Allison Stewart host of All Of It on WNYC
Director Michelle Esrick and Darrell Hammond speak with Allison Stewart, host of All Of It on WNYCC. (Interview begins at 34:07)
Leonard Lopate at Large
Director Michelle Esrick and Darrell Hammond meet with Lenard Lopate for a look behind the mask of one of the world’s preeminent impressionists.
Road to Resilience Podcast: An honest conversation on what it is really like to live with Trauma and Complex PTSD as well as a compassionate approach for healing.
Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond, filmmaker Michelle Esrick, and Mount Sinai psychologist Jacob Ham, PhD, discuss childhood trauma, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healing.Dr. Ham is director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
"Hammond and the film’s director, Michelle Esrick, hope the film will encourage more doctors to learn how to identify and treat trauma" —New York Post
"The bulk of the documentary concerns...weighty topics, but Hammond also reveals some nuggets about his comedy life, which, for a guy who was on SNL for 14 seasons, has gone curiously under-documented, until now" —New York Magazine
"I've been struck and remarkably impressed by director Michelle Esrick's powerful new film, Cracked Up" —David Tereshchuk, Media Beat
"Cracked Up is a very powerful, great story. It certainly struck a chord with me" —CNN, John Vause
“I think this movie is going to help a lot of people." —WNYC - All Of It, Allison Stewart
"Hammond's hero's journey of helping others is now well underway — a sign of his hard-won and ongoing healing" —Psychology Today
"Esrick felt if people knew this was a biological issue it would lift the shame and the stigma. The film is really about the long-term effects of childhood trauma" —Daily Beast
"Esrick said, 'It's Darrell's story, but it's a bigger story that we both wanted to tell" —Variety
“On the surface, this movie is about Darrell Hammond's incredible courage in facing unspeakable childhood trauma and using the act of speaking the truth as an antidote to the silencing prison of trauma. On a more profound level, this movie is actually about the power of Darrell and Michelle's loving friendship with each other, the safety of which allows this story to be told in such a way that Michelle's camera acts as a loving, healing gaze, unflinching but with the greatest humanity and tenderness, holding Darrell with love and bearing witness to his truth. Many mental health professionals will learn more about listening deeply to another person’s truth with love and compassion through the way this story is told.”
—Jacob Ham, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
“Darrell Hammond had the guts to tell his story and expose his searing childhood trauma to the world. Michelle Esrick had the talents and fortitude to craft that story into a stunning documentary, one of the best I’ve ever seen. Cracked Up should be seen by anyone who’s been touched by adverse childhood experiences. That’s all of us.”
—Jane Stevens, Founder of ACE’s Connection
"It’s a superb movie that tells it as it is, unflagging. The world desperately needs to see this movie. Almost every day I see more reports of misdiagnoses & psychiatric mismanagement that make me wonder if psychiatry, overall, may be doing more harm than good. You and Darrell have given us hope out of the darkness. Delighted to have played a walk-on role in your wonderful movie. Darrell is amazing - like so many survivors I know he has gone to hell and back many times, and in the process has developed astounding survival strategies.”
—Bessel van der Kolk M.D. Expert in childhood trauma; author of The Body Keeps the Score
"I was utterly transfixed! It is so powerful, so moving, so true, so so so important! it is such a powerful film about trauma and how lodged memories can destroy our lives and how deeply people need help to unravel these memories rather than be diagnosed with illnesses that end up keeping them drugged and numb. Much love and admiration."
— V (formerly Eve Ensler, playwright, activist, founder of V-Day
“This is a masterful telling of an important story.”
—Ram Dass, spiritual teacher
"This is a riveting, heart wrenching and beautifully realized film--a welcome, important exploration of a topic too little excavated. How brave and beautiful of Darrell to let his life and inner self be broken open for all to see."
—Bonnie Raitt, Musician/Activist
“Michelle Esrick’s CRACKED UP is a profound and unflinching look at the extraordinary life of Darrell Hammond and the dark legacy of abuse he suffered as a child. It is also excellent film making, delivering a highly emotional story with elegance, care and humor, thus keeping our hearts and minds open to the beauty of human resilience.”
—Jamie Redford, filmmaker, "Resilience" and "Paper Tigers"
“Through Darrell Hammond’s courageous and riveting tale of trauma and recovery, Michelle Esrick illuminates the misunderstood tragedy of trauma vividly, sensitively, lovingly in her beautiful filmmaking."
—Trudy Goodman PH.D. in psychology, mindfulness teacher and founder of insight L.A.
“This is a brilliant documentary, just brilliant! I want Michelle Esrick to make my movie!”
—Jack Kornfield PH.D. in clinical psychology and International mediation teacher, best selling author
