Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to draw the line between whether a film is more about a mental health as opposed to a physical condition or disability, and at some point I gave up on making those kinds of distinctions. I realized that especially for the types of films people were submitting to Mental Filmness, the conditions were so intertwined or similar that ultimately the feeling was almost indistinguishable for them.
Such is the case with the German animated music video Each Day Feels the Same by Lisa Reinerth. It is a quiet, emotional music video inspired by Reinerth’s life experience with ME/CFS –a neurological illness often triggered by viral infections like COVID that traps millions in exhaustion and stillness. Listening to it outside of that context, it sounded to me like a song mirroring exactly how I feel when I’m trapped in my bed during an exhausting depressive episode, when it requires all of my energy to move under the crushing weight of the world and I’m so foggy the days blur together, one into the next. And functionally, I’m sure that the feeling is almost the same, many people suffer from both at the same time, and that in both cases the mental and the physical exacerbate the worst in each other.
Each Days Feels the Same is important because it shines a light on invisible disabilities, whether they are your body’s limbs betraying themselves or the fact that your mind is becoming too depressed or traumatized to focus the way you need to on your daily activities. The fact that the struggle cannot be seen by others makes the disability harder to understand and unfortunately, also difficult to even believe for some people. That is why Lisa Reinerth’s video is so important. Not only does it offer a healing reassurance that those struggling with such disabilities are seen and heard, but it also offers an uplifting message that hope and strength tend to come back, though the process can be slow. Imagery of a swimming fish, and the repetition of the hymn-like original song, work in tandem to communicate the message that such feelings are usually cyclical in nature.
Check out the powerful short Each Day Feels the Same in Shorts Block No. 2 for FREE right now! Each Day Feels The Same | Shorts Block No. 2 | Mental Filmness 2025 Virtual Festival
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