Film Categories: Mental Health

  • Rhythm 93

    A Pre-Raphaelite portrait of the visionary state as arising from nervous breakdown. Filmed in bitter winter in England’s bleak post-Thatcher years, using only natural light, the camera’s focus and exposure shift continually in a subversive riff on classical cinematic match-cutting. Perhaps something occurs, but what? Winner, Director’s Choice, Black Maria Film Festival (1994).

  • Rhythm 06

    Filmed in a decaying housing estate in east London, “Rhythm 06” renders the outer trappings of internal collapse, a choreography of layers of the real. This new reworking of “Rhythm 93” transposes Michael Whitmore’s ethereal score for 10-string guitar and overtones on Carolyn Roy’s original riveting hypernaturalist performance.

  • Kino-i

    A cinematic self-portrait in two parts. In the first half, a half-silvered mirror was placed between the filmmaker and the camera. In the second, the mirror was removed. “Know that the complete secret of prophecy for the prophet is that he suddenly sees the form of his self standing before him, and his self forgets and becomes transported from him, and he sees the form of himself before him speaking with him and proclaiming the future.” – Rabbi Nathan, as related by Moses ben Jacob of Kiev in the Shushan Sodot, 1509.

  • Bol (Speak!)

    A cyclist meets a stranger in the market. A boy waits for his mother to return home. A man wakes up to find that his face is being stolen by shadows. Three separate encounters become the departure point for “Bol (Speak!),” a short dramatic experimental triptych on the nature of violence. Inspired by the Pakistani Marxist poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem Bol, and drawn from real events, the film uses still photographs, puppets and folk dance to comment on the increasing ubiquity and tenor of violence in South Asia. It is a gradually escalating experience of violence. All three chapters…

  • Frischluft-Therapie 2 (Fresh Air Therapy 2)

    German couple Petra and Kerstin are back–in couple’s counselling. At their therapist’s request, they rent a hotel room and try, unsuccessfully, to engage in role-play. Yet, it’s in the hotel room that the women realize they’re not alone…and that their relationship may not be the only problem. (Note: Not available through CFMDC in the United Kingdom including Malta, Gibraltar, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland.)

  • Dead to You

    The end of a relationship is like death, and the demise can haunt the participants as much as any specter. “Dead to You” uses ghost-detection documentary form to examine the painful aftermath of love.

  • Off Route 2

    The scene of a car accident serves as a backdrop to an exploration of trauma and the often-anticlimactic aftermath of personal tragedy. A woman hangs inverted in silence, inhabiting the space of wildlife in the forest. This is as much a performance of endurance as it is a fictional construct; the execution of the film demanded that the artist hang upside-down from a seatbelt for extended periods of time in sub-zero weather.

  • Bol 1 (the Cyclist)

    A cyclist meets a stranger in the market. “Bol 1 (the Cyclist)” is the first of three separate encounters that make up “Bol (Speak!),” a short dramatic experimental triptych on the nature of violence. Inspired by the Pakistani Marxist poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem “Bol”, and drawn from real events, this segment uses still photographs to comment on the increasing ubiquity and tenor of violence in South Asia. The extended triptych, “Bol (Speak!),” is also available for distribution through CFMDC.

  • Olympia Story

    From the near silence and invisibility of late motherhood, a resolute woman attempts to help a young stranger who also finds herself at the edge of existence.

  • Man That Got Away, The

    A musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor’s great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs.