Jeff Baena wrote a film inspired by a family’s mental health issues

In the footsteps of an indie screenwriter and director Jeff Brotherspremature retirementfans remember his 2020 movie Horse girl is a film inspired by his family’s mental health issues.

“Allison and I have both had family members who have suffered from mental illness, and that had a big impact on working on this,” said Baena, who was married to P.ark and rest a star Aubrey Plaza, told Reddit users ahead of the film’s 2020 release.

Baena co-wrote the film with an actress and a friend Alison Briewho also starred in the film. Baena also directed the film.

During the same 2020 Reddit Q&A, Baena explained that his first stepmother was experiencing “manic depression and was in and out of facilities in Miami due to the Baker Act (5150 CA).” Page six reported for the first time.

On the topic: Alison Brie has reacted to the death of frequent collaborator Jeff Baena

Alison Brie is mourning the death of frequent collaborator and friend Jeff Baena. On Sunday, Jan. 5, Brie, 42, shared a series of photos of the pair together via her Instagram Stories. In the first picture, Brie was all smiles while looking at Boehne as he performed at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for Horse (…)

“I wouldn’t consider it yet Horse girl “To be an activist film, the themes of how we as a society and people treat people with mental illness was a major focus and impetus for making it,” the director added at the time.

On Friday, Jan. 3, Plaza’s husband was found dead in the couple’s home. According to the medical documentation reviewed by Us WeeklyBaena committed suicide. No extras cause of death or the special circumstances connected with its passing were listed, and the examination was held on Saturday, January 4th.

Plaza has not publicly commented on her husband’s death. The representative of the actress gave a statement Deadline in which she and her family asked for privacy during “this difficult time.”

After Baena’s death, celebrities and friends publicly offered theirs Condolences to Plaza via her Instagram. Others shared touching tributes to the director and screenwriter, who was also known for his work on Life After Beth I Heart Huckabeesand much more.

Horse girl follows Sarah (Brie) who finds solace in supernatural crime shows and horses, but whose lucid dreams slowly begin to take over her reality. In 2020, Brie revealed in the same Reddit thread that the film “triggered very real emotions” because of her experience with her grandmother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“It’s based on my family’s history of mental illness, specifically my grandmother’s schizophrenia,” she said at the time, adding that the film also reflected her “fear of what’s in my DNA.”

Plaza and Baena, who started dating in 2011, have kept their relationship relatively private. In 2021, Plaza revealed that she and her husband were married in a private ceremony at their home during the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine.

“A lot of things happened to me during COVID. Yes, we got married. It’s a big deal,” Plaza recalled during a speech on Ellen DeGeneres to show “One night we got a little bored. We got married and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. It’s real, look.”

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