Milling About with P.J. Hogan

Director P.J. Hogan joins host Robin Milling to talk about his new film Mental. It's a story that is so fantastic you can't make it up. P.J. tells Robin everything that happens in the film happened to him at 12, when his philandering father, up for re-election as mayor, picked up a hitchhiker named Shaz, played by Toni Collette to watch over his wild brood while his mom was 'on holiday' in a mental institution. 

Telling stories from his life is not new to the Australian filmmaker whose debut film Muriel's Wedding was all about his sister. P.J. says Mental is a comedy because laughter is the best medicine when you come from crazy. He tells Robin, 'As far as mental goes I'm in the trenches with it because my sister is schizophrenic, my brother is bipolar and I'm the father of two autistic children. So I live with it every day and that's why I made the film a comedy.'

P.J. hopes that underneath the laughs there is a serious message that will come across about how to deal with mental illness whether or not it's personal to you and to re-examine what is normal.