3. Brought to you by…
• Campus workshops
• Monthly short film competition
• Short film production grants
• Global community
#Movies4MentalHealth
Class of ’12 & ’13 in
Memory of David Blackett Fund
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…
- Silver linings playbook
- A beautiful mind
- 13 reasons why
- It’s kind of a funny story
- One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
- Girl interrupted
- Euphoria
- Shutter island
- Dead poets society
- This is us
#Movies4MentalHealth
11. Characters with mental illness
are portrayed as…
- Insecure
- disturbed
- weird
- Dangerous
- Broken
- “Crazy”
- Unpredictable
- Quirky
- Helpless
- Inconvenient
- Irrational
- White
- Resisting help #Movies4MentalHealth
13. Stigma
•A judgment or stereotype that is:
• Always negative
• Always untrue
• Can be internalized
#Movies4MentalHealth
14. How does stigma feel?
- Isolating
- Defeating
- Limiting
- Unworthy
- Misunderstood
- Overwhelming
- Want to prove them wrong
- Heavy
- Impossible
- Crushing
#Movies4MentalHealth
15. Me Too
By Maya Bastian
AWI Winner, August 2019
Content heads up: sexual assault
#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
- Powerful filmmaker
- How quickly people
assume/judge without
context
- Powerful – “nobody wins”
Feelings
- Personal experiences with
topics were brought up,
connected to messaging of
film
- Tight physically, remind self
to breathe
- Powerful to see her being
vulnerable, in personal
space/room
- Sadness from predictability
of narrative
- Trauma is devastating, long
time to process
- Feel her trying to process
- Physical tension
- Struck by contrast
- Struck by nonlinearity, style
18. How did the filmmaking
techniques help tell the story?
- Very real, subtle complexity, very raw
- Computer and text messaging, isolation, has
some agency, experiences
- Use of room as healing space
- Reaction changes
- Portrayal of affects
#Movies4MentalHealth
19. Strange Fruit
By Anjola Coker
AWI Winner, August 2018
Content heads up: image of a noose, racial oppression
#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
- Hanging onto one of
apples?
- Narrative was less
predictable
- Strange fruit – many
different meanings?
Feelings
- proud, validated, seen
- Heavy
- Powerful narration, actions
- Hard, tense
- Frustrating to see someone
so young with gravity of this
- Struck by ending – white
dress with tar
22. Why don’t people get help?- Trouble with acceptance
- Overwhelming thing to overcome
- Not good help available/access
- Culturally insensitive help/limitations
- Feeling that others may view you differently
- Fear of rejection
- Hard to imagine things could change
- Societal limitations – access to help
- Feeling that maybe don’t know what need
- Mindset that you come last
- Feeling like have to get self together
- General anxiety – overwhelming process
- Process on TV – may be scary, irrational
- No role models; lack of permission to share-#Movies4MentalHealth
24. Responses and Reactions?
#Movies4MentalHealth
- Can be hard to visually represent depression, short film did a good job
of showing that
- Highlighted real cognitive impairments experienced by people
- Positive moments in his days
- Lightness and joy came through
- Title of film – reality we need meaning and purpose in lives
- Moments that bring meaning are so important to keep in mind
- Lens of art – experience of life
- Illustrating how you can go a whole day without smiling, have that one
smile
- Dogs! (and cats)
25. What can we do?
- More vulnerable are with own story, easier to have open dialogue with
others – helps break down barrier of society’s stigma/stereotypes
- Take care of yourself first
- Physical symptom; mental health check ups
- Talking
- Listening without judgment - Not trying to solve/judge; openness
- Discern between education, prevention, support, advocacy, to most
accurately fulfill needs in the community; sometimes can be
unintentional, and not meet any needs
- Give self permission to not be okay
- Humor
- Increasing amount of conversations about mental health
- As a community, be intentional about seeing one another, noticing
things, educating ourselves
#Movies4MentalHealth
27. Meet the Panel
Darryl Filmore
Colorado College Student
Ben Hindell
Counseling Center, Colorado College
Brandy Petrie
Counseling Center, Colorado College
Heather Horton
Director, Wellness Resource Center, Colorado College
Emily Brady
Family Programs Coordinator, NAMI Colorado Springs
#Movies4MentalHealth
28. Stay in touch!
Don’t forget to leave your name
and email on the sign-up sheet!
@artwithimpact
info@artwithimpact.org
#Movies4MentalHealth
