Mental Filmness

I hope I wasn’t too over-complimentary to Sophie Kratter in our interview, but she needs to know just how much her work is appreciated. It’s a shame that other film festivals may overlook I Don’t Know What To Make For Video Awards due to its lower production value when it is so unique and has so much to offer. I do kind of pride Mental Filmness on selecting based on the theme of mental health and emotional impact more than any other factors, and under those criteria this film is a clear winner even before you factor in what an accomplishment it is for the filmmaker’s age (one of my favorite moments of the youth in mental health panel was when I asked Sophie “Did you really make this movie when you were seventeen?” and she replied “I’m still seventeen,” eliciting some audience laughter).

Sophie has time to open up a little more in this interview than she had in our panel particularly regarding the team she worked with (including the musician who made the evocative original score), her use of philosophy in the film, and her writing process. Sophie is, as expected, whip-smart, and I will continue to link to all projects she shares with us in the future. She has a lot of future as unbelievably, this inventive and thoughtful film was all made by teenagers. For now, please, just watch this interview and watch her short! I promise it will be a good use of your time.

Watch I Don’t Know What To Make For Video Awards, and the entire Youth In Mental Health Shorts Block which is really phenomenal, here, free through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6519bb7908ab3c006b977001

Watch the Mental Filmness interview with Sophie Kratter here: https://vimeo.com/878876588

Rounding out our Youth In Mental Health Shorts Block is The Tea Party, which at a runtime of a little over three minutes is well worth your attention. In fact, it is about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its attendant anxiety, and how things feel and look differently when you’re trying your hardest to put everything in order and then they spiral out of your control.

The Tea Party is a playful take on Alice In Wonderland’s hyper-colorful, madcap, absurdist style through the lens of writer-director Arianna Grace Goarley, who re-imagines it as a story where Alice the hostess is working through ADHD and intense anxiety. Alice is arranging everything just so, but when her guests arrive early, it upsets her sense of order, and she must find the coping skills to calm her racing thoughts.

Arianna Grace Goarley is sixteen years old, giving her the distinction of being the youngest filmmaker that has ever been selected for Mental Filmness to my knowledge. She is hoping her quirky take on a fairy tale will help raise awareness of ADHD and anxiety disorder. With its brevity, color, and overall fun vibes, it serves as not only an acceptance of neurodiversity, but also as a celebration of a differently thinking mind at play.

You can watch The Tea Party in our Youth In Mental Health Shorts Block free through 11/5 in our virtual festival here: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6519bb7908ab3c006b977001/6508a76d51211105ce951bf9

The short documentary Beautiful Purpose is probably one of the most simple and sweet films I’ve seen about bipolar disorder. I liked it because it’s really about the concept of support, and specifically, something I don’t think I’ve seen a whole film about: an online support group.

I’ve heard many people with a mental illness express that they find peer support more helpful than anything else, and we’re growing up with the generation who has lived in online communities as much as anywhere else. It’s a natural response for most people to Google a new diagnosis, which is how one of the participants in the film said they came across the online support group Beautiful Purpose amidst a sea of other information that scared them.

The film is really more than anything else a portrait of Samantha, who created Beautiful Purpose to connect with others about her own diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It shows how through listening and empathy she has created a thriving and supportive online community. Bipolar disorder is among the more stigmatized and serious of chronic mental illnesses. A photographic montage in the beginning captures what it feels like. Sometimes you just want people to be able to relate specifically to things you have experienced that the rest of your social network just doesn’t understand.

One possible critique of Beautiful Purpose is that the film is too positive and one-sided about the community and its creator. However, the film is very brief and meant to be hopeful, and I personally would err on the side of encouraging people to utilize an online support community, especially one that seems as heavily moderated and supportive as Samantha’s. Some people may feel most comfortable opening up anonymously in an online community, or may not be mobile or may live in a remote area or otherwise far from other support groups (or some curveball like a quarantine might happen). Bipolar disorder is also a comparatively rare diagnosis in the mental health community; there even seems to be a scarcity of support groups for that specific disorder in Chicago. I think a group like this is very important.

You can watch Beautiful Purpose for free in Shorts Block No. 2 in the virtual festival through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6516454b745166007b56a167/64ff984091ebe6007b8a6afe

Another voice of youth in mental health is that of Samuel Boyar, whose short film Forced is now playing in Shorts Block No. 4. Sam is 21 years old and made Forced as a realistic depiction of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that uses magical realism to tell the story. Its plot is simply that of a high school student with OCD struggling to finish his homework. However, some impressive visual effects and disorienting music, as well as an empathetic frazzled performance by the actor Jackson Dunn, ratchet up tension and help create a mood of feeling stifled and overwhelmed.

This film is beautifully shot and realized, opening with a stunning bird’s-eye view of the twinkling lights of a city and including a shot of an urban neighborhood in the peace of late evening toward the ending as atmospheric bookends. The high school student Paul takes a breather on his balcony to escape the stress of a task he accepts he cannot complete at the moment, and the calm beauty of the outside world seems to be a respite from the trap he has placed himself in within the confines of his room and his own mind.

I found Forced to be relatable to the times where because of my own cognitive issues my brain just was not capable of focusing on a task that I had to force myself to complete, or when I put pressure on myself to do it absolutely perfectly and became discouraged, throwing so many drafts away. However, we do get the sense toward the end of the short film that for Paul this is a regular occurrence and that when he gets into bed the sun is setting on another day that he struggled to make it through.

You can watch Forced for free in Shorts Block No. 4 in the virtual festival through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6516471ae7c4a400b8f951b8/6508a8c951211105ce951d81

In preparation for our interview with Sophie Kratter tonight, I went back and cleaned up the recording of the youth in mental health discussion panel we had before our screening of The Year Between at Facets on 10/7/23. This was my first attempt at organizing a hybrid live/Zoom panel discussion and I definitely made some mistakes, but it was one of those things where I realized it wasn’t really about myself and the focus should be on the filmmakers. Playing it back, they imparted so many gems of wisdom and it’s still inspiring to listen to, especially after the magic of some video editing.

The panel was composed of myself (organizer Sharon Gissy) and the young filmmakers Caitlin Barlow, Sophie Kratter, Tanner Hirten, and Samantha Goslin, as well as our jury member Beatrice Wong who came up with the idea of creating the inaugural youth in mental health shorts block and was so excited about it she joined us virtually from Hong Kong with a 24-hour time zone difference. I did not realize that the conversation actually started and was recorded a bit before I got my Zoom up and running after the short films screened at the Facets theater. In this beginning part, some insightful things were already being said and I’m glad Beatrice had a little more time to interact with the filmmakers and keep them “on the line” before we logged on. There was some fumbling around that I cut out but unfortunately I could not get my camera to work—even if I had, it was in a theater with low light, so I am the mysterious blur, haha.

Caitlin Barlow was joining us live so you cannot see her either, but you can hear her fine and it’s obvious when she’s speaking. I have to thank Caitlin for really smoothing things out and handling some of the tech as well as helping synopsize questions—she maintained a calm and professional demeanor while my lizard brain was starting to panic about getting everything running right.

You can definitely see the other young filmmakers, and their thoughts and feelings about their inspiration and process were eloquent and illuminating. I actually think for the time we had and the amount of people we had, the content was rich and cut to the heart of what their films were about. It was well-structured, beginning with where the ideas for their films about mental health originated from, moving on to their filmmaking financing and process, and ending on the note of what they wanted to do in the future.

I will not elaborate too much on the films other than to say, please watch the youth in mental health shorts block and then listen to this discussion panel, I think you will be quite impressed.

Link to youth in mental health panel discussion recording: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/878513992

Youth in mental health shorts block: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6519bb7908ab3c006b977001

You can also tune into our Zoom interview with Sophie Kratter this evening at 7 p.m. (Central time) to simply watch live or ask questions:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84620658041?pwd=sjPR7SWNzzCCMiSChiQwS4xyWGblWM.1

The films in the Youth In Mental Health Shorts Block kind of blew me away with their raw, loose energy, creative use of resources, and meaningful messages. Three were made by teenagers, and I thought they were all genuinely impressive for an indie, low-budget filmmaker at any age. One of those teenagers was Sophie Kratter, who made I Don’t Know What To Make For Video Awards.

I Don’t Know What To Make For Video Awards stood out in a sea of entries as brimming over with crackling DIY energy and authenticity. The single handheld mic, the poetic and meandering but eloquent monologue, the self-reflexive glance of the equally young camera operator, the shifting and spontaneous scenery, all feel kinetic, colorful, and alive in a way some more technically polished films do not. It’s all very fitting for a film that is contemplating the nature of art, the tragedy of suicide, and the meaning of life itself.

Sophie is seventeen years old and made her film with a $50 budget. Both the themes Sophie tackles and her writing about them are incredibly sophisticated for someone who has lived only seventeen years. The film begins with a quote by Camus, meditates on our lives being a statistical anomaly, and even ponders corporate shilling and the creation of art that will pander to what other people want from you. I feel like Sophie is well aware of her ambition and in one line delivery that makes me laugh looks straight up into the camera and says “God, why am I so pretentious?” I would actually argue, instead, that Sophie is precocious. I have a feeling that she knows what that word means.

Watch Sophie’s film in the Youth In Mental Health Shorts Block streaming for free in the virtual festival through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6519bb7908ab3c006b977001

Join in to listen to or ask a question during our Zoom interview with Sophie tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m.:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84620658041?pwd=sjPR7SWNzzCCMiSChiQwS4xyWGblWM.1

Arnie’s Coupon Book is a little on the silly side, it’s true. However, I truly feel there is room for short slice-of-life films like this about more common mental health struggles like social anxiety in the festival. Mental health can run the gamut, from chronic and life-threatening conditions to steeling yourself up to go out in public.

Arnie’s motivation to leave the safe confines of his car and make the epic trek to the mall is using the coupons in his coupon book. I think it’s especially telling that it is a 2019 coupon book. That makes Arnie’s plight even more relatable to most people, as for a period of time in our recent history most people knew what it was like to have the trepidation of leaving their home.

The film is short and simple with flourishes that might seem melodramatic, but the sound effects of thunder and the 2001 Space Odyssey theme can seem appropriate to someone who is so wracked by fear or anxiety that performing the tasks most people do with ease every day requires an epic Herculean effort. Arnie’s Coupon Book is not about a momentous act but I do think there’s something worthwhile about celebrating a little victory in mental health.

Check out Arnie’s Coupon Book in the virtual festival, now playing for free in Shorts Block No. 4 through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6516471ae7c4a400b8f951b8/6508cf1225485c007527053f

If storytelling truly is an act of preserving memory, Ronald Amanze is a great ambassador for this concept. Amanze is an uplifting micro-documentary that explores the positive impact of the arts on people living with dementia. It was created as part of the Photobook Project, which “invites people living with dementia and their wider communities to document their experiences through the use of a single-use camera.”

Ronald Amanze would be a fascinating subject for any film, but this one also has a neat look and sound that that is evocative of retro tape recordings, grainy and staticky. It’s absolutely perfect both as a tie-in to memory as well as the medium for the biography of a radio pirate.

What’s amazing is that there’s enough snippets spliced together from Amanze’s Jamaican roots, his work in the music industry, and coping with his dementia diagnosis in this mere eight-minute portrait to give you a fuzzy Polaroid picture of the peaks and valleys of his life.

You can find more information on the Photobook Project at https://the-photobook-project.com/About-1

You can watch Amanze in Shorts Block No. 4 of the virtual festival for free through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2023/play/6516471ae7c4a400b8f951b8/6508d1f53f797f0089376529

I had the same experience talking to Viviane Silvera as it sounds like she had making the film See Memory. All of my questions about the film just seemed to lead to more questions, because the topic of memory is so mysterious and yet so central to the way we tell the stories of our lives. Viviane’s enthusiasm and knowledge are palpable when she talks about what she learned interviewing numerous renowned psychiatrists and neuroscientists about memory, and she can’t wait to learn more and embark on more projects going down the rabbit hole of memory.

To say that See Memory compacts a lot into a 15-minute short film is a massive understatement. Literally a lot—over 30,000 hand-painted stills stop-motion-animated, all done the analog, “old-school” way, as well as hours and hours of research and interviews. See Memory is a lot of things, including an art piece, an educational tool, and even an abstract fictional story.

It contains so much that Viviane says that even she feels like she learns something new every time she goes over her content. I had the same experience when watching the short film a few times in preparation for our interview. Like memory itself, it felt a little different and I feel like I added something new of my own to it each time.

Be sure to check out Viviane’s website for more information on upcoming screenings, the PBS special and educational resources she mentions in our talk, more of her art, and her inevitable forthcoming projects on memory: https://www.vivianesilvera.com/

Check out Viviane’s insights into her process and some of the fascinating facts she’s learned about memory in her interview with Mental Filmness: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/877742791

And of course, check out the film for *free* in Shorts Block No. 5 in the virtual festival, now playing through 11/5: https://mentalfilmness2023.eventive.org/films/see-memory-6508d18cb4571800927c0c75

You could take the moment when your brain is contemplating suicide and expand it into an infinite drama. So much is going on in that tiny sliver of time, it’s all so complex, and it does not move like regular time. Sadly, I know this from experience. Shattered, in its minimalistic realism, captures that precise moment.

The short film Shattered almost frames the main character twenty-something Kelsey’s brush with suicide as an intimate date with herself to stay home, drink some wine, and take too many pills. When the time comes to take the pills though, although it appears to be a premeditated act in some ways, there is some hesitation, some looking in the mirror, and then a clumsy spilling of the pills.

I won’t speculate on what happens here, and all suicidal ideation is different for every person. However, many people find that their survival instinct is stronger than they thought. Some find themselves making mistakes sort of accidentally on purpose, or delaying, realizing there was some other paper they had to put in order or that they didn’t want to die on a Wednesday night. I’m not trying to suggest that Kelsey’s spill was an intentional spill, or a spill due to nerves or inebriation or a combination of the above. What’s powerful is that director Kate Hanson maintains this quiet ambiguity.

What Kelsey is feeling in this intimate moment is for the most part indescribable anyway, and the film takes the bold choice to not describe anything but to allow us to simply observe and experience. It’s a fascinating moment that is rarely if ever explored in film that I think shows how wavering the will to live can sometimes be and how just one mundane factor can tip the balance.

You can view Shattered in Shorts Block No. 3 of the virtual festival, now playing free through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/…/650f018b9a6fd800afc3c5d4