Director’s Statement.

This film hits close to home…

As someone who faced emotional and behavioral health challenges growing up—including time in demanding behavioral health systems, and ongoing struggles with anxiety, OCD, and other obstacles—Ryan Delena’s story resonated with me on a deeply personal level. His journey through a system that failed to protect him, and his eventual path toward self-actualization, felt both familiar and urgent.

From the moment we learned about Ryan’s experience, my directing partner Marc Salomon and I knew this was a story we needed to tell. It’s a story that confronts hard truths about how we treat young people who don’t fit into prescribed boxes—and celebrates the power of resilience, passion, and the will to thrive.

Creatively, our goal was to give Ryan the space to tell his story in his own words, without heavy-handed narration or framing. We approached the film with a commitment to vérité filmmaking—serving as observers more than architects, allowing authentic, unscripted moments to unfold naturally. By doing so, we hoped to create an honest, emotionally resonant portrait that invites the audience not just to watch, but to truly feel the world through Ryan’s eyes.

We hope this film challenges assumptions, inspires empathy, and sparks important conversations about agency, mental health, and what it really means to be free.

-Marc Levy