Link to Video: https://youtu.be/626w9qBmTWw
Artist Statement
I identify as someone who has quite the relationship with ADHD. I was diagnosed in the third grade after my mom received reports from my teachers that I was causing trouble in the classroom and being quite disruptive and inattentive. So much of my thoughts are just a vibrant whirlwind of chaos, like a thousand pinballs in a pinball machine, forever bouncing around, with many of the important ones slipping helplessly past my mental flippers and down the drain.
I feel like I say this a lot, but this assignment was admittedly harrowing for me. When I first began my search for a suitable piece of media for this project, it was nearly impossible to find something that was before my time. ADHD had only started being diagnosed in the 1970s, and really only became widespread knowledge around the turn of the century. I decided I would need to expand my search to characters in films that were depicted as having ADHD-like symptoms, but weren’t necessarily officially diagnosed with the condition. I finally settled on Maria Von Trap, from the 1965 film The Sound of Music.
While existing in an era that predates an understanding of ADHD, Maria exhibits many of the qualities of someone with ADHD, as observed by those around her. Some of the qualities mentioned by the other characters of the film include being late for everything, being as difficult to pin down as a cloud, feeling confused and out-of-focus when she is around, being unpredictable and flighty, even climbing trees at inappropriate times, which is a strangely specific observation that many with ADHD experience, that is, climbing things in inappropriate situations.
The film depicts her as a strong, female protagonist, who uses her creativity and charm to incite a change in the Von Trapp family and the world. I’m glad that this was done, and I love the way that she and Captain Von Trapp contrasted nicely in personality (it could be argued that the captain had a form of OCD.)
I focused on the nuns’ reaction to Maria for this assignment, in their song “Maria”. I feel that overall, the song, and the film as a whole, did a good job showing the audience the ups and downs of getting distracted easily, although I thought that it was still an outsider’s viewpoint and that despite Maria being the protagonist, we weren’t entering her scattered mind. I know while I was watching this, my mind was going all over the place, and my thought and ideas for this project were absolutely overwhelming and fragmented and even writing this paper I’ve been misspelling every other word because I’m just thinking about so many things including the fact that this sentence is a run-on sentence. So I decided to give people a taste of the cake of chaos that I get to enjoy every day.
In conclusion, the piece is meant to provoke anxiety, but I want to be clear in saying that I’m at peace with having ADHD and have accepted its trials and blessings.
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