Documentary follows struggle of Devon woman with multiple personalities

Hilary Stanton died tragically after film’s premiere By Ben Gelinas, edmontonjournal.com January 25, 2011

EDMONTON — Hilary Stanton spent 12 years of therapy in front of a camera while a psychologist coaxed out multiple, often-hostile personalities like demons....Stanton’s psychologist Cheryl Malmo of Edmonton counselled each of these “alters” as a whole person, a new client in the same woman. It took a lifetime to reconcile the pain and fear Stanton had suppressed with her multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder. But Stanton got better through therapy.

Her session tapes became the backbone of a new documentary called When the Devil Knocks, which had its première at the Vancouver International Film Festival last fall to a standing ovation. Six weeks later, Stanton was on vacation in Mexico with her wife Debbie when they struck a dead animal on the road. Debbie survived, but Stanton was killed in the crash....

The documentary, which airs Wednesday on CBC’s Passionate Eye, is her legacy, Malmo says. “The wonderful thing is that she has left this film behind, which can educate both professionals and the public about this condition. At the film festival, when she was asked why she had done this, she said: ‘If one person can be helped by seeing this film, if one therapist can understand that this is real and there is a way to help people, then it’s worth it’.”....

Stanton suffered greatly as a child, through multiple kinds of abuse from multiple abusers. When the Devil Knocks focuses on one key trauma and a handful of important alters connected to it....When Stanton was a little girl, a man sexually assaulted her multiple times. Stanton remembered little about what happened. Her alters absorbed the memories. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Film+follows+struggle+Devon+woman+with+multiple+personalities/4160236/story.html


When the Devil Knocks is - the intimate story of a woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality. The film premieres at the 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival. http://whenthedevilknocks.com/