2025
Overview
A short film on the cyclical nature of Borderline Personality Disorder, paired with a sculpture that doubles as the film's central visual metaphor.
Client
Immersive Media Studio, Dr. Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay, Coursework @ Srishti Manipal
Type
Coursework — Immersive Media Studio, M.Des Information Arts and Information Design, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology
Duration
2 weeks
The Premise
BPD doesn't move in a straight line. It cycles, detachment, depression, a flood of feeling, then quiet again, often within the same week. The Pit was built around that shape rather than around a single episode or a single emotion, portraying the recurring descent into emptiness and isolation that defines daily life with the condition, rather than treating it as one dramatic low point.
A sculpture, Snake-Skin with Skull, sits at the center of the film as its visual metaphor. A snake sheds its skin not once but repeatedly, the same cycle returning again and again. That rhythm mirrors the film's structure directly: the same descent recurring, but carrying with it the possibility that each cycle is also a chance at renewal, not just repetition for its own sake. The film and the sculpture were built to interact rather than sit as separate pieces, with the object's presence inside the film doing the explaining a voiceover might otherwise have had to do.
The film draws on Rachel's own experience living with BPD, rather than depicting the condition from the outside. The quiet, relentless quality of the emptiness it portrays comes from lived detail, not research.
Drawn From Life
The film draws on Rachel's own experience living with BPD, rather than depicting the condition from the outside. The quiet, relentless quality of the emptiness it portrays comes from lived detail, not research.
Mentor: Dr. Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay
Cast: Tara Gupta
Written and Produced by: Rachel Maryann Carvalho
Watch The Pit
