Voices

Is Your Story Making You Sick?(en)

Humans are story-telling creatures. By thinking, we all unconsciously "author" a self-story in our heads. Most often, the characters and plot of our story is framed by negative experiences from childhood. These painful "stories" then determine our emotions, leading to unhealthy stress, and changes in body chemistry. This is how a person's self-story can turn into a stress-related illness.

The Weight of Gold(en)

Just like one in five Americans, many Olympic athletes similarly face serious mental health challenges and struggle to find the necessary support and resources. The Weight of Gold seeks to inspire discussion about mental health issues, encourage people to seek help, and highlight the need for readily available support.

Mental as Everything(en)

Damon Smith has estimated that he has spent around 50,000 hours of his life, so far, participating in absurd ritualistic behaviours associated with his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). With a diagnosis of both, OCD and Bipolar Disorder, and with the help of his anxious friend, Adam Coad, these Australian singer-songwriters share, through original music, preposterous humour, and outlandish animations, the intricate and debilitating nature of what it is like to live and talk about mental illness in a world where it’s ok to talk about a broken arm, but not ok to talk about a broken mind.

Space: The Longest Goodbye(en)

Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.

One Wish(en)

Perry makes a wish using the holiday magic given the world he encounters after escaping Foster Care.

Terapia de parejas(es)

Unit of Difficult Patients: What Future for the Criminally Insane?(en)

With unique and exclusive testimonies from doctors, nurses, loved ones, and patients we go behind closed doors to examine a high security psychiatric facility that takes care of some of the most dangerous patients.

Guide to a Midwest Hometown(en)

Coming back during Winter, Alex Powell explores both the places and personal connections found in his hometown and how they've changed. “Guide to a Midwest Hometown” explores what makes the barren places at home feel sentimental and special, and the good and bad feelings that come when being back home. Inspired by "How To With John Wilson".

Bedlam(en)

A psychiatrist makes rounds in ERs, jails, and homeless camps to tell the intimate stories behind one of the greatest social crises of our time. A personal and intense journey into the world of the seriously mentally ill.

Preston's Gone(en)

Preston Thornton, an Army veteran, was experiencing paranoid delusions at his home. After calling the Veteran's Crisis line, deputies arrived to transport Preston to a hospital, and tragedy followed.

Rolanda Polonsky, Sculptor(en)

Enter the imaginative world of acclaimed sculptor Rolanda Polonsky, who had been a resident of Netherne Psychiatric Hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey for 26 years when this film was made. One of the positive aspects of her illness, described in the film as a schizophrenia, is that it "tapped a deep source of mystical vision and human feeling" which finds expression in her work.

You Just Need a Walk.(en)

Five subjects from Gen-Z take the PHQ-9 - a survey to assess the degree of one's depression severity. They -also- have a lot to say.

The Bridge(en)

The Bridge is a controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - the world's most popular suicide destination. Interviews with the victims' loved ones describe their lives and mental health.

Voices from the Shadows(en)

‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.

Tarnation(en)

Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.

Awareness in the Dark; Let's Get Mental(en)

Filmmaker Gentamu McKinney and medical professionals recall experiences with mental illness and provide insight into the unique mental health struggles faced by the black community.

Afterword: Images of the Unconscious(pt)

Dialoguing directly with the trilogy of documentaries “Images of the Unconscious”, made between 1983 and 1986 and based on clinical cases and therapies with a humanist approach and artistic expression, conducted by the pioneering psychiatrist Nise da Silveira (1905-1999) – screenwriter of that film –, here is presented, in two parts, an interview with the doctor, a student of Carl Jung and a pioneer in the application of non-violent treatments for psychiatric patients, given to director Leon Hirszman, in 1986. The conversation is divided in two parts: the first, "The emotion of dealing", the second, "The egress".

Dear Dad(en)

The Hasty Man Drinks His Tea with a Fork(en)

A blend of drama and documentary, this film follows several people caught up in the turmoil of the modern world. The drama centres on a woman who has burned out and who holds up her own despair – and her attempts to rebuild her life – as a mirror to the rest of us. With a blend of gravity and humour, Sylvie Groulx's film shows the absurdity of a society dedicated to the cult of speed at all costs.

Tiger(en)

“I want to be a tiger. I am an atheist from Iraq and I am seeking asylum. About my hallucinations… It’s difficult. Horrible monsters. I hope I can help those who need help.” An episode of the animation series Mental images by Antonia Ringbom. The aim of these animated documentary short films is to reduce the stigma toward mental health problems and psychological disorders.