Director Tarsem Singh takes Vevo Footnotes behind the scenes during the making of his short film for Lady Gaga’s “911.”

Written by Gaga with Justin Tranter, BloodPop and Madeon, the song appears on Chromatica (Interscope). It centers on her having taken antipsychotic medications to address pernicious mental-health issues.

Gaga gave Tarsem full license to tell the story of her struggle. He was inspired in his task by Federico Fellini’s 8½, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates, exploring the connections among reality, dreams and the creation of heroes. 

“Something that was once my real life every day is now a film, a true story that is now the past and not the present,” Gaga says in the film. “It’s the poetry of pain.”