Film Categories: Mental Health

  • Locus

    A boyhood trauma takes form.

  • Placebo

    An “undeveloped faggot” has just turned 30 and been left by his boyfriend. Finally, he can remember his dreams. In Spanish with English sub-titles. Selected screenings: Toronto Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, 2004; Chicago Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 2004; Best Student Narrative, Wisconsin International Film Festival, 2004; Sao Paulo Shorts Film Festival, 2004; Mix NYC, 2003.

  • Pangaea

    “Diego Costa’s ‘Pangaea’ delicately employs overlapping images to ruminate on the male body, locating complex, mythical metaphors for human connection in everything from bodily fluids to land masses to text messaging.” – Eric Beltmann, Flipsidemovies.com “‘Pangaea’ is a cerebral trip through the thoughts and torments of a young man who has been used and abused by a lover he thought he could trust.” – Seten Snyder, movies.zertnet.com

  • hand-some

    As a lesbian relationship falls apart, this docu-failure unravels. Part of a series on beauty, the film began as an exploration of the filmmaker’s sister and the role that beauty plays in her life. It became instead a documentary about the sister’s relationship with her partner and the conflict between the making of the film and respect for the subject’s privacy. Selected screenings: British Film Institute Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, 2005; Filmout San Diego, 2005; Women in the Director’s Chair, Chicago, IL, 2004; Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, Toronto, ON, 2004; New Fest,…

  • Distemper

    “Distemper” is a visually stunning dance film that deals with the emotional complexities of nightmares and suffocation. Directed by John Albanis and choreographed by Kimberley Cooper, it features music by Amon Tobin (the track “Rhino Jockey,” from his critically acclaimed album SUPERMODIFIED). Selected screenings: Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film, Toronto, ON, 2004; Constellation Change Screen Dance Festival, London, UK, 2005; Dance Camera West Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

  • Multiple Selves of Hannah Maynard, The

    A glimpse into the unique, eccentric mind of a pioneering Canadian photographer, Hannah Maynard (1834-1918). Born in England, Maynard immigrated with her family to Vancouver Island in 1862, where she set up her own portrait studio. After the sudden death of her youngest daughter, she produced a troubling series of experimental images that reflected her haunted state – an attempt to contact her beloved daughter’s spirit. Considered overly bold and unconventional, Maynard experimented with such techniques as collage, multiple exposure and photo-sculpture. She developed a surreal vision, a world obsessed with children and death, but also the spiritual possibilities of…

  • Damaged Goods

    A short non-narrative 16mm experimental animated film. Utilizing various animated techniques such as back light sand, hand scratch, rotoscoping, photocopy manipulation and charcoal& paint on newsprint. All combined to created a dream that is complimented by the sound track in a personal/ Sisyphian internal journey.

  • Plethora

    “Plethora” is a documentary about stuff. Several individuals and professionals from psychologists to sociologists discuss the reasons why people obtain, collect , store, hoard and creat attachments to things. The movie examines the personal storage industry, consumerism, compartmentalization of private lives and containment of belongings from the past and for the future.

  • Broken

    This short film stars Tara Spencer Nairn (New Waterford Girl, Corner Gas etc.) as Allie. Allie is an independent girl who was in a relationship that cut too deep into her world. She finds herself in unfamiliar emotional territory and reacts by running away. Danny (Benjamin Rouse) her ex, can’t understand why all has fallen apart. He has also found himself in unfamiliar emotional territory but is driven to fight through this landscape regardless of the danger he faces within himself. Danny is lost in the chaos of love retracted and in this moment of desperation he is willing to…

  • In Search of Johnny Dean

    Comedy: A tribute to agents worldwide… Johnny (Benjamin Rouse) is a fast talking agent who will say anything to get his talent to believe him and to do what he wants them to do…even if that means at one moment flattering them and the next being shamelessly honest. He contradicts himself constantly due largely to his fast paced shifting reality. Gerald (Pat O’Leary) is one of Johnny’s recruits and he is feeling out the situation at Johnny’s office. In Mr. Dean’s world things can get a little crazy and Gerald is torn between the lure of stardom and his inability…