"What if?" is a collaborative film project directed and produced by Robin Roblee-Strauss, a filmmaker who also has struggled with OCD and anxiety. For his senior thesis project for Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Robin created this OCD-focused documentary, interviewing clinicians, researchers, OCD suffers of diverse backgrounds, and mental health advocates, while exploring the theme of the intolerance of uncertainty that is at the heart of OCD.

 

I first heard of Robin through a podcast episode with Stuart Ralph's The OCD Stories. After hearing his call for participants for his film through the podcast eipsode, I shared my story with him via a submission form on his film's website. Wonderfully, Robin reached back out to me and invited me to be in his film! In January 2019, Robin flew to Tucson, Arizona, where I was living at the time, and filmed me for a couple of days, doing interviews and capturing my day-to-day activities. Though I was suffering from severe OCD at the time, it was a pleasure to get to know Robin, be filmed, and show him around the city. Since the film's completion, it has been featured by the IOCDF during the 2023 OCD Awareness Week, where there was a virtual OCD film festival. During that week, I represented Robin's film in a special IOCDF livestream. You can find out more about Robin's project through this IOCDF article and this OCD Stories podcast episode.

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Check out the film below! It's about 30 minutes in length.