's desperate attempts, over a period of two years, to save their beloved son from the insidious symptoms of schizophrenia.

On May 30th, 1997, Ruth Millar wrote to her estranged husband, "....Aaron is looking quite psychotic these days, he causes no harm, he just lives in his own world. I cannot hug him or be affectionate to him as he does not like close contact - so unlike the warm and loving Aaron we once knew....."

Later that day, while Ruth stood in the kitchen of the family home in Victoria, her 24yr old son silently walked up behind her and plunged a ceremonial sword through her back, instantly piercing her heart.

Three months prior to Ruth's murder, Aaron had been arrested for cutting satellite cables at CHEK TV and at the Times Colonist newspaper. He was dressed in camouflage gear, wore a gas mask and was wrapped in tin foil to stop the incessant alien messages that played in his head. In HOLDING THE SUN he describes something of the phenomena:

" ..... I'd speak what they were saying .... so I was being used as kind of like a microphone..... "

The tragic irony of this story is that Ruth finally got the help she so desperately wanted for her son - however the price was her life and the destruction of her family.

Ramsay Millar, Ruth's husband of 28 years, called for, and achieved, a coroner's inquest. The Jury made 31 recomendations for changes in the mental health system:

Ramsay says: "We have to educate people about this disease. Education is the key ...it's more important than money...compassion and education...we don't need fear. To me fear is the opposite of compassion."

Christine Millar, Aaron's elder sister, struggles with the pain of her brother's disease and the grief of losing her mother, but shows the depth of her strength and understanding in coming to terms with the tragedy:

" I went through one period of time where I was really angry. Like, how dare he? ... but always with the counter half of it going - he can't help it, loo k what he's got to live with now...

HOLDING THE SUN tells the story of the Millar's efforts to access the mental health system and how the justice system failed them. It documents Aaron's medical treatment, and what he describes as his "return to reality", and the surviving family's ongoing effort to reconcile their grief and anger in order to rebuild their shattered lives.

HOLDING THE SUN provides a window for countless Canadian families who struggle to cope with schizophrenia, a disease that steals away one percent of our sons and daughters.

Credits

HOLDING THE SUN

Producer and Director
PETER C. CAMPBELL

Filmed on Location in British Columbia

Produced with the participation of British Columbia Film

Film Incentive BC

Produced by Gumboot Productions Inc.

in association with

CBC Newsworld

© GUMBOOT PRODUCTIONS INC. 1999 Victoria, Canada

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