DER Filmmaker

Robert Lemelson

Robert Lemelson is an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on the relationship of culture, psychology and personal experience in Indonesia. He is currently a research anthropologist in the Semel Institute of Neuroscience at UCLA.

Lemelson's work has been published in numerous scholary journals. Recently, he co-edited a book titled Understanding Trauma: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives. In addition conducting research and producing films, Lemelson is the president of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, a research foundation that supports integrative research in the social and neurosciences. He is a director of the Lemelson Foundation, a family foundation whose mission is to support inventors and entrepreneurs, both in the United States and the developing world, focusing on innovations that address basic human needs, support sustainable development, and strengthen economic development.

Lemelson has been filming in Indonesia on the islands of Bali and Java since 1997, exploring the relation of culture to such disorders as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He is the president of Elemental Productions, a documentary film production company.

He is currently in post-production on a series of three documentary films about how three individuals with mental disorders from different families and communities come to define, understand, and treat their illness and how that significantly affects their outcome and recovery.

Additionally, Elemental Productions is in the production stage on three projects on psychosis outcome, gender-based violence, and polygamy in Indonesia.

Films Available at DER
40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy
Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia Series
Shadows & Illuminations
Family Victim
The Bird Dancer

Publications
Formative Experiences: The Interaction of Caregiving, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology, published by the Foundation for Psychocultural Research.

Related Links
Robert Lemelson on IMBD
Elemental Productions