Mental health awareness is something that we should all work towards. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are aware of mental health and how it has an impact to our lives. We should always familiarise ourselves with the ways to help those who suffer from mental health issues.
About SMHFF
Singapore Mental Health Film Festival (SMHFF) provides you with a safe platform to learn more about the aspects of mental health through film, workshops, and panel discussions.
With a total of four different programmes, SMHFF aims to work towards creating a more inclusive Singapore, allowing more people to discuss the topic of mental health openly without having to feel shame or experience discrimination.
Film Festival
The film festival will bring together local and international films, accompanied by panel discussion sessions and workshops. Each feature film showcased will be accompanies with a short film, followed by a panel discussion with a topic relating back to the films afterwards.
Feature Films
These films each touch on several mental health issues faced by the characters in the film. For example, the film My Skinny Sister touches on eating disorders.
Another film titled Freedom Writers, which tells the story of a young teacher in her journey of inspiring her class of at-risk students as they learn about tolerance, apply themselves and pursue higher education in the future. Other films include:
- Sorry We Missed You
- Land of Not Knowing
- Happiness
- Little Tickles
- Guang
- Beautiful Boy
- Those Who Work
Short Films
Each of these short films will be paired with a feature film. Similarly, these shorts touch on several mental health issues faced by the characters in the film. Titled We Are All Here, this short tells the story of how the death of an individual have impacted the lives of others.
Another short titled Kaeru speaks about self-doubt faced by a photographer. Other short films include:
- Emit
- When Mirrors Had Meaning
- Little Stars
- Skogafoss
- SMHFF Winning Film
Youth Competition
SMHFF Short Film Youth Competition is back for another year! Last year, the competition managed to get over 160 youth participants. With the help of this platform, the #SMHFFYouth has been able to reach 20,000 individuals from all over the world.
Image Credits: Singapore Mental Health Film Festival
This competition hopes to continue creating more opportunities for youth filmmakers to advocate for mental health issues. This year’s Best Overall Short Film will be screen at the upcoming SMFHH. Apart form that, it will also be screened at the New York City Mental Health Film Festival and Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival.
#MyMentalCare Initiative
The #MyMentalCare initiative is a podcast that airs a series of conversations with individuals about their mental health journeys. By sharing their personal stories, SMHFF hopes that others will find safe spaces within themselves and their community. This way, we can all celebrate and appreciate the ups and downs in the journey for better mental health.
These podcasts each touch on the mental health issues faced by individuals and how they go about them. The podcast episodes are available on several platforms such as Spotify, Apply Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
With this in mind, I believe that we should all work towards providing a better place for those who are struggling with mental health issues. Let us all work together to give them a voice to share their journey without having to feel shame or discrimination. Do your part and be an advocate for mental health issues.
SMHFF 2021: 22 – 30th May 2021
Online and at National Gallery Singapore
National Gallery Singapore: 1 St Andrew’s Rd, Singapore 178957
This article was first published on Gutbitez.com.
