Full of excited anticipation, a poet plans to go to a book party. Then along comes depression. On The Couch With Depression is a film about yearning simply to be able to clean your teeth and leave the house.
Based on the poem “I was going to go to Dorothea Lasky’s book party in Brooklyn, but instead I stayed on the couch with my depression, not crying” by Paula Harris.
With a background in filmmaking, art, design, and creativity, Angharad Gladding wrote and directed her first short film in 2011. Her art combines her passions of filmmaking and mental health awareness and in 2019, she headed the team behind the film “It Is Me.” As the director, producer, and DOP on this project it was officially selected into Canberra Mental Health Film Festival 2019, Hot Springs International Women’s Film Festival 2020, Conquering Disabilities with Film International Film Festival 2020, and the Courage Film Festival 2020. In the foreseeable future, she wishes to continue to combine these two passions to create more creative content.
Says Gladding: “I’ve always used different mediums of art to express my views on mental health. I have done so before and I want to continue to use film-making as a way to gain more awareness for those who struggle with mental health. I’ve always felt a little out of place myself with the stigma that surrounds anxiety and depression in society. I started out doing this because I want to normalise that stigma that currently surrounds it and allow people to see it as it really is without fear or judgement. This poem in particular resonated with me. It was so real and raw in its portrayal of struggling with depression. I felt I’d found another kindred spirit who, like me, wanted to paint mental health struggles as they really are in their natural form. I wanted to transform that realness and rawness into a visual representation to be used to reach a wide range of individuals to help normalise the stigma.”
Mental Filmness 