James Freeman grew up outside Boston, worked hard for his good grades, and was accepted into a prestigious New England college. His path seems set. And then his promising life veers off course as the blackness of clinical depression crashes down on him. After trying the best Western treatments—to no avail—James is inspired by a National Geographic article about Peruvian healers and their centuries-old tradition of ayahuasca to take his treatment into his own hands. All he wants, as he says, “is to feel human—and feel—again.” Over 10 months, as he ventures from shaman to shaman, James asks difficult questions and moves through a series of transformative experiences into a kind of redemption. We’re given remarkable access to his deepest thoughts in this stunningly intimate documentary.

Read a review from doctor and HuffPost contributor, Lloyd I. Sederer.