The short film The Wildest Pearl: An Autobiographical Mental Health Story takes place in a hotel room in 2024, and filmmaker and subject Justin Maffett is preparing to check out after speaking at a mental health conference. The film opens with Maffett recounting encounters between psychiatric patients and police, including his own, while the camera image remains inverted—visually disorienting and mirroring the confusion of mental crisis. This moment reflects on Maffett’s mental health journey. In December 2020, when Maffett, then a practicing lawyer at a prestigious New York City firm, was terminated after committing several crimes during an undiagnosed manic episode. That episode led to his involuntary hospitalization in three different psychiatric units and criminal charges that the District Attorney later dropped.
“…terminated after committing several crimes during an undiagnosed manic episode…”
As Maffett reflects on his experience, he illustrates several cases of other individuals like him to show the problem’s pervasiveness. He continues to describe the psychological highs of mania, including feelings of invincibility and grandeur, followed by the devastating consequences: the loss of his job, career, home, and relationships. His verbal account captures the rawness of suicidal ideation and emotional isolation, as well as the trauma of being stripped of one’s humanity in the process of treatment and legal prosecution. His introspective insights are underscored by simple footage of Maffett packing his suitcase but filmed upside-down to keep us disoriented during his narration.
Ultimately, The Wildest Pearl: An Autobiographical Mental Health Story centers on the slow and profoundly personal journey of rebuilding a life after such a collapse. Maffett doesn’t offer easy answers but instead shares the painful honesty of what it means to survive and reclaim agency in the aftermath of mental illness. The film ends not with resolution but with continued motion—packing a suitcase and moving forward, however uncertain the path may be.
"…no easy answers...only painful honesty..."
