Hear the Music
A girl living with depression worries about how her family will react but decides to talk openly with them and they stay by her side. She compares her depression to music, with ups and downs.
jrowe
Instinct
A film that encourages youth to reach out to a friend experiencing a mental health challenge. The film highlights the fact that people often wait years to get help, but that 70-90% of people report improved quality of life after treatment, so feeling better is possible.
If We All Speak Loud Enough
Youth share the importance of speaking up about mental health and how they found their own voice to end the silence about mental illness
Stigmas Around the World
Youth from different cultures encourage others to chose empowerment over shame and break the stigmas surrounding mental illness.
When I Was Your Age
This film explores the generational and cultural differences in families perceive mental health.
Living Hope
COVID-19 has created anxiety, fear, and uncertainty among the majority. COVID-19 is responsible for the many hardships people are facing. There are less jobs, limited money and food, and many events are cancelled, delayed, or removed. A message of hope is needed to spark a new beginning, so I’ve presented this film to hopefully inspire and encourage at least one person. I want people to watch this and be optimistic about the future and have hope, no matter the circumstances.
An Awkward Conversation
In a voicemail, a boy shares his concerns to a friend and asks him directly if he is thinking of suicide, so the friend decides to reach out to a crisis line for help.
Ever since my middle school friend took his own life, I was always haunted by the question of what would’ve happened if I had just reached out. This film gave me an opportunity to explore the answer to that question.
I Love You So Much It Hurts
“I Love You So Much It Hurts” is a minute-long PSA for suicide prevention. This short PSA is a love letter from a concerned young man to his friend who is suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. August, is fighting, or in this case running, hard to get through to his best friend, Ben who suffers from depression and thoughts of suicide. When August finally reaches Ben, the two friends embrace in a powerful and intimate hug. Something as simple as this hug can go a long way for someone who is feeling alone and isolated at a young age.
I was inspired to share this story because I went through the same thing with a best friend recently. My best friend struggles with depression and suicide but continues to seek help with resources like therapy and medication. When those things aren’t enough he trusts some of his closest friends enough to open up and talk to us about what he’s going through. He also stays very busy doing the things he loves most like make music and practice photography.
Depression and thoughts of suicide effect so many young people in our community and I hope that by sharing this short story that there’s some more awareness that comes from it. This subject is really hard to talk about but it doesn’t have to be and I want to help inspire that change.
Dear Friend
One of the problems we have frequently found in adolescents is a struggle to find the right words when communicating with someone struggling with suicidal thoughts. “Dear Friend,” is a visual “how to” for a healthy conversation with a friend pondering suicide. We tried to portray a variety of situations and types of friends that would be able to provide help (for example, a classmate can help equally as much as a best friend). While writing our script, we did a lot of research on what the best things were to say when you fear your friend is thinking about suicide. While working together on this film, we were able to open up to each other about our own struggles with depression and have good dialogue together based off of our work.