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You can watch Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (2019) for free on Kanopy.

An investigative reporter Nellie Bly, who’s on a mission to expose the deplorable conditions and mistreatment of patients at the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum, and feigns mental illness in order to be institutionalized to report from the inside. The movie is an account of actual events surrounding Nellie’s stay beginning after she has undergone treatment, leaving her with no recollection of how she came to the asylum or her real identity.

Ricci transforms into a fearless journalist who feigns madness to expose the horrors of a nineteenth-century asylum. This tense historical dramatization captures the chilling reality of institutional abuse through a single woman's undercover crusade.

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