THE WILD GIRL OF BRUSHVALLEY TOWNSHIP
29 minutes, documentary, 2025
THE WILD GIRL OF BRUSHVALLEY TOWNSHIP is a short documentary film chronicling the story of a woman named Minnie Adams who is buried anonymously in grave number 948 in the Dixmont State Hospital Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Minnie is one of an estimated one million people who are buried in unnamed graves in mental institution cemeteries across the United States. The film tells the story of her life through interviews with historians and genealogists, a visit to the local historical society, and the newspapers from the early 1900s that sensationalized her institutionalization in graphic detail for the public interest. Through animations constructed from archival material – including newsprint, photographs, and present-day footage from the Adams family farm – THE WILD GIRL OF BRUSHVALLEY TOWNSHIP reclaims Minnie’s story from sensationalist public gossip imagining an alternative history for a woman who was failed by her family and society.