Review: Amanda

Mutale Kumpani paints a potent picture of José Miguel Jiménez's Reel Art Documentary.

Blurring the line between art and artist, Amanda is a biographical documentary of visual artist Amanda Cullen’s life, charting her course as she navigates personal trauma, grief, and family estrangement.

Childhood abuse led to Amanda being admitted to a psychiatric institution, where she was institutionalised and labelled from the age of 16. This was the beginning of a ‘rootless, nightmarish existence’. Recalling memories of being a patient of psychiatrist Ivor Browne, Amanda describes being haunted by what she experienced.

Amanda seeks justice for those who suffered in the institutions, chiefly St. Brendan’s Mental Health Hospital in Grangegorman, a state-funded public institution. In spite of the numerous obstacles she faces daily, Amanda manages to secure her medical records from the time spent there. Her description of treatments carried out in the Church of Ireland chapel on the hospital grounds makes for a particularly harrowing watch.

Writer and director José Miguel Jiménez allows the audience to glimpse Amanda’s relationship with him, sharing excruciatingly honest details as she finally emerges from the isolation she’s faced.Jiménez works both behind the camera and as a participant in the story, the two working in tandem, conversation flowing freely between him and Amanda. At certain points, Amanda even takes charge of the camera, turning the lens to Jiménez, symbolising regaining control of any aspect of her life she chooses to.

Journalist and author Caelainn Hogan is another close confidante of Amanda’s, having previously shone the spotlight on the harmful experimental treatments inflicted on Amanda as a teenager. Reference is made to an article by Caelainn in the Irish Independent titled ‘The Screams I Still Hear’, in which Amanda states: ‘You go for care and you come out with more trauma’.

To heal now, Amanda participates in shamanic rituals, dance, and music, all the while exorcising the metaphorical demons that have followed her like shadows so long. The energetic rhythms are incorporated into movement, bursts of bright shapes and forms, seemingly chaotic at the outset, but culminating in uniquely accomplished art pieces. From the strokes of a pen painting thick lines, the camera does not miss a trick, bringing her artwork alive with the fluorescent colours, energy, and ephemeral tones.

There is bravery in being seen, and Amanda states in the film that she would not like to see her art as just a pile on the floor. She wants to make something of it. And so begins preparation for an exhibition of her work, introduced as a ten-year retrospective, a decision to share her prolific talent, a brave and cathartic turning point in the self-exploration process.

Through the lowlights and highlights of this deeply intimate piece of cinema, we are left with a profound respect for Amanda’s sense of purpose, and privileged participation in her triumph against so many odds.

Amanda screened at the Irish Film Institute on 26th August 2026.