On Thursday evening, May 9th, I and others were treated to the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab 2024 Fellows’ Film Premiere. The Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab (PPSL) for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts is a sort of specialty film class that operates out of Northwestern University, where students create films with representations of mental illness or mental health that challenge stereotypes. As such I consider it to be a spiritual sister to the mission of Mental Filmness and I definitely felt that vibe at the screening I attended.
I believe PPSL was getting started around the same time as Mental Filmness was (in 2019, which it turned out wasn’t a great time to start something), and though they had many high-profile guests and some student works screened, this is the first completed showcase of films that was screened to the public to my knowledge. It packed out the theater in the Annie May Swift Hall at Northwestern.
These films were very accomplished shorts by any measure, let alone for students and first-time filmmakers. The short films explored their themes of mental health with a distinctive personal lens, respect and empathy, and nuance.
The program consisted of the following shorts:
Steering (dir. Luluh Abathra, 7 min.) – A simple yet evocative portrait of a grieving brother whose plans are interrupted by a wounded rat, causing him to turn his emotional journey inward and reflect. Director Luluh Abathra captured one of those slice-of-life pieces about experiencing a moment that was realistic and thought-provoking, and also got a chance to experiment with special effects.
Maladaptive (dir. Petra Popper-Freedman, 10 min.) – A short about maladaptive daydreaming disorder. Vivid daydreams continually distract a young woman from a first date to the point where she begins to isolate her potential partner—until she ends up pulling her date back in by beginning to actually describe the disorder and the daydreams. I loved that there was no easy solution to this situation, though, because after the confession the line between reality and daydream became even more blurred. This short did what my favorite films of this type do; it used humor to help the audience relate to the main character without undermining the seriousness of her condition. Director Petra Popper-Freedman did an impressive job playing the young woman with enough charm to make her situation sympathetic.
Growing Mad in the Midwest (dir. Elshadi Aberra, 11 min.) – This film about growing up in a large Ethiopian-American family in the Midwest, and feeling disconnected, featured skillful editing of a lot of home videos to depict familial relationships. The atmospheric footage captured what the filmmaker Elshadi Aberra called the “fragmentation of memory.” I feel like in a short period of time Aberra effectively created an impression that left you with a portrait of her childhood and how in some ways having a big family can give you a feeling of profound loneliness.
Ponytail (dir. Aisha Hamid, 19 mins.) – This quiet, subtle film about the connection between a Pakistani-American daughter and her father demonstrated a great amount of maturity and perception in letting its narrative patiently unfold. It truly felt like it was drawn from life and according to the director Aisha Hamid she used her personal experience to create it. It was one of those heartfelt stories that added more dimensions to the characters over the time they spent revealing themselves to each other, ultimately leading to some unexpected discoveries for both of them.
Quicksand (dir. Naya Hemphill, 15 min.) – This film felt similar in some ways to a short film called “Birdie” we screened last year, which also tackled the topic of maternal depression. It tells the story of a young mother and it begins by suggesting she is expected to be missing her kids while they spend a long weekend apart. Instead, the young woman struggles with her mental health in a different way, grappling with depression about her lost opportunities. The skillful acting and narrative devices that the director Naya Hemphill used in this film conveyed the mood quite effectively.
Manic Memoirs (dir. Francesca Gamba, 8.5 min.) – I’ve made no secret here and elsewhere that I have a special place in my heart for films about manic episodes since they speak to my own experience and diagnosis. The director and actress Francesca Gamba captures the insidious onset of mania quite well. One minute, you’re charming people with your fearlessness, impulsiveness, and impromptu singing. Next, you’re doing the same thing in a library study group and everyone’s staring back at you with a mixture of fear and concern. What happened in between? In a brief span of time this talented filmmaker shows the main character piecing together what happened and accepting responsibility for it. Francesca Gamba said in the Q & A later that she is a musician and her sense of sound helped depict the character’s struggle with mania. This is an experience close to her family.
Doh, God! (dir. Nathan Siskel, 6 min.) – The only animated film of the batch, Doh, God! might also have the honor of being the only short film to illustrate an existential crisis with the use of Play-Doh. In the film’s plot a child named Lily begins to feel a depression and listlessness that makes it difficult for her to get out of bed, and it escalates when she starts to question the meaning of the world around her. The creator Nathan Siskel skillfully employed the tactile use of Play-Doh to add some light silliness to the film (such as the bouncing snowman father figure) as well as to depict the heaviness of sadness, such when Lily has to shake off the parts of her bedding that stuck to her while she was asleep. Despite using something silly to convey something deep, this short leaves quite an impression (pun intended).
Avant-Garde (dir. Hank Yang, 16 min.) – Films about the therapeutic nature of art are also very near and dear to my heart. Avant-Garde is an observational narrative short about an obsessive technical perfectionist artist and his encounter with another artist who is more loose, messy, and abstract, but also surer of herself. The actors embrace their roles with expressions and postures that say it all with their diametrically opposed body language, one clenched and rigid, and the other laid-back and lackadaisical. Filmmaker Henry Yang is a visual artist and used some of his own art in the film, which he explained is partially about his own anxious perfectionism, adding another layer of realism.
The filmmakers gathered onto the stage for a Q & A after the screening and an audience member asked them what it was like having these films, which were so deeply personal and based on a theme about mental health, screened for an audience for the first time. It was a vulnerable and brave move for all of these students, and they were all so open and insightful when responding to questions and explaining their films. It was also clear that not only did this experience enrich them and guide them through the process of making a finished film, but the students had bonded with each other by helping out on each others’ films. The new director of Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab, Ines Sommer, is an associate professor in film and television at Northwestern University with a background in documentary filmmaking who has also been heavily involved in supporting and advocating for Midwestern filmmakers. She seems to have done a stellar job in taking on the leadership of this film program. This screening event was well-organized, well-attended, and most importantly, it created a feeling of community surrounding cinema and mental health. I plan to keep an eye on the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab and perhaps find a way to collaborate in the future.
