Dead Blue: Surviving Depression

This audio-visual tone poem uses the language of filmmaking to offer a first-hand evocation of the turbulent psychological effects one can experience due to prolonged lack of sunlight.

In a country ravaged by generational trauma, a psychiatrist trains grandmothers to treat depression within their communities.

Maryana came to the conclusion that she no longer wanted to live because the bullying became unbearable. Based on stories from her family, teachers, friends and classmates, we get an idea of ​​who Maryana was and what kept her busy. All relatives have the same message: let's learn from this and ensure that this does not happen again in the future.

For 63 years, Tom Rose and his wife, Mary, built a life together on his family farm on Canaanville Road. Then last year Mary passed away, leaving Rose to face the future alone, surrounded by a lifetime of memories.

Faced with the challenging behaviour of their kids, more and more parents in America are turning to psychoactive medication to help them cope, even though the drugs, and sometimes the diagnoses, remain controversial. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to get to know the diagnosed children and hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

A formally free poetic documentary filmed through a summer depression in northern Portugal.

A thoughtful and humorous navigation of personal conversations on mental health, through the lens of a group therapy session led by some of today's funniest comedians and comic performers.

In this audiovisual performance, Ed Atkins lyrically explores the subject of depression and the digital age.

Impressions of a turbulent period in youth.

In response to a humorous and heartfelt letter that he sent to his son in high school to wish them good luck in their GCSE exams, M.J Connor decides to respond to their Dad’s letter by surprising him with a documentary they made about their relationship with him and their mental health. M.J suffers with MADD (Mixed and Anxiety and Depressive Disorder) and Combined ADHD. In the film, they use dramatisations and scenes where they talk directly to their Dad in order to get him to understand what they go through on a daily basis, but to also thank him for everything he’s done for always being there and supporting them every step of the way.

A young man is isolated in his room due to a Covid-19 exposure.

The world lost Hayden Hunstable to suicide in the middle of the mandated stay-at-home orders on April 17th, just 4 days before his 13th birthday. Hayden did not struggle with depression nor did he have a history of mental health problems. He was a normal healthy and happy kid who was unprepared for social isolation. His parents attribute Hayden’s emotional suffering to a “perfect storm of routine disruption, social isolation, increased gaming, and a pressure stack of activity cancellations,” all created by the government’s mandated stay-at-home orders in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Based on Elizabeth Swados’ picture book of the same name, this animated short film charts one woman's struggle with depression.

A Carta

Celia Pacquola is an award-winning actor and comedian. She also suffers from anxiety. She wants to help millions of Australians through their battle with anxiety by telling her story, challenging stigma and showing a way through it. She will meet those suffering from the condition, those on the road to recovery and those who are helping with the journey.

We all carry hell with us. The filmmaker’s hell exists on a canvas, which he studied carefully in childhood. The mystical picture has many names: Circus, Hell, Game at the Arena. Decades later he finds the painting again. The film unravels as loose ponderings about the plight of being an artist and touches upon the filmmaker’s personal demons. Can he see the painting in a new light?

Is there a mental health crisis in agriculture in Colorado? Farming and ranching has become increasingly difficult over the years. An industry that is typically viewed as romantic, hardworking, and "salt-of-the earth" is actually a job full of tremendous stress outside of anyone's control. Combine that with the enormous generational pressure to continue the family farm, and you have a large group of people that are suffering silently. How do we take care of those that are taking care of us?

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.

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.

The Show Must Go On is a personal journey behind the scenes that confronts the epidemic of mental health issues in the Australian entertainment industry.