SMHAF Film Showcase

A unique opportunity to see an eclectic programme of artists’ shorts exploring mental health from diverse viewpoints. Commissioned by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival over the past few years, these thought-provoking films were made in response to our festival themes of Normality? (2021), Gather (2022), and Revolution (2023).

Answer Machine
(Bonnie MacRae, 2021, 12m10s)
Bonnie MacRae is a writer and director from Dundee who makes films exploring people’s mental health stories. Answer Machine is a short documentary highlighting the mental reality of endometriosis, sound-tracked by voicemail recordings from women living with the condition.

we depend on each other
(Bircan Birol, 2023, 9m40s)
Bircan Birol is a documentary filmmaker who explores intergenerational connections, community relationships, and often-overlooked personal stories. we depend on each other is a collaborative project in which four immigrant women discuss the mental health challenges they faced after arriving in Scotland. The story of a strong sisterhood finding comfort, laughter, and hope emerges.

Wilderness
(Catherine Grosvenor, 2022, 5m)
Catherine Grosvenor is a playwright based in south-west Scotland. In Wilderness, she explores her shifting ideas about the countryside and the positive and negative effects it has had on her mental health.

Gather
(Drew Taylor-Wilson, 2022, 7m)
Drew Taylor-Wilson is a writer, director and producer for screen and theatre, and a co-director of Sanctuary Queer Arts. They have created a short visual film with poetic text about what it means for queer people to gather in safe spaces when those spaces are under threat, inaccessible or closed due to lockdown.

Like Stone
(Jack Webb, 2021, 7m)
Jack Webb is a dancer and choreographer who was worked and performed internationally with various companies and choreographers. Like Stone follows “a life lived in soft focus. The space, the distance, the isolation, this is my chance, my normal, to live on in the in between and to resist the pull of going backwards, forwards, to make a return, to reaffirm.”

This is a free screening where the films will be played on a loop, so drop in any time!

This event is part of the Now You See Us programme, a two-day showcase of new artist commissions, creative workshops, film screenings and vital discussions responding to this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival theme, In/Visible.