Special Events: International Film Festival

Our selections from around the world depict how persons struggling with mental health and addictions challenges use film as a form of art, expression, and healing.

Animated Minds
In Nova Scotia, a free animation film camp for budding filmmakers,
ages 12–18, asked participants to explore the topics of mental health
and mental illness and create short films about what mattered most to
them. The group of 20 youth created five short animated films on life
transitions, awareness and education, addressing stigma, diagnosis
difficulties, isolation, addictions, family and relationships. The films
were screened as part of the ViewFinders International Film Festival in
April 2009 and are now being taken on the road and shown to schools
and community groups across Atlantic Canada.

Boy Interrupted This HBO documentary selected for the Sundance 2009 Film Festival examines why a boy ends his life at the tender age of 15. Dana Perry has gathered home movies, photographs, and a variety of different documents to tell the story of her son, Evan — his bipolar illness, his life, and his death, and their impact on those who loved him the most. She interviews his siblings and friends, his doctors and his teachers, and in the process, she chronicles a harrowing and diffi cult journey. The film creates closure for its creators as well as its audience.

Adam
Soon after moving into her apartment, Beth, a brainy, beautiful writer
damaged from a past relationship encounters Adam, the handsome, but lonely fellow in the downstairs apartment whose awkwardness is perplexing. Beth and Adam’s connection leads to a tricky relationship that
exemplifies the universal — truly reaching another person means bravely
stretching into uncomfortable territory and the resulting shake-up can be liberating. But given that Adam has Asperger’s Syndrome, can their friendship develop into more?

The Bridge
There have been more than 1,200 suicides at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937, among the most of any location in the world. The Bridge is a 2006 documentary fi lm that takes an up close and personal look at suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. With cameras and crew stationed on the bridge for an entire year, the documentary captures live footage of 23 people as they took their final plunge. The Bridge also features interviews with family members, suicide witnesses, and survivors to offer unique insights into mental illness and suicide.

Elling
The shy, retiring Elling and the imposing Kjell are the protagonists in
this Norwegian movie about two mentally challenged friends who battle adversity and find their place in the sun. When the two become
roommates, they attempt to create a life for themselves outside the
confining, but protective, walls of the hospital. As their courage grows,
the two find oddball ways to cope with society, striking up the most
peculiar friendships in the most unlikely places. Petter Naess directs this
Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

SubCITY
In Spring 2008, near-financial collaspe propelled Cascadia Behavioral
Healthcare in Portland, Oregon to seek media and local government
attention through a short documentary. SubCITY takes a look at how
people’s lives are affected by the changes in the mental health system.
From the final moments inside the Oregon State to heart-wrenching but
motivating consumer stories, SubCITY takes us on a journey that shatters
many of the stereotypes associated with mental illness.