3. Brought to you by…
• Campus workshops
• Monthly short film competition
• Short film production grants
• Global community
• Mental Health Services Act (2004)
• 1% tax on people earning >$1m/year
• 20% to prevention and early intervention
#Movies4MentalHealth
4. Here’s the Plan
• Quick Introduction
• Setting the scene together
• Mental Health
• Stigma
• Watch and discuss films
• Panel of students and resources
#Movies4MentalHealth
5. Where were you right before
coming to the workshop?
#Movies4MentalHealth
6. Heads Up
• Mental health is personal – YOU are the expert on
your own experience
• Public space – no confidentiality
• It’s okay to feel!
• Films and conversations might be triggering
• Please take care of yourself however you need,
including asking for help
• If you don’t want your photo taken, please let us know
#Movies4MentalHealth
9. MH Across Languages and
Cultures
If English is not your first language, does your
language have words for mental health, mental
illness and mental wellness?
Do these concepts exist in your home culture?
10. Some movies and tv shows that
show mental illness…
13 Reasons Why Criminal Minds
Joker Split
Don’t F*&^ with Cats Shutter Island
Parasite This is Us
Fight Club
Silver Linings Playbook
Prodigal Son
American Psycho
Shameless
Atypical
A Beautiful Mind
#Movies4MentalHealth
11. Characters with mental illness
are portrayed as…
Alone…
Violent…
Socially Awkward…
Unstable…
Angry…
Scary…
Obsessive…
Highly Intelligent…
#Movies4MentalHealth
15. Three
By Karen Hua
AWI Winner, June 2015
Content heads up: obsessive compulsive disorder,
social anxiety, bulimia
#Movies4MentalHealth
16. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
#Movies4MentalHealth
17. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
- Idea that EVERYONE is
struggling ALL the time.
- How easy it is can feel to go
either the positive or the
negative way.
- Interesting to notice that our
minds assume where the
story will go, yet it does or
doesn’t.
Feelings
The end wrapped it up
beautifully, but the process
isn’t always complete at the
end.
-
18. How did the filmmaking
techniques help tell the story?
-The music gave me anxiety along with the
characters.
-The experience of each student was bleeding
into the others
-Only music, no dialogue
-Depicting isolation
#Movies4MentalHealth
19. Still Here
By Britney Dennison
AWI Winner, October 2017
Content heads up: self-harm, razor blades, depression,
suicidal ideation, bullying
#Movies4MentalHealth
20. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
#Movies4MentalHealth
21. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
-Importance of having a
support system in place to
stop the spiral
-Interesting that he never
wanted to die, the cutting was
just a coping skill.
-Shows the roll of bullying and
amazing that it’s coming from
children as the beginning
point.
-Struggling to understand the
roots of bullying and that other
cultures don’t have it to the
same extend.
Feelings
-When it’s someone “real”’s
story – it’s more impactful
22. Why don’t people get help?
-Labeled (negatively) -”Sad” is “lazy”
-Stigma -Not ready to face it
-Personal Shame -Overwhelmed
-Don’t want to say it or admit it -Busy/To-Dos
-Financial Limitations -Prioritizing Issues
-Fear of Isolation/exclusion
-What does it mean to be vulnerable
-Lack of resources/knowledge
-Parents are anti-therapy/insurance needs
-Cultural beliefs/familial stigma
-Misinterpreting what is happening to us
#Movies4MentalHealth
23. Blue
By Samuel León
AWI Winner, September 2018
Content heads up: substance use
#Movies4MentalHealth
24. Responses and Reactions?
#Movies4MentalHealth
- Use of Art as a healing tool is a theme
- Relateable in using the pain to write poetry, love and experience more
- It may perpetuate the stigma by thinking in a “everyone experiences it
that way” type of lens.
- First person accounts to tell the story
25. What can we do?
-Decide to be kind to each other
-Offering support
=More awareness through discussion
--Observing as parents or to those around us within other generations to
increase awareness and sensitive lens
-Be honest in different situations to increase conversation
-The more we talk about it = the more understanding
-Talking about the fact that mental wellness can help us in everyday life
-Be conscious of our language choices
- What is the 1 thing you can do for your community to increase mental
wellness.
#Movies4MentalHealth
27. Meet the Panel
bit.ly/M4MH-Whittier
Oralia Alcorta, she/her
Student / Diversity Ambassador, Whittier College
Jai Ulrich, she/her
Alumni - Class of 2015, Whittier College /
Associate Director of Transfer Admission, Office of Admission, Whittier College
Marysol Mendoza, she/they
Student Affairs Resource Case Manager, Whittier College
whittier.edu/directory/mendoza-marysol
Dr. Rebecca Romberger, she/her
Psychologist/Director, Student Counseling Center
Whittier College, whittier.edu/counseling
Maria Duarte Lemus, she/her
Former Student @ Whittier College / Program
Coordinator, SPIRITT Family Services, spiritt.org
