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Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival · 2016

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2016

Features

Programme

22 films · 14 reviews

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An Angel At My Table

Based on New Zealand author Janet Frame’s autobiographical work, this film depicts her at various stages of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies during her youth, including the deaths of two siblings. Later, she finds acclaim for her writing while in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

(Country: New Zealand, Australia, UK; Year: 1990; Director: Jane Campion; Stars: Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson)

Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story

Review preview for Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story

As compelling as it is humourous.

Luke Shaw · 3.5 out of 5
A documentary about one man and his bike.

(Country: UK; Year: 2015; Director: David Street; Stars: Graeme Obree)

Full review

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.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: János Edelényi; Writer: Gilbert Adair, János Edelényi, Tom Kinninmont; Stars: Brian Cox, Anna Chancellor, Emilia Fox, Coco König, Karl Johnson, Selina Cadell, Andrew Havill, Roger Moore, Richard Ridings, Andor Lukáts, Emily Bevan, Ruth Posner, Maitland Chandler, Adam Morris, Paul Bown)

Full review

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.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2015; Director: Jake Chirico, Chloe Sosa-Sims; Writer: Chloe Sosa-Sims)

Full review

David

At age 20, David is increasingly aware of how his mental illness influences his parents’ behaviour. So one evening he decides to run away to Prague...

(Country: Czech Republic; Year: 2015; Director: Jan Těšitel)

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.

(Country: Netherlands, Denmark; Year: 2015; Director: Tom Fassaert)

Full review

Infinitely Polar Bear

Review preview for Infinitely Polar Bear

Ruffalo is astonishing. He makes Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook look easy.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
A manic-depressive mess of a father tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility for their two young daughters.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Maya Forbes; Writer: Maya Forbes; Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide, Beth Dixon, Keir Dullea)

Full review

It's Kind Of A Funny Story

Review preview for It's Kind Of A Funny Story

It’s kind of a good film, but it’s kind of an irritating one too.

Jeff Robson · 3 out of 5
A New York teenager with suicidal tendencies strikes up friendships when he finds himself placed on the hospital’s adult psychiatric ward.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; Writer: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Ned Vizzini; Stars: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Aasif Mandvi) , Official site

Full review

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Jeffrey Krolick; Stars: James Condos)

Full review

Love & Mercy

Review preview for Love & Mercy

Pohland - working with an impressive script by Oren Moverman and Michael A Lerner - manages to orchestrate a musical path between the double storyline that finds unity through the creative process.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A look at two periods of the life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Bill Pohlad; Writer: Oren Moverman, Michael A. Lerner, Brian Wilson; Stars: Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Jake Abel, Kenny Wormald, Joanna Going, Dee Wallace, Graham Rogers, Tyson Ritter, Brett Davern, Nikki Wright, Erin Darke, Diana Maria Riva, Max Schneider)

Full review

Me A Belgian, My Mother A Ghanaian

At the age of 14, Adams travels to Belgium to live with his father. Three years after he leaves, his mother suffers a major stroke. Adams returns to Ghana six years later in search of his mother to seek answers about what has contributed to her present state of health.

(Country: Ghana, Belgium; Year: 2016; Director: Adams Mensah)

Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey Of Chamique Holdsclaw

The story of basketball phenomenon Chamique Holdsclaw, the “female Michael Jordan”, from her rise to WNBA stardom to her struggle with mental illness and the strength she called on to speak out about it.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Rick Goldsmith; Stars: Blythe Duff, Kern Falconer, Anna Hepburn)

Mamma Mia!

Review preview for Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! is a roller coaster of emotion, careering colourfully from the blue waters of the Adriatic.

Chris · 3.5 out of 5
When her daughter wants to get married, Donna has to explain that any one of three men could be her father.

(Country: UK, US, Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Phyllida Lloyd; Writer: Catherine Johnson; Stars: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Nancy Baldwin, Rachel McDowell, Colin Davis) , Official site , Trailer

Full review See: Profile of Meryl Streep

The Mother (Matka)

Abandoned by his father, nine year old Artur finds himself in a state-run orphanage. As his increasingly desperate mother searches for him, he starts to overcome the harsh realities of the orphanage with help from his kind carer Anna.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2014; Director: Lee Mackintosh Jones; Stars: Magdalena Czerwinska, Julia Kijowska, Olaf Marchwicki)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Planes, Trains And Automobiles)

Review preview for Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is an eternal tribute to how great Martin used to be before he sold himself out to family movies and how wonderful Candy was as an actor and a person.

Gator MacReady · 5 out of 5
Steve Martin and John Candy try in vain to get home in time for Thanksgiving.

(Country: US; Year: 1987; Director: John Hughes; Writer: John Hughes; Stars: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Dylan Baker, Carol Bruce, Larry Hankin, Edie McClurg, Matthew Lawrence, Ben Stein)

Full review

The Road Within

Review preview for The Road Within

The clashes between characters give this film plenty of catalysts for interesting discussions, and it is refreshing that these discussions are not framed as anything other than three young adults connecting.

Luke Shaw · 3.5 out of 5
A Tourette's sufferer goes ona road trip with his doctor and a couple of other troubled youngsters.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Gren Wells; Writer: Gren Wells; Stars: Zoë Kravitz, Dev Patel, Robert Patrick, Robert Sheehan, Kyra Sedgwick, Ali Hillis, Matt Riedy, Cooper Roth, Eric Matheny, Ross Gallo, Louisa Kendrick, Jayce Dempsey)

Full review

Rocks In My Pockets

Review preview for Rocks In My Pockets

It is funny and serious by turns... full of striking and humorous images.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
An animated film exploring living with illness.

(Country: US, Latvia; Year: 2014; Director: Signe Baumane; Writer: Signe Baumane; Stars: Signe Baumane)

Full review

Seven Songs For A Long Life

A passionate and touching film that follows the journey of six hospice patients who, encouraged by one music-loving nurse, choose to sing through tender, vulnerable and funny moments of their lives.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: Amy Hardie)

Shoulder The Lion

A blind photographer questions the power of images in our visually saturated culture, a hearing-impaired musician is forced to give up his dream of the stage, and a brain-damaged boxer and painter searches for her new place in life.

(Country: US, France, Ireland, Poland; Year: 2015; Director: Erinnisse Heuer, Patrick Rebisz)

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Paul Dalin; Stars: Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby, Christine Lahti)

Full review See: Interview with Paul Dalio about Touched With Fire

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Capturing the indomitable Chris Young in his efforts to live with and raise awareness of borderline personality disorder, this creative and intimate portrait paints a complex picture.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2016; Director: Johanna Wagner)

Wild

Review preview for Wild

Witherspoon completely inhabits the role.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Adaptation of the best-selling memoir of Cheryl Strayed, a young woman attempts the gruelling 1,100-mile hike across the Pacific Crest Trail.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Jean-Marc Vallée; Writer: Nick Hornby, based on the book by Cheryl Strayed; Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Michiel Huisman, Charles Baker, W. Earl Brown, Kevin Rankin, Brian Van Holt, Thomas Sadoski, J.D. Evermore, Nick Eversman, Leigh Parker, Mo McRae, Beth Hall, Cathryn de Prume)

Full review