A review from our Project Manager @rosiehopes
Time just seems to be flying past at the moment. I was really looking forward to the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival #SMHAFF10 , but although it started on October 10, it took me until October 30 to go and see anything. A few of our Community Correspondents did make it along to other events, so watch this space for their reviews. The event I went to, See Me Mental Health in the Frame, was so impressive that I was even more annoyed with myself for having missed other things.
Mental Health in the Frame was a collection of four short films, each of which looked at mental health stigma through one person’s life. The films were fantastic- and while hard-hitting- managed to maintain a sense of optimism.
There were a range of visual tools used in the film; sport, dance, visual art and images of hoarding all featured. It worked really well to draw out the experience of living with a mental health problem.
I was surprised that my favourite was based around sport. I’ve always struggled to get my head around sport. It often feels like everyone but me has some deep emotional reaction to it, but I’ve never quite got it.
But despite my lack of enthusiasm for sport, the was that the film-maker used images of football and boxing to tell the story of Callum, a sports-reporter tackling social anxiety, was deeply moving. The violence of the boxing scenes were more explicitly about struggle, but the silence of the tunnel in a football ground held such a sense of suspense that it took my breath away. I found it very easy to like Callum and I felt quite emotional to learn that his life is now going so well.
I was with three friends and I think we all had a different favourite of the four, so there really was something for everyone. There were some rumours at the event that the films might feature in the Glasgow Short Film festival, so if they do, it’s definitely worth going along.
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