Mental Health Association of Portland

From The Oregonian, January 09, 2010

What they took to calling The Alley — a place that would come to carry great significance for them — is an unremarkable patch of concrete set against a crumbling brick building, not far from the Greyhound bus station and Blanchet House, surrounded by a chest-high wall. They had searched for days for a suitable place to stage an epiphany. But in the typical workings of the universe, the minute they set out looking for one, they couldn’t find it.

If anything, though, this was a group that knew something about persistence, and one day, they happened to peer over the wall. They took in the needles, sodden blankets, discarded socks and empty bottles littering the ground. In the background, the Steel Bridge — where a young couple, unable to see a way out of their heroin addiction, killed themselves a little more than 10 years ago — loomed. And they knew they had found the place.

* * *

They are clients of the Community Engagement Program, at Portland nonprofit Central City Concern, who since June have participated in a filmmaking project designed to give voice to their experiences on the streets and their attempts to change their lives. But there’s a tension in all this, because it’s Central City’s policy to maintain clients’ anonymity because of federal medical privacy laws, but also because as it sorts through years of addiction, mental illness and homelessness, recovering addicts are still in a very precarious place. And on the one hand, especially to reporters, this policy can feel maddening — shouldn’t people be able to tell their own stories? On the other hand, if you stop to think about it, the stakes here are higher than most of us can fathom from the comfort of our lives, those of us who have never had to start over from nothing — let alone multiple times.

Those in the filmmaking group, for their part, when faced with the anonymity policy, came up with a compromise: They would write a fictional screenplay — though drawn from actual experiences — and they would film it in on location in Old Town, in places familiar to them. They’d use an actor or two, but mostly, they would cast real characters from the neighborhood — people outside the program, who could be filmed.

I, too, compromised. I could follow the participants through the process, see the Old Town they would show me, so long as I didn’t identify the participants. Otherwise I was free to report events as they unfolded, interview anyone I wanted.

The leader of this filmmaking group is a man named Brian Lindstrom. Among his own projects, he has made two documentaries about people overcoming addiction — “Kicking,” which follows three drug users through detox, and “Finding Normal,” which tracks recovering addicts as they take the first steps toward rebuilding their lives (and which I wrote about in 2007).

Lindstrom also has worked with Central City clients since 1994, teaching them the fundamentals of moviemaking as a way to help them gain greater clarity over their lives. As he puts it, it is a way to give back by helping those who are often subjects of his personal films tell their own stories. (Ed Blackburn, Central City’s executive director, said of Lindstrom’s approach: “He has the ability to encapsulate people’s stories in a way that preserves their dignity and is also responsible in terms of not exploiting their vulnerabilities … but it’s real, it’s not a propaganda piece … .”)

Lindstrom believes the collaborative nature of filmmaking is a good way to draw people out of their isolation and help them recognize that they have something valuable to contribute. At the same time, he says, it can give people a way to try out possibilities for their own futures: “Taking a character through the challenges that are inherent in a dramatic story, it allows someone to say, ‘That person overcame obstacles. I’m in the process of overcoming obstacles. I think I can do that, too.’”

The group began meeting weekly in June.

How they came to it? Two answers:

“My P.O. and the judge told me I had to go to a program and once I’m done with a program I’ll be off paper,” one man said. “My counselor came and got me from Hooper” — a detox center — “and I’ve been here ever since. It’s going to take some time — I’ve been using all my life. I’m slowly getting my people back in my life … I like coming here because it gives me something to do, makes me think there’s hope out there.”

“I’ve been clean a little while,” another man said. “There’s nothing unique about my story. I’m a heroin addict who has trouble staying clean … .”

Why come to the filmmaking class?

“This is something fun. And I like learning things.”

Together, they studied films — “Finding Normal” and “On the Bowery,” a 1957 film that blended documentary and scripted moments to tell the story of life on the margins in the New York neighborhood and which inspired the group’s own hybrid approach. And then together, they wrote a script they called “Old Town Diary.”

* * *

Which brings us back to The Alley.

In the script, The Alley becomes the scene of the film’s turning point, the place where the main character realizes he can’t go on, that he’s ready to check into detox.

Lindstrom takes the collaborative aspect very seriously — as one member of the group told me, “I feel like I’m working with him; it’s like he’s grateful for our insight” — and he charged the group with scouting for the perfect locations. They, in turn, spent hours of their own time and offered all sorts of ideas: The interior of The Joyce Hotel. A meal at the Blanchet House. The Burnside Bridge.

But it was The Alley that participants mentioned most often.

“I did not want to miss The Alley scene,” said one young man in his 20s, one of the group’s most recent additions, who had pulled himself out of bed that morning with this particular motivation. It was December now, and filming of “Old Town Diary” finally had begun. Over time, the group had dwindled from eight to about three stalwarts, as members battled the very same challenges they sought to capture in the film. There were relapses, medical emergencies. Jail time to be served. “All kinds of things that made it difficult,” Lindstrom said. “And that’s frustrating, but what’s also true is there’s been such a momentum to the project and such follow-through. People have taken it so seriously. Despite all these things, they still come back.”

Working with a $5,000 grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, donations from the Lindlay Family Fund and a crew of volunteers, including director of photography John Campbell (who shot “Mala Noche” and “My Own Private Idaho”), camera operator Justin Alpern (who donated the camera package), and Everclear singer Art Alexakis (who offered to play the main character and who also let hair and makeup artist volunteer Madeline Roosevelt make him look so sickly and tired that a stranger walked up to him and said, “Are you Art Alexakis? Man, you look HORRIBLE”). They filmed “Old Town Diary” over three frigid days in mid-December.

Every day, group members are there for the filming, as are their caseworkers — Carly Laney and Lexi Olson — watching the script they worked so hard on come to life. Some are missing, including one of the most dedicated members, who the caseworkers leave messages for that go unreturned for days. But then, here it is again, the surprising return: He shows up for the last day of filming. Another man, 59, also among the most dedicated participants, had stayed for all nine hours of the first day of filming, enduring the cold — so cold that when they film outside Hooper, they leave their prop sleeping bags with two men who are trying to sleep there that night — only to wake up sick the next morning, desperately disappointed.

* * *
He could not be there again the next day, when they reported at 7:30 a.m. to the Joyce Hotel and rented Room 212, where they would film the main character discovering a notebook someone has left behind in his $30-a-night room — the diary of the film’s title.

This diary belongs to me, Steve. If you’ve found it, I’m probably dead. Or maybe in jail. Or in a mental institution. … What I’m going for is I’m just going to try and write the truth.

Always that dark voice in the back of my mind: “You can’t.” “You’re not good enough.” “Once a junkie, always a junkie.” I wonder which came first, the voice or the using? Do I use because of that voice, or do I have that voice in my head beating me up because I use? If I stopped using, would the voice stop? What if I stopped using and the voice was still there? Then what would I do?

I’m so sick of repeating the same misery. Every damn day wakin up dope sick, the humiliation of begging, stealing, scoring, plunging the … needle. There has to be more than this. I have to be more than this. I have to find a way out.
While they film, a man bangs on the door of Room 208, repeatedly calling for a friend who never answers. From down the hall comes the sound of someone being sick. A woman emerges from her room and recognizes one of the participants — the one who spoke of his hope to get “off paper.” “Hey Shorty. What’re you doing here?”

“Making a movie,” he says and laughs.

And then, it’s a scene downstairs between the main character and the man at the front desk, in this case, played by Greg Blank, who actually works the front desk at 8 N.W. Eighth Avenue, which offers drug- and alcohol-free affordable housing, and who is a familiar face to many people in Old Town trying to get their lives straight. There are also appearances by people in “Finding Normal”; in fact, the group specifically requested that one of the documentary’s subjects — Paul Kochs, a man who speaks with deep eloquence about his path to recovery — star as the film’s other major character opposite Alexakis.

And then it’s time for The Alley scene. The crew members arrive to discover a bedroll, recently used, and new needles scattered about, and they settle in to film the moment that marks the main character’s revelation, where, as the script says, “something gathers within himself.”

Just a week before, Lindstrom, Campbell and the man who had endured the first marathon day of filming only to wind up sick, much to his regret, had been here to take photos for the film’s storyboard. The man’s name is Michael Jo. He asked that I use it so that maybe the people who helped him when he was at his worst would know he’s still alive. And while we stood there, staring at the dirty ground, Michael Jo started telling me his story, and it seems only right that I leave you with his voice and with his name — your own Old Town Diary — because he says it far more beautifully than I ever could, why they are drawn to this place, why they do not want it to remain overlooked and unnoticed, why they want the rest of us to see it, too:

I should tell you, I hit the bottom with alcohol. I’d been living in Arizona, and it was time for me to go before I killed myself there. I stepped off the bus in Portland on Sept. 9th 2002, and from the moment my foot hit the ground, I didn’t have a drink for three years. I knew that for what I was going to do I needed a clear head. Just being sober for three years was a big leap. I reconnected with my family, reconnected with my mother. I had an apartment. I made it beautiful, comfortable. And then one night I went to Fred Meyer’s to get a bike hook. I had money in the bank, a Visa. I went to the Fred Meyer in Gateway, and I bought a pint. At the time I thought, what’s wrong with this picture, but I told myself I’ve been sober 3 years — I’m cool. I never stopped. I was evicted, lost all my stuff. I spent 10 months in residential rehab.

As we stand here today, I have two months, two weeks clean. It’s the most quality clean time I’ve had since I got off the bus. It’s been sort of like I’m learning to walk all over. I can honestly say the Community Engagement Program saved my life. I’d been down so long I thought what’s the point, I’ll just drink until I’m dead. Two months ago, I was just hanging around CEP and someone said why don’t you come to the film-making group and I just got drawn in.

I feel like I can see the world now. I’m not all fogged in. And this time I have a real sense of well being — it’s not euphoria, it’s just somehow everything’s led up to a point where I feel good.

I want to do something that will let me sustain that feeling. What we’re doing with this film, this feels good. … I’ll never be a great director or an actor, but I can be real. … I’ve fallen on my face on the sidewalk. I know what that feels like. Part of the thing with this film is I’m using my experience … for something good, that maybe it can help people accept and understand people on the streets.

As for me, I’m hoping I can feel alive the way I have these last two months.

A guy died in my building the other night. It was complications from diabetes. It was a natural death. I’m not going to say that’s a good death.

But it was just his body that gave out.

Coming up
Old Town Diary
When: 6 p.m. Feb. 28
Where: Cinema 21, 616 N.W. 21st Ave.
Screens along with Brian Lindstrom’s other film, “To Pay My Way With Stories.”

KBOO FM’s Trillium Shannon interviews Brian Lindstrom and Jason Renaud, co-producers of the documentary film ALIEN BOY and about the life and death of James Chasse, September 16 2009. They give a brief update on the film and about what happened to James Chasse on the day before the third anniversary of his death.

Exit music includes Nothing To Fear (A Song for Jim Jim) by the Neo Boys, 1979.

KNOWN FACTS

On the evening of September 17, 2006 James Chasse was walking toward his home from Northwest Portland. Portland Police officer Christopher Humphreys and Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputy Bret Burton called out to him from their patrol car. Portland Police sergeant Kyle Nice arrived within seconds. According to witnesses, James turned away and began to run from the officers. Humphreys tackled James on the sidewalk, and both Humphreys and Nice fought with James on the sidewalk. According to witnesses, the struggle was brief, and one-sided.

According to the homicide investigation presented to the grand jury and two autopsies, James was tackled and beaten by fists and feet. He was Tasered multiple times. Officers caused 26 rib fractures, broke his shoulder, tore his spleen, smashed his face. His fatal wounds were from knee drops and kicks to the face. They hogtied him and threw him in the back of a patrol car.

Emergency medical technicians from American Medical Rescue examined James and indicated to officers he was not sufficiently injured to need medical care.

The officers who beat James transported him to jail, and then were directed by jail nurses to take him to a hospital. No jail nurses offered medical assistance.

As shown in a jail security video, officers hogtied and carried James, shrieking and writhing in pain past deputies and nursing staff, out of jail. The officers elected to take James to a hospital 8 miles away, instead of to any one of the four hospitals within two miles. He died en route to the hospital and little more than 100 minutes after the beating.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER JAMES CHASSE DIED

Portland Police homicide detectives interviewed all three officers who beat James within a week after he died. All officers returned to duty and remain officers today.

On September 17, 2006, Medical Examiner Karen Gunson determined the cause of Jim’s death was blunt force trauma and that his death had been accidental. The fatal trauma was caused by knee drops to James’ back and kicks to his head, both unsuitable uses of force by police officers.

Assistant District Attorney Christine Mascal presented the investigation of the officers to a grand jury on October 3, 2006. On October 17, 2006, the grand jury return with no decision to prosecute. District Attorney Michael Schrunk failed to file charges against the officers.

In October 2006, Michael Schrunk released the entire homicide investigation to the Chasse family, who in turn released it to the media.

On October 17, 2006, the Mental Health Association of Portland, joined by Portland CopWatch and the Oregon Advocacy Center held a memorial for the Chasse family at the First Congregational Church downtown. Over 400 people attended.

On October 23, 2006, the Mental Health Association of Portland launched a comprehensive web site to contain all information pertaining to the what happened to James Chasse and to evoke community dialogue. The site is located at http://jameschasse.blogspot.com. On September 2, 2008, updates to this site were shifted the the new Mental Health Association of Portland web site at www.mentalhealthportland.org.

Mayor Tom Potter apologized to the Chasse family through the media on October 17, 2006.

On October 31, 2006, Potter convened the Public Safety and Mental Health Task Force, co-chaired by County Commissioner Ted Wheeler and then State Senator Avel Gordly. For the most part the Task Force focused on shortcomings of the mental health system instead of police procedure. However, they recommend changes in police hiring procedures, in police training, to build and fund a sub-acute psychiatric facility, and to fully fund Project Respond.

Mayor Potter allocated $500,000 in funding for Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, and classes for all Portland police officers began on February 5, 2007. The training protocols, used in dozens of cities nationwide, are re-written by police training administrators leaving community members out of the process, a move which included canceling of the CIT oversight committee. According to police sources, all Portland Police Bureau officers received training by September 2008.

On February 8, 2007, the Chasse family filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Tri-met and American Medical Rescue. Opening statements in Chasse v Humphreys are scheduled for March 2010. The family’s attorney stated from a second autopsy that James would have survived the beating if he had received medical attention.

The Oregon legislature passed Oregon House Bill 2765 on May 19, 2007, providing 24 hours of training for all Oregon certified officers on identifying persons with mental illness.

The Oregon legislature passed Oregon State Senate Bill 111 on June 28, 2007. The bill requires each county to create a process of investigation and review of use of deadly physical force by law enforcement officers.

On February 19, 2007, Multnomah County Commissioners changed jail policy to require injured and ill arrestees to be transported via ambulance to hospital and not by police car.

On January 30, 2007, the Portland Police Bureau policy changed to require ambulances to transport injured or ill arrestees to jail whenever possible.

On June 14 2007, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton was hired as a Portland Police Officer.

On August 6, 2007, the Mental Health Association of Portland announced the beginning of production of ALIEN BOY, a feature length documentary about the life and death of James Chasse. As of September 2009, the film has been fully funded by contributions from over 200 community members. Director Brian Lindstrom has interviewed over 60 persons associated with James, and the film team has begun post-production. The film will be ready for festivals in the winter of 2009.

On September 17 2007, the Mental Health Association of Portland hosted a peaceful rally at City Hall and presented the Mayor’s staff with a list of unanswered questions about what happened to James Chasse. Mayor Potter responded with a considered letter but was unable to answer many basic the questions stakeholders posed about what happened to James and who was responsible.

On October 11 2007, Federal Judge Dennis Hubel ruled to allow a wide ranging protective order in Chasse v Humphreys, making secret thousands of policy and financial documents of the City and County. Lawyers for the City and Judge Hubel cited the documentary film ALIEN BOY as a threat to officer safety and as an example why the protective order was required.

In January of 2008, Chief Rosie Sizer ended the long-running Chief’s Forum, the only public opportunity to speak with police leadership.

In March and April 2008, fiscal mismanagement overtook Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, requiring a $2.5 million emergency loan from Multnomah County and the state. Profitable portions of the agency were handed over to local competitors. Lead staff members were fired or resigned, but eight out of ten board members remained. The agency still exists, but in a diminished form; its financial and clinical sustainability is questioned by many mental health practitioners and county administrators.

On September 17 2008, the Mental Health Association of Portland held a peaceful demonstration at the Portland Police Bureau headquarters, noting that two years had passed without resolution to the case.

On October 27 2008, attorneys for the Chasse family released a closed circuit video from the Multnomah County jail of James Chasse, still alive but hogtied and screaming in pain, being carried into a jail cell. Police officer Christopher Humphreys can be heard saying “we tackled” Chasse. In September 2006 Humphreys told homicide investigators he had “shoved” Chasse.

On December 9 2008, Rosie Sizer announced the production of police training videos to highlight the danger of foot pursuits and the bureau’s “knock-down technique.”

On May 5 2009, Michael Schrunk declined to prosecute Christopher Humphreys after reviewing the jail video and considering the variance in his comments and his testimony to investigators in September 2006. At the same time Rosie Sizer stated the case would be turned over to the police bureau’s Internal Affairs Division for review.

On July 1 2009, attorneys for the Chasse family released portions of transcripts from dozens of sources, including of witnesses, police officers, and American Medical Rescue staff, policy documents, photographs, expert testimony.

On July 2 2009, the Chasse family accepted a settlement from Multnomah County for $925,000 for their part in Jim’s death.

On July 2 2009, county chair Ted Wheeler and state mental health administrator Richard Harris announced they had found funding to build and operate a sub-acute psychiatric facility. Central City Concern (CCC) was designated as the vendor for this project without an competitive open-bidding process. CCC’s director Ed Blackburn stated on July 2, 2009 the facility would be open by the Spring of 2010.

CURRENT STATUS AS OF SEPTEMBER, 2009 – THREE YEARS AFTER JAMES’ DEATH

Since September 17th 2006 there have been over 300 news stories about what happened to James Chasse. Updates about what happened to James remain front page news.

To date, no data has been released to show the effectiveness of CIT training – or any other new training or hiring policy – on officer behavior or performance.

To date, $925,000 has been awarded to the Chasse family from one of four parties. Over $100,000 has been spent by the city defending the case, now at $3700 per month.

To date, no one has been held accountable for James’ killing.

The third anniversary of the death of James Chasse is September 17 2009. We’re starting to plan a commemoration – and want your help.

We’re mulling a few ideas – but for brainstorming, the more the merrier. Want to help? Send us an email at info@mentalhealthportland.org.

The Mental Health Association of Portland has applied fairly constant pressure for truth and transparency about what happened to James Chasse since his death on September 17 2006.

In September 2006 we applied direct pressure to the mayor’s office with personal visits and ongoing correspondence.

From October 2006 to today we’ve provided local and national journalists with background interviews, documents and explanations of Jim’s death, the what happened before and after, the cast of characters, and the various twists and turns of the story.

From October 2006 to today we’ve collected every public document about what happened to Jim and put it online, including the complete homicide investigation, policy document, and news account.

What Happened to James Chasse – October 2006 / September 2008
Mental Health Association of Portland – tag ‘James Chasse’ – since September 2008

In October 2006 with help from Portland CopWatch and the First Congregational church, we helped organize a memorial service for Jim’s family. Dozens of speakers included Jim’s family, local civil rights advocates, mental health advocates, friends, community leaders and spiritual leaders.

We helped form the short-lived but helpful Justice for James Chasse Committee.

We organized the first annual memorial for James, a peaceful protest at City Hall where we presented the mayor’s staff with a list of continuing questions from the community about what happened to James. The mayor did respond – but did not answer the questions.

We are producing ALIEN BOY, a feature length documentary film about what happened to James Chasse. The director is Brian Lindstrom, creator of Finding Normal; the director of photography is John Campbell, the composer is Charlie Campbell or Goldcard and Pond fame. We’re 80% finished, and have raised $150,000 in cash and in kind contributions.

Go team!

We’ll have a fundraising party for our documentary film ALIEN BOY on Wednesday, June 17 at 6 PM. You’re welcome to come.

ALIEN BOY is a documentary film about the life and death of James Chasse.

Send an email to Eva to RSVP for the party.

At the fundraiser director Brian Lindstrom will speak about the film, how it’s been made and about the current challenges of production. He’ll also show clips from the film.

Over 300 people have made cash or in-kind contributions to create ALIEN BOY.

If you’re not able to attend, but would like to make a tax deductible contribution to help finish ALIEN BOY, click here or send a check to

ALIEN BOY
PO Box 3641
Portland, Oregon 97208

ALIEN BOY is scheduled for release this fall.

Brian Lindstrom’s acclaimed documentary Finding Normal is now available for sale on DVD.

See – www.findingnormal.org

Finding Normal is a feature-length cinema-verite documentary film about long-time heroin and crack addicts trying to rebuild lives devastated by addiction and incarceration.

The film follows two men and one woman leaving a detoxification treatment center in Portland Oregon, and entering Central City Concern’s Recovery Mentor program, which provides clean and sober housing, drug treatment, and – perhaps most importantly – a recovery mentor who knows first-hand what it takes to stay clean, stay out of prison, and build a “normal” life.

The film witnesses the day-to-day challenges of recovery, the heart-break of relapse, and the simple victories of a “normal” life: singing in a church choir, going fishing, watching a daughter graduate from high school.

From the Oregonian editorial board member Doug Bates, April 22 2009

If you’ve never seen “Finding Normal,” the critically acclaimed documentary by Portland film maker Brian Lindstrom, I highly recommend you check it out.

And only if you’ve seen it will you fully appreciate the little story Lindstrom shared with me recently. It’s just a little slice-of-life vignette, but it illustrates a powerful ripple effect generated by arts funding — something that’s very much on the chopping block during this down economy.

Also on the chopping block, especially here in shortsighted Oregon, is state funding for drug and alcohol treatment. There’s a surprising nexus between the two subjects, as Lindstrom makes clear in the note he sent my way:

I had a chance meeting last week that hit home to me the importance of funding both arts agencies and residential drug treatment programs. I was in Old Town on my way to a planning meeting at the Community Engagement Program where I’m doing a Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC)-funded film project that has me working with “dual diagnosis” folks (people with drug addiction AND mental illness) to guide them through the process of making a film about their experiences. I bumped into Dan Winters, who was profiled in “Finding Normal” (he was the white crack addict). Dan has more than 3 years clean, and is getting married April 24. He will soon begin a new job connecting Recovery Mentor Program graduates with jobs and housing.
Dan was handpicked for this job by Ed Blackburn, executive director of Central City Concern, who got to know Dan at Q and As following screenings of “Finding Normal” at Cinema 21, Living Room Theaters, Hollywood Theater, City Hall, Portland Development Commission, etc., and was very impressed with the way Dan handled himself.
Without a grant from RACC I wouldn’t have been able to make “Finding Normal.” Without “Finding Normal,” Ed wouldn’t have gotten to see Dan in action, and all the people who attended screenings wouldn’t have had a chance to see the person behind the label “addict.” And without the Recovery Mentor Program … you get the idea.
I think this chain of events is notable and demonstrates the far reach of art and the necessity of funding arts agencies and residential drug treatment centers.

I couldn’t have said it better. Thanks for shining a light on this ripple effect, Brian. Meanwhile, readers can check out Shawn Levy’s review of “Finding Normal” here.

– Doug Bates, associate editor; dougbates@news.oregonian.com

EXTRA – Buy a DVD of Finding Normal at www.findingnormal.org

ALIEN BOY is a documentary film by Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, and produced by the Mental Health Association of Portland. The film is about the life and death of James Chasse.

Visit our ALIEN BOY web site and make a donation to help finish this community-based film project.

ALIEN BOY is a feature length documentary film being produced by the Mental Health Association of Portland. The film tells about the life and the death of James Chasse, an artist, a musician, a family member, a neighbor, a member of a religious community, and a person with schizophrenia. James died after a beating at the hands of three members of the Portland Police, and after a series of opportunities for medical intervention failed to occur.

The film is directed by Brian Lindstrom, who created FINDING NORMAL, and KICKING, two insightful films about addiction and recovery.

Here’s an update on our progress to date: A production crew was recruited and has been meeting in collaboration with board members of the Mental Health Association of Portland for over a year. That collaboration has resulted in raising approximately $32,000 from community members and a local foundation.

We have had great help from dozens of people to arrange house parties, throw a rock concert, write proposals to foundations, build this web site, and make solicitation visits. ALIEN BOY is truly a community effort.

One of the most fun aspects to the past year was the ALIEN BOY zine, produced by Erin Yanke and Icky Ciccone. This beautifully designed zine collects a selection of writing and art by James Chasse, as well as interviews with the filmmakers and information about the case. It includes a CD with KBOO related radio coverage of the case. The zine ALIEN BOY is available for sale at Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak Street, Portland, Oregon 97201 or online. Just click the image above to get started. All proceeds from the sale go toward the production of the documentary ALIEN BOY.

Seventy percent of the interviews for ALIEN have been collected, transcribed, and the crew is on course to collect the remaining interviews before the end of February. Editing is scheduled to begin in March and should take three weeks. Intermittent with editing, cinematographer John Campbell will shoot cutaways of landscapes, still images and references to intersplice with interviews.


It has taken a long time, but over the year we’ve learned what happened to James Chasse, and also how both his life and death had an profound affect on the city of Portland. We hope, by early summer of 2009, to be ready to show ALIEN BOY to both Portland and the world.

From Joanne Zuhl of Street Roots, May 11, 2008

Portland filmmakers set out to document the life and death of James P. Chasse Jr.

On Sept. 17, 2006, in a tony Pearl District neighborhood, in the sights of police officers who saw something they viewed as “odd,” James P. Chasse Jr. stepped out of time. He was no longer in the Portland of his youth, and he wouldn’t live to see the city that might someday come to understand him.

In that moment, this odd-looking 42-year-old was chased by police, tackled to the ground, Tasered, hogtied, taken to jail, and placed in a holding cell. Less than half an hour later, he was shuttled to a hospital — by the arresting officers — after a jail nurse determined he needed medical care. He arrived dead at Providence Hospital with 16 broken ribs, a punctured lung and massive internal bleeding.

He was not a transient, nor was he violent or an illegal drug user, as was first suggested. He had a home, immense artistic talent, an active spiritual life and schizophrenia.

The story of Chasse’s life, and the circumstances surrounding his death, are the subject of a new feature-length documentary, “Alien Boy,” which is set to begin filming in mid-May. At the helm is director Brian Lindstrom, a Portland native whose film “Finding Normal” is receiving critical acclaim for its portrayal of recovering drug addicts in Central City Concern’s mentor program. In its initial showings across the country, Lindstrom says “Finding Normal” is striking a common chord among audiences about humanity in the misunderstood world of addiction and recovery. It is a chord he hopes to strike again with “Alien Boy,” this time about mental illness.

“I was fascinated by Jim’s earlier life, and I was also extremely interested in the onset of his mental illness, and the kind of gradual isolation that that seemed to create,” said Lindstrom. “I think that if people can understand Jim as a young person, with his incredible energy and creativity and artistic talent, they can see the kind of isolation that he had to deal with later in his life, and I just think it will be a very poignant story and help us explain how we deal with the mentally ill.”

Collaborating with Lindstrom on the project is Portland Mercury reporter Matt Davis, who has doggedly covered the Chasse case in print and blog reports. Davis also has become a student of Chasse’s life, following his career in Portland’s counterculture music scene of the 1980s. Chasse sang in a punk band and created his own punk zine, Organizm, covering the local music scene. The title of the documentary is taken from the punk classic of the same name written about Chasse by the Portland band the Wipers.

“We want to show what happened to him, we want to show why Jim was an important person and not just a nobody,” Davis said. “He was sophisticated, he had a lot of impact on a lot of people. And that’s not just ‘Alien Boy.’ He had friends, he was a poet, he made magazines, he was a significant person. The kind of person that if I knew in college or high school, I would have found really inspiring. He would have had a real impact on me, a person. I would have liked to have hung out with.”

Davis continues to monitor the case now as it waits the outcome of a civil lawsuit filed against the city by the Chasse family. In October 2006, a Multnomah County grand jury found the officers involved, Portland Police officers Christopher Humphreys, Sgt. Kyle Nice and Sheriff Deputy Brett Burton not criminally liable for Chasse’s death. Davis has been unabashed in his contempt for police union protectionism and his desire to see the police officers involved with the Chasse arrest fired.

“I want people to be aware of the silencing that goes on around issues like this, and the way that they’re played and manipulated to avoid the attention on what’s really important, which is firing the individual officers who were involved.”

As much as the documentary will focus on Chasse, it is also about the changes Portland has experienced in his lifetime, according to Lindstrom, who thinks that it is more than incidental that Chasse’s end begins in the Pearl District.

“The gentrification plays a role in all of this,” says Lindstrom. “He was first spotted by the police on the corner of 18th and Everett, and then, in pursuit, he ended up near Blue Hour in the Pearl District, and it seems like this is a collision between the Pearl District and Old Town. What does it mean when an industrial neighborhood becomes an upscale Soho of Portland? I don’t think this would have happened 10 years ago. I think if you take gentrification out of this story, Jim is not even arrested that day and his life goes on.”

Jason Renaud, a mental health advocate and founding member of the Mental Health Association of Portland, went to high school with Chasse. Within days after Chasse’s death, Renaud’s organization was speaking with the mayor’s office about how to proceed: apologize to the family; create a committee with the community to make sure it doesn’t happen again; make crisis intervention training mandatory for all patrol officers; and fire the officers involved. All but the last request was fulfilled within a month, said Renaud said, who is working as a consultant on the film.

As Chasse’s illness progressed, Renaud saw how he lost friends and became more isolated. But Chasse maintained his independence, living in a one-room apartment and staying on medications to manage his illness. It was an existence that a man in his condition wouldn’t have had only a few decades ago, Renaud said. For Renaud, the responsibility lies squarely on the three officers involved in Chasse’s arrest, not the mental health system.

“James was an example of how the mental health system worked really well,” says Renaud. “James was really sick. And 20 or 30 years ago, James would have spent his life in an institution, heavily drugged, often restrained, away from his friends and family, away from the library he loved, the music he loved, the people he enjoyed being around. Because of our outpatient mental health system and better medication, and because of our generous housing system, Jim was able to live independently, live alone, and care for himself, which he was able to do for the most part. That would have all been gone 20 years ago without this mental health system. He was a big success. Even though he had really bad times, and when people look at the way he looked or the way he acted, they’d see someone who was very ill, he would have been much more ill without this system.”

Ultimately, Renaud thinks the movie will have an upbeat message; one that shows the response of the city to date, and what still needs to be done, including creating a sub-acute care facility that could take people in crisis.

“It’s Jim’s legacy that these things occurred. I don’t think Jim was a mental health advocate, he was not a person who spoke out about anything except his undying love of the Velvet Underground. He was a very shy, very frightened person who had a strange gift and had a hard time sharing it with people.

“Everybody in Portland knows the story of what happened to Jim,” Renaud says. “And a lot of people know, who care to know, the things that the city and the county did to make sure that what happened to Jim doesn’t happen to anybody else. Who doesn’t know is the city of Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Paris and London. We need to make this film to tell the rest of the world what happened to Jim, and what the city of Portland did to address concerns.”

Lindstrom hopes the film goes beyond words and images and prompts action.

“It can be a model of how a city reacted to this terrible tragedy,” Lindstrom says. “And also make sure that, God willing, nothing like this will happen again.”

By Shawn Levy, The Oregonian, February 18, 2008

One of the greatest and most inspiring surprises for me last year was “Finding Normal,” a gripping and moving documentary by local filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, who went deep into the world of recovering addicts and turned up an amazing fly-on-the-wall portrait of the addicts and the peer mentors who help them find a new path in life through a downtown Portland program.

Well, Lindstrom has set his sites on another story set on the local streets: the case of James Chasse, a troubled 42 year old who was effectively beaten to death in September, 2006, in broad daylight on a Pearl District corner by three Portland cops. The Chasse case has been a real lightning rod for critics of the training and technique of police officers, particularly in their encounters with the disenfranchised and/or disturbed. (You can read details of the incident and the shockwaves it produced here.)

Lindstrom has begun work on “Alien Boy,” a documentary about Chasse’s life and death and the issues his killing has raised, and, being a virtual one-man show operating on a not-even-shoestring budget, he could use a hand. It seems to be a perfect marriage of artist and subject matter, and you could feel pretty good about yourself if you visited the film’s web site and donated money or support or even helped tell other folks about the project.

The word you’re looking for is mitzvah.

Finding Normal, a documentary film by Brian Lindstrom, will be shown at City Hall on Friday, February 1 at 1 PM. The showing is free.

Coming straight out of prison or detox, recovering addicts struggle to stay clean and sober in the city of Portland. Thanks to the Recovery Mentor program of Central City Concern, some will clean up their lives, but as this candidly frank documentary reveals, it is not an easy process.

Local filmmaker Brian Lindstrom is as uncompromising in his study of recovery as are the mentors who have rebuilt their lives and are now committed to helping others. What unfolds are intimate portraits of human triumph and failure.

Review at – Brian Lindstrom’s Finding Normal
About Brian at – Brian Lindstrom official web site
Interview at – The Plugg.com

Brian Lindstrom’s work (FROM THE GROUND UP, KICKING, HEART OF HARLEM) reflects an ongoing concern for social issues and for people who engage the challenges. His new film takes an unflinching look at the daunting difficulties faced by those overcoming addiction, and examines the dynamic within Portland’s Central City Concern’s recovery mentor program. With a 70% success rate, the program’s strength lies in its ability to promote a strong sense of community and connectedness with peers and mentors, all former addicts committed to helping others as they help themselves. “The film is raw and real, filled with undeniable moments of pain and elation and human personality. It’s impossible to imagine a more honest look at this all-too-common world.”—Shawn Levy, THE OREGONIAN. (77 min)

FINDING NORMAL
Portland, OR
Director: Brian Lindstrom
Tue Nov 13 8:00 PM Whitsell Auditorium