According to statistics from filmmaker R. Shanea Williams: “If OCD was an American city,
it would be the second most populated city in the country.”

Experts state that there are an estimated 4 million adults and children in the
U.S. currently living with Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder. And yet, when you think about it, has there ever been a
film about it? I’m hard pressed to think
of one.

Which was the inspiration for Ms. Williams’ just recently completed
short film Contamination, which she
says “is putting a face on the oft-misunderstood anxiety disorder,” and
that
“mental health issues are universal and affect, people of all races, ages, and
backgrounds.“

The Queens New York based filmmaker, who in 2011 was a
top 5 finalist in the Urban World Film Festival
Screenwriting Competition, says the inspiration first came to her because “I
had an idea about this character for a long time, what a woman who struggling
with severe germaphobia which resulted in her having OCD. Soon the voice for
this character became louder and louder and I created a story around her. I
felt it’d work as a short film due to it being a contained environment.“

Playing the lead is the Obie Award winning actress Cherise Boothe, who has appeared in the
film 42, and Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined.

Boothe says that her character Jade’s 
“life circumstances have her battling with a condition by which she
feels completely overwhelmed and controlled. Her condition was one I
knew little about and wondered how someone gets to the place where we
find her in the film. The journey of getting inside Jade’s
character–experiencing the world from her perspective, was an
intriguing, challenging and daunting endeavor–three great draws for any
artist.“

Here’s the trailer
for the film which will begin traveling the film festival circuit next year.