Tag: mental health

Call For Submissions Now Open For Mental Filmness VI!

by sgissy2000

Submissions opened the first of the year for the sixth annual Mental Filmness film festival. Though it’s a nonprofit grassroots festival, it’s grown over the years and slowly built more and more of an audience and a community. I can tell because we’ve already received 10 submissions (!) when I think our standard around this time of year used to be 2 or 3. In fact, that means there’s been a submission for every day of the year so far!

We’ve never had trouble getting submissions. I was genuinely surprised how easy it was to set up a Filmfreeway account and just start receiving submissions covering different aspects of mental health, from different views and cultures, in different genres, from all over the world. It truly is a wonder. I never had to advertise it, people just found us, or were referred to us. We still receive so many films every year that there are some tough decisions to make for the limited spaces we have to show them.

Here’s the general deal for submission:

“Mental Filmness is a Chicago-based film festival showcasing films about mental health. The festival is dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding mental health by sharing stories and promoting empathy for those who live with a chronic mental health disorder or those who have experienced a mental health issue.

We define “mental health” as a broad umbrella that encompasses any issue related to our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, or our overall mental fitness.

Mental Filmness is now a hybrid festival, with live screenings hosted in Chicago and virtual screenings hosted by the Eventive platform. Both parts of the festival begin on or around World Mental Health Day on October 10; the virtual festival is typically open for streaming throughout the month of October.

Selection of your film ensures it a place in our virtual festival. We will be able to screen a limited number of films in Chicago and that could be a possibility as well, though not guaranteed.”

And here are some addenda:

PROGRAMMING

~~While I’d still like to keep some sort of virtual festival running to reach a wider audience, I am attempting to program more live screenings throughout the year to a) meet the filmmakers’ interest in them, b) get more of these films screened, and c) continue to keep an engaged audience and following throughout the year. I’m still going to say for the time being for the modest size and budget of the festival, we cannot guarantee a live screening, but I will track all who are interested and try to reach out during the year if it might be a possibility.

FEES

~~There is a $10 submission fee. This fee helps offset streaming and programming costs for the festival, which is always free, and helps filter entries to those interested in the theme of mental health, but please request a waiver if it is a financial hardship in any way.

~~We love local filmmakers! Please let us know if you live in the Chicago area and can visit us and help build our Chicago audience. Please submit!

~~We screen student shorts! Mental Filmness is a big promoter of fringe, independent, and low to no-budget filmmaking. We showed an amazing youth in mental health shorts block last year with filmmakers as young as sixteen! Film students and young filmmakers and first-time filmmakers are strongly encouraged to apply.

Submissions will be open on Filmfreeway until the summer of 2024 (what, it’s 2024), so spread the news. There’s even time to make a film if you’d like!

See you at the movies….about mental health!

Submissions link: https://filmfreeway.com/MentalFilmness

Mental Filmness 2022 – Live!

by sgissy2000

All’s been quiet on the Western Front here, but that’s actually because the puzzle pieces are falling into place for Mental Filmness 2022. This year we’re doing what the kids call a hybrid film festival: the majority of our films will be offered once again virtually through the Eventive platform in our wide-reaching and increasingly popular virtual festival. However, we are programming one *very special* live event from our Chicago home base that has been literally years in the making (no hyperbole).

We’re rolling out the red carpet for our “comeback” live event and hosting it at the beautiful historic Davis Theater in Lincoln Square. Save the date on your calendar, it will be October 15th from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. (five days after World Mental Health Day).

Around 7 p.m. we will screen the short film “After: A Love Story.” A dear friend of the festival noticed this gem when it screened at the Chicago Critics Film Festival and it involves some local talent. Thus, we are going to be lucky enough to have writer, producer, and lead actress Alyssa Thordarson joining us in conversation about it. The film was directed and produced by Clare Cooney, who is well-known for her work in the Chicago film scene but is based out of L.A.

“Quite often in movies we see the most climactic moment of a character’s life, but we don’t always get to see what happens after,” say Clare and Alyssa of the short film. “After: A Love Story” tells the story of a surviving couple as they work to begin healing the emotional and psychological wounds of a shared trauma.

Around 8 p.m. we will screen “A Story Worth Living,” with director, writer, and producer Vanessa Leonard, as well some of her cast and crew members, in attendance. This is the screening that has been years in the making. Vanessa wrote to me after the very first year of Mental Filmness in 2019 expressing an interest in a future screening right before the pandemic hit. The festival shifted to a virtual presence in response to that crisis. Vanessa continued to inquire about the festival and express an interest. However, she only wanted to take part in it if she could visit Chicago and present her film in front of a live audience. This year she will finally get that well-deserved chance. “A Story Worth Living” is a warm and relatable feature film that portrays mental illness in a realistic and empathetic light, perfectly fitting within the mission of the festival. Vanessa’s continued passion for mental health advocacy and the mission of our festival have been deeply moving to me and I am so excited to finally host this big-screen moment.

The virtual festival is still coming together so stay tuned for news about that. As usual, there are so many surprising, challenging, stigma-breaking films that continue to roll in. There will be some difficult decisions made and ultimately, an impressive lineup that runs the gamut from documentary to comedy to animation to horror to the unclassifiable. Our plan is for the virtual festival to become available on October 8th, two days before World Mental Health Day, and stay up through the rest of October for audiences to unlock, discover, and vote for films at their leisure.

Please share far and wide! So excited about this year’s festival!