“We were looking for a case we could follow for a long time through all its permutations,” says Jason Renaud, when asked why his organization decided to follow the story of James Chasse’s death. “These events happen frequently but the public moves from one story to the next, because the media moves from one story to the next. By focusing on one story, we’re hoping to get to a deeper, more sophisticated understanding.”
Renaud has been doing advocacy around alcohol and drug issues for almost 30 years. In 2003 he formed the Mental Health Association of Portland (MHAP), with the purpose of selecting a single project each year to put the group’s utmost effort into, rather than getting buffeted about by the latest news.
There’s a saying in the disability advocacy movement, nothing about us without us, that Renaud took to heart when he formed MHAP. Its board is made up of people suffering with mental illness, addiction, or those who care for such people. MHAP is particularly interested in how people with mental illness are affected within the confluence of large institutions like prisons, hospitals, churches and schools. Renaud also happened to know Chasse personally, as a fellow student at the Metropolitan Learning Center when they were in their teens.
“I’ve been trying to get more memories of Jim but they haven’t come,” he admits. “We spent time mostly after school going to clubs, record stores, and hanging out at coffee shops. He was a bit of a poet, and he had this newsletter he published and handed out. Often we were too young to get into the clubs so we’d stand outside.”
What happened when Renaud heard about his friend’s death?
“I was disappointed,” he says. “I guess I don’t really get angry, but I can be fairly determined, and Jim didn’t have to die that way. It was a miserable, brutal death, and completely pointless. In general I’m tired of people with a mental illness being abused, and at some point, you have to pick your fight.”
Renaud, whose quiet determination is largely responsible for getting the film to where it is now, says he’s optimistic about getting Alien Boy into theaters. “We’ve got a good plan, a good crew, a good story,” he says. “And the opportunity to do it is right now.”
