Elizabeth Wiltsee taught herself to read at age four. By age 10 she had taught herself classical Greek. And not long after, Chinese. A brilliant and creative intellectual with a 200 IQ, Elizabeth was a voracious reader, a voluminous writer and a standout student at Stanford University. Decades later she could be found sleeping outside the church doors in the small farming town of Watsonville, California, her beautiful mind ravaged by mental illness. Using Elizabeth's own personal letters, excerpts from her poems and books, and stories from those who knew her best, this moving documentary tells the story of a troubled soul and of the community that embraced her. Based on the memoir by Stanford English professor John Felstiner. "An achingly beautiful documentary" S.Tavernetti, FilmFestivals.com "Opens a door to the divine...We don't often hear the personal histories of the homeless people around us, but in hearing Wiltsee's, we get a glimpse of something that isn't just human -- but spiritually compelling." K.Monk/Vancouver Sun "A haunting documentary...Tender and sympathetic-without ever being sappy... Offers valuable insight into the diverse paths than lead a person to sleeping, inconsolable, on the church house steps." John DeFore / Austin American Statesmen "Has the delicacy of chamber music...You won't leave the theater without being moved..." JHStape, Review Vancouver "A meditation on genius and disorder...Rich in strange, solemn beauty." RvBusack/MetroActive
This Dust of Words is a documentary with a runtime of 59 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 9.0.
