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Festival coverage

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

10 October – 31 October 2016

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival turns ten this year ad features fifty films offering different kinds of insight into the lives of people affected by mental illness, personality disorders and learning disorders. Screenings are taking place in a variety of locations right across Scotland.

The festival runs from 10 to 31 October.

Other years (4)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • I Wish I Was That Bird
    Review preview for I Wish I Was That Bird

    Jeffrey Krolick's documentary is minimally intrusive and proceeds at a gentle pace, letting Condos unfold his tale.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    A candid and intimate portrait of outsider artist James Condos. Filmed over a period of three years, the documentary follows James as he reveals his childhood trauma, meets other outsider artists, tries to sell his work and seeks to find his place in the community.
  • Lima
    Review preview for Lima

    An exquisitely beautiful piece of stop motion animation.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    An animated film about a son’s struggle to keep the memory of his father alive.
  • Talk It Out
    Review preview for Talk It Out

    The overall standard of acting from the young cast is impressive.

    Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
    A teacher setting up an after-school support group prompts young people to think differently about mental health issues.
  • Transition
    Review preview for Transition

    The film challenges notions about masculinity and the culture of expecting trans people to prove themselves by rejecting everything associated with the sex category they were put in at birth.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    A documentary portrait of a young trans man.
  • One Foot In Reality
    Review preview for One Foot In Reality

    A bold take on a subject it's still all too easy to obfuscate.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A woman discusses the impact of child abuse on her mental health in later life.
  • A Family Affair
    Review preview for A Family Affair

    Messily shot and assembled like the story it tells, this is a film which forces the viewer to ask questions about what is accident and what is artistry.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    When Tom Fassaert’s 95-year-old grandmother invites him to visit her in South Africa, all he knows about her are his father’s stories about the 1950s femme fatale who put her two sons in a children’s home. An unexpected confession makes things more complicated than he could have ever imagined.
  • crISIS
    Review preview for crISIS

    An effective short film anchored by a strong central performance.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    A father and son struggle with grief as bombs go off around Baghdad.
  • Dan And Margot
    Review preview for Dan And Margot

    Though it feels somewhat haphazard, Chirico and Chloe Sosa-Sims' film is well put together and maintains its energy and charm most of the way through.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Margot believes she is being stalked and tormented by someone named Dan, but discovers she has schizophrenia. Now, she struggles to build a life as a young independent woman, while trying to reclaim the years she lost to the disorder.
  • Touched With Fire
    Review preview for Touched With Fire

    There is a luminosity to Dalio's imagery, a beautiful use of colour, that encourages us to engage with these people and feel their joy as much as their pain.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A drama about two bipolar patients who feel their poetry is fuelled by emotional highs and lows.
  • The Carer
    Review preview for The Carer

    Though it is Cox's turn that grabs, it is Konig's that delights.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    An ageing actor strikes up a relationship with his Hungarian emigre carer.

A–Z of Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2016 reviews

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