Attempts by CNN to contact Joan Hemingway were unsuccessful. An April article in the Twin Falls, Idaho, Times-News said her artwork was being featured in a business in Ketchum, the town adjacent to Sun Valley. Business owner Nicola Potts told the newspaper that Joan Hemingway, 61, leads a "very happy, very private life."

Mariel, too, said she has had depression and suicidal thoughts, and recalls suffering insecurity and being fearful and depressed growing up. When she overcame that, "I was like, 'I've spent all my life being that way,' " she said.

To move past these feelings, Hemingway says she has "done everything" -- psychotherapy, gurus, holistic doctors -- and each of the methods she has tried have given her something of value. On her blog, for instance, she recommends that everyone take a few minutes of silence in the morning and before sleeping to be still and silent, which helps her to be more calm and focused.

Practices such as these, in addition to exercise, spending time in nature, and eating right, have all helped her achieve peace, she said. It's only within the last four years that she feels she has completely overcome depression.

"It's amazing to me that I'm not sad anymore, and that I don't worry and that I don't fear," she said.

These days, Hemingway and her boyfriend Bobby Williams have a lifestyle company called TheWillingWay ("He has the 'will,' I have the 'way,' " Hemingway said). Health and wellness are her passion.

She also advocates for suicide and mental illness awareness. She is open and communicative with her two daughters about their own mental health, too.

"I think people need to talk about it a lot," she said of mental illness, "Making it OK that it's in your family." She added, "It doesn't shame anyone, and it doesn't make anybody's family an ugly, bad family."

That is a challenge to which this Sundance film also rises.