A Monthly Mental Health Film Series
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 7:00pm
Vancouver Premiere – Lene Marie Fossen’s self portraits will break your heart. Beautifully composed and artfully presented, they are nevertheless photographs of a young woman in the throes of a long and drawn-out process of self-starvation. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Seena Grewal
Wednesday June 14, 2023 7:00 pm
A veteran of ten years work in the DTES, Colin Askey was known and trusted. Using a fly-on-the-wall observational approach, his film portrays the community members who work at Overdose Prevention Society in the DTES with the same clear-eyed compassion as those who use its services. Post-screening discussion with Sarah Blyth and Amy Evans.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 7:00pm
Vancouver Premiere! A unique depiction of the immigrant experience, American school gun violence and mental health. More than that, it strives to explore the complexities of a mother’s love.
Naomi Brady, Austin Chronicle. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Paige Zhang, an emergency and consultation-liaison psychiatrist at Vancouver General Hospital.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023 7:00 pm
A tour de force performance from celebrated Polish actress Dorota Pomykała as Mira anchors this heartbreaking film that asks (and answers) the question, “What would compel an unassuming 60-ish wife and mother to rob a bank in broad daylight with a small kitchen knife?” Post-screening discussion with Dr Brian Worth, a Vancouver-based Registered Psychologist.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Every year in France, close to 100,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. In an attempt to find a better balance between the protection of patient’s rights and the need for treatment, a new mental health law was enacted there in 2013 whereby all patients involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital must appear before a judge within 12 days. Informed by medical records and a doctor’s recommendations, the judge conducts these interviews within the hospital itself, meeting face to face with patients who plead their cases with varying degrees of desperation and lucidity. Given full access to film these encounters for the first time, legendary filmmaker and photographer Raymond Depardon trains his empathetic lens on the place where psychiatry and justice meet, giving a voice to those who have gone unheard. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Ken Chow, Doug LePard, David Mossop, and Dale Pope.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 7:00pm
The debut feature of Australian filmmaker Jessica M. Thompson, who now lives in Los Angeles, is a raw and revelatory film about the aftermath of a sexual assault, told entirely from the victim’s perspective. Bonnie (Stephanie Beatriz), a young architect in Brooklyn, is raped by a stranger while walking home alone one night. Post-screening discussion with Parisa Jahan and Ariana Barer.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 7:00 pm
A box-office hit in Israel, this tender and humanistic film audaciously walks the finest of lines between comedy and tragedy. In a Jerusalem retirement home, 75-year-old amateur inventor Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revach) is building a machine for self-euthanasia at the request of his dear friend Max, who is suffering greatly from an incurable illness. Helping him are Max’s wife Yana and two other retirement-home residents: a former veterinarian (who supplies the drugs) and a retired police chief (who provides the intel to help them get away with this illegal task). Though Max gets his wish, word leaks out and soon the group is besieged with requests for similar help, engendering moral dilemmas that worsen when one of their own faces a health crisis. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Randall F. White and Dr. Boris Henriquez. Co-sponsored by The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and the Western Canada District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association
Wednesday, September 21, 2022 – 7:00pm
Sweden/Denmark/USA/Germany 2018. Dir: Marcus Lindeen. 97 min. DCP
The top-prize winner at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX in 2018, Marcus Lindeen’s engrossing documentary recounts the baffling 1973 Acali Experiment, in which 11 perfect strangers drifted across the Atlantic on a cramped, motorless raft as part of a “scientific” study on the origins of violence and aggression. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Jennifer Gibson and Dr. William H. McKellin.
Along with a year-long retrospective of our best films of the last ten years (currently playing at The Cinematheque), we’ve organized this special Sunday August 14th celebration to mark our twentieth year – all offered completely free of charge. We hope you can join us. Complimentary reception and live entertainment! – Performers will include Sarah Jickling and Her Good Bad Luck
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Sunday, August 14th, 3:00 pm
Since its release almost 50 years, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has gone on to reach iconic significance in the American film canon and consistently rates a place on both critical and audience “Best of” lists. It also remains one of the most influential and impactful films ever made about psychiatry….
Completely Cuckoo – Sunday, August 14th, 7:00 pm
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Post-screening discussion with Dr. Bill MacEwan, Jonathan Morris, Tamar Hanstke and others TBC
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:00pm
USA 2020 Director Patrick Sammon, Bennett Singer Duration 80min DCP
This provocative documentary highlights a previously underappreciated activist campaign in the struggle to achieve normality for the LGBTQ community. For years, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM) listed homosexuality as a mental illness.