Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2009
October 1 to 22, 2009
From Ayrshire to Aberdeen, Dundee to Dumfries,
The 3rd Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival Offers Something For Everyone!
Now firmly established in Scotland’s cultural calendar, the 3rd annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival – supported by lead partner Breathing Space - explores mental health in its broadest sense.
Nearly 200 affordable events will take place in over 100 settings ranging from town halls to miners clubs, universities to hospitals, libraries to cafes and many iconic arts venues in Scotland.
From music gigs and dance performances, to theatre and literature, to film screenings and song-writing workshops, the Festival aims to excite, move, amuse and challenge audiences across the country.
The Festival has engaged artists, connected with communities, created collaborative partnerships and involved people of all ages from all walks of life to transform social attitudes towards mental health through the arts.
This year the Festival puts relationships and mental health in the spotlight, exploring gender and sexuality, language, bereavement, personal and public lives, under-represented groups and community connectedness.
Women take centre stage in a number of powerful events, kicking off with two of Scotland’s finest female musicians, Emma Pollock and Karine Polwart (1st Oct). The Fifty Cents for Your Soul film season (From 9th Oct), based on Marilyn Monroe’s famous quote, celebrates the achievements of Hollywood women, whilst exploring complex emotional lives. This theme resonates across the programme in; NTS’s House of Bernarda Alba (various), The YelloWing (various), The Trick is to Keep Writing (16 & 17 Oct), Scottish Women Speak (20 Oct), Mummy Said the F Word (22 Oct) and many more.
Participation and well-being is a key feature in the Festival with over 40 workshops including comedy, creative writing and song-writing workshops, plus film-making courses for young people. This year the public have nominated their ultimate feel-good movies, with many uplifting and much loved titles being screened throughout the Festival. But it’s not always so-called happy films which make Scotland feel good. Screenings include: Amelie (1 Oct), ET (2 Oct), The Big Lebowski (3 Oct), The Blues Brothers (3 & 5 Oct), Kes (4 Oct), Stand By Me (5 Oct), and bollywood film Sholay (14 Oct).
The Festival continues to provide a platform for diverse and under-represented voices. Screenings of Alan Bleasedale’s The Black Stuff (19 Oct) and Boris Ryzhy (2 & 12 Oct) both illustrate the human impact of economic depression. Many events also show how people’s voices can make a difference, from documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (7 Oct) to Journeys of Experience (15 Oct), capturing inside stories of migration at the Kelvingrove.
However, in difficult economic times people across the country have chosen to develop affordable events that promote positive mental health within communities. Exciting artistic collaborations including Waterfront Workshops in Inverclyde (3 Oct), Life is a Cabaret in Glasgow (16 Oct), The Well Factor in Lanarkshire (21 Oct), FAF About in Renfrewshire (3 Oct), Inspiration in Lothian (15 Oct), Life:Art:Mind:Dundee (10 Oct), create new work specifically for the Festival bringing artists, organisations and communities together.
Tony McLaren, National Coordinator of Breathing Space said:
“Breathing Space is delighted once more to be involved with a festival that is one of the most significant dates on Scotland's cultural calendar. The mix of people involved – from internationally renowned musicians, actors and writers to inspiring community groups and individuals – shows how committed we are as a nation to improving our mental health and the attitudes towards it.