A screen shot of the trailer | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I try to look for beautiful things in every day because I don’t see it in myself,” says a young woman in the call-out trailer. I hope this helps, A crowdsourced global documentary on mental health that debuted in April. Much like the others who drift in and out of the trailer, including one young man watching from afar, another frolicking uninhibitedly on an empty patch of land, two women swimming in open water and yet another, cross- Sitting legged. A yoga mat, this woman is sharing her story to chronicle and better understand mental health.
“The project is an experiment,” says Jack Arbuthnot, director and producer of the film, which should be out sometime next year. “Together we are going to share our stories and the reality of the human experience,” he says over a video call from London, where he is currently based.
To kick-start the process, the team behind the documentary – coincidentally, the same people who were behind the award-winning documentary life in a Day , has invited people from anywhere in the world to send in video footage of their lives. The film’s website states, “We are looking for videos that reflect what life looks like for you, where you are on your mental health journey as well as share the things that have helped you ”
So far they’ve received footage from more than 45 different countries around the world, says Arbuthnot. “And this is just the beginning. We expect by the end of this (project) to have footage coming in from everywhere.
The project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable organisation, is part of the Trust’s Mindscapes cultural programme, which aims to “drive change in how we understand, address and talk about mental health”, according to the Wellcome website. to support.”
Danielle Olsen, Wellcome’s Cultural Partnership Lead | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I think art is a really powerful tool to make sure that community and emotions are also included and thought about when thinking about mental health,” said Danielle Olsen, Wellcome Cultural Partnership Lead and Director of Film Co-creator Arbuthnot believes so. “It’s going back to lived experiences and how it feels,” he says. “That’s why the arts are so essential to the region.”
The team behind the film also hope to change the language with which we talk about mental health. “If you watch traditional, old-fashioned documentaries about mental health, you find very familiar patterns and one of them is an inescapable feeling of viewing asymmetry, a sense of extreme distance between you and the subjects,” Arbuthnot says.
However, the footage he has received so far appears to be non-judgmental, minimizing a sense of distance and difference, something he considers powerful. “The way mental health is discussed is often ‘us’ and ‘them,'” says Olsen. “What we’re really trying to do is demolish ‘us’ and ‘them’ and create an ‘us,'” she says.
While the actual narrative appears somewhat hazy at this point — it will depend entirely on what’s sent in — Olsen hopes the team will be able to craft an extraordinary story from these narratives to come. is coming our way,” she says. “Then we’ll shape a story and do our best.”
To learn more, log in to https://ihopethishelpsfilm.com/