The Price of Happiness

Due to the measures taken by the government, students have fewer and fewer prospects for a meaningful future. Life is on pause and society is kept in fear. The confidence in a bright future is gone. Even after 18 months, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. The many promises have not yet changed this situation. In this moving documentary, young people give an idea of the impact of the measures on their lives. Is there still hope or has the damage already been done?

This PBS documentary explores depression, a debilitating disease that affects millions of Americans. Touching the lives of people from diverse backgrounds, depression still carries a stigma that causes some sufferers to go without treatment. Real people with depression talk about their experiences, and scientists offer commentary to shed light on the disease, including its diagnosis, treatment and current research.

"You are suffering from a mental fragility,” the doctor tells Ahang as she desperately tries to understand why she sometimes feels so terribly sad, as though everything has fallen apart. From the outside, she seems to live a sound and good life. For periods of time everything feels really good. But then it hits her: that horrific panic and despair that destroys everything and presses her down into a deep black hole.

A documentary crew films a young man, whose eyebrow started thinning a year ago, trying to reflect on everything in his life as he is having traumatic day to day experiences in which he is a victim of social exclusion.

By following the lives of five Japanese individuals this documentary explores the problem of depression in Japan and how the marketing of anti-depressant drugs has changed the way the Japanese view depression. Marketing of anti-depressants did not begin in Japan until the late 1990s and prior to this, depression was not widely recognized as a problem by the Japanese public. Since then, use of anti-depressants has sky-rocketed and use of the Japanese word "utsu" to describe depression has become commonplace, having previously been used only by psychiatric professionals.

A short form exploration of the very visceral and disorienting world of living with severe anxiety and depression, the world’s biggest health problem.

A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.

Jonas Elrod woke up one day with the ability to see and hear angels, demons and ghosts. Filmed over the course of three years, this documentary follows Jonas and his girlfriend as they try to understand the phenomenon.

Out of Sight takes a close look at how our society treats adolescents at-risk of suicide, or suffering from depression - and its dire consequences. It addresses the idea that such issues are best kept "out of sight."

Dépression, de l'ombre à la lumière

An comprehensive look at the life and music of Mark Linkous, a influential figure in the alternative music scene. A dramatic life that saw him battle with dependency, paralysis, and mental illness that resulted in his eventual suicide.

This 3-minute short film by Iain Delavan was created at a dark time in his life. In his usual abstract and expressive style, Delavan depicts an unsettling scene of a character committing self-harm, set against the backdrop of an interpolation of Lizzy McAlpine's 'doomsday'.

Weg vom Fenster - Leben nach dem Burnout

Filmmaker Paul Gallasch is 30 and still lives at home with his mentally ill mother. When he meets the woman of his dreams, Paul decides that if he's ever going to make a new life of his own, he must first find a cure for his mother's illness.

Documentary about the life and career of a comic genius, Peter Sellers.

Successful documentary filmmaker Solveig Melkeraaen suffers a heavy clinical depression. Treatment with electroshock therapy helps her, but when she falls into a second depression, she has to accept that being perfect is not an option. A feelgood film on depression.

4to Piso

Every day in Finland alone, two people commit suicide. Thousands of people are affected by suicide yearly. Once I Dreamt of Life is a feature length documentary film about suicide. It’s an account about one’s personal relation to suicide, but also studies suicide as social phenomena: The motives, warning signs & consequences. The film follows the journey of a young man, an animated character based on a real person, on his path towards suicide. The journey is described by people who’ve had encounters with suicide – parents who lost their child, young adults who considered or even tried committing suicide. When linked together, these experiences offer a collage of our perception of suicide. They tell about how people cope with the past and find a reason to go on with their lives. The intention is not to romanticize suicide or judge. It encourages people to talk about painful and difficult experiences and reminds us how important it is to be heard.

A mother determines to see her son faced with autism and depression overcome challenges, along with support from family, the community and teachers.

Desperate to recover from his depression, Dave travels from his home in British Columbia, Canada to Peru in order to experience the healing effects of the sacred medicine ayahuasca. After Dave spends some time in the country, a Shipibo healer begins to teach him how to work with the medicine more deeply.