2. Here’s the Plan
• Quick Introduction
• Setting the scene together
• Mental Health
• Stigma
• Watch and discuss films
• Panel of students and resources
3. Brought to you by…
• Monthly short film competition
• Campus workshops
• Global community
4. 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
5. What brought us here
today?
To support and learn about stigma and break it
To earn points
To spread awareness
Wanting to make it
IDEAL insight on things
Really important conversation that effects
millions of people
Experience the five minute movie model
Speak candidly about mental health with
people of color
8. Some movies and tv shows that
show mental illness…
Short term 12
Front of the Class
13 Reasons Why
United States of Tara
A Beautiful Mind
Girl Interrupted
Atypical
Mommy
Catch me if you can
Heathers
One flew over the coo-coo’s nest
Babadook
Forrest Gump
Cat Woman
Split
9. Characters with mental illness
are portrayed as…
“Crazy”
Secondary character/comic relief
Unstable
Violent
Illness is the character flaw
Outcast
Angsty
Problematic
Incapable
Childish
“retarded”
Weak
Threatening
11. Stigma
•A judgment or stereotype that is:
• Always negative
• Always untrue
• Can be internalized
12. How does stigma feel?
Painful/torment/eat you up alive
Put in a box
Isolating
Frustrating
Vulnerable
Defective
Powerless, something put on you
No choice but to go beyond comfort zone
14. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
15. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
Relatable with specific experiences
Surprised to see black male with
eating disorder
Good portrayal of what its like to
feel alone, especially on college
campus
Sense of unity at the end
Triggers wherever you go, good to
see that mental illness is not just
something that happens at
“home”
Can relate to aspects of the
disorder
Part at the end, awkward tension
when you’re first in the room and
then empathizing in a glance
Three mental illness that can often
be devalued
Feelings
Tense
Empathy with her
Helplessness, feel like you
want to help them or
empathize with them and it
can be hard to overcome
Feel inclusion
16. How did the filmmaking
techniques help tell the story?
Underlying music
No talking, focused on the story
Everyone had a part
Close zooms to portray isolationism
Character movements, sharp and quick
Color, lighting was muted
Switching between characters
Way they cut between scenes
Different struggles, same arch
18. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
19. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
Powerful to see the intersection
of identity and experience
Didn’t want to die, cut himself
to relieve pain
Kids can be really mean
(sometimes grown ups)
Points to the context of where
you live on experience
Feelings
Heavy
Guilt for his coming out process
Anger
Anguish
Hope seeing his partner
Pride and happiness for him at
the end about his success
20. Why don’t people get help?
Stigma, if you’re going to therapy you’re weak
Stigma of Having symptoms and getting help for them
Lack of resources
Unaffordable
Pride
Parents might not support it
Don’t realize you need help
Bad experiences with help in the past
Doctors shaming patients
Cultural stigmas
Exhausting
Unknown
Stigma that “this is just normal”
Stigma about medications
Fear
Embarrassment
In denial
22. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
Billy Holiday song eluding to slavery
and black bodies
Powerful and meaningful
Hits your heart and soul
Image of Strange fruit was very
powerful
What they faced made them stronger
Ancestors and grandchildren, even with
progress still have ways to go
A cursed people, stain that never dies
Eluding to causes of mental illness in
black communities
The experience of being a black person
and effects on mental well being
Intergenerational trauma
People of color do not have a space to
properly grieve and face what’s going
on
Highlights sense of silence
Feelings
Stomach turn
Tense
Hard to understand when you
are not a person of color
23. What can we do?
Don’t judge someone
Educate others and yourself
Listen
Stand up and speak up
Normalize the conversation
Taking mental health issues seriously
Journal
Self care
Finding someone to confide in
Taking ten minutes for yourself everyday
Meditation
Exercise
Dancing
Pick up a hobby
Follow pages on social media that make you feel empowered
Take social media breaks, unfollow those who make you feel uncomfortable
Avoid generalizing when talking about mental health
Think positive feel positive, give and receive gratitude
Be an advocate
