AMHA is an international, interdisciplinary network of artists and creative practitioners, advocates, researchers and people with lived experience of mental health conditions.
You may find info about the network in this webpage
https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/arts-for-mental-health-advocacy-network
Today 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, starts the The United Nations’ international campaign, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. In this occasion, the Philippines Embassy in Washington D.C. has requested to screen the recently released research-documentary Chocolates and Roses: Breaking the silence about domestic violence in the Philippines.
During this period, the film is also being screened at students in Slovenia and United Kingdom but, given the urgency of putting pressure for the passing of the divorce law in the country, we need support for the film, which represents the key research findings, to be screened and used as widely as possible!
Please contact the Principal Investigator and film director Prof. Erminia Colucci if you wish to organize a film screening and/or circulate this blog as widely as possible to reach those who are able to support this cause.
With immense gratitude to those of you who are and will take part in the Chocolates & Roses advocacy campaigns and the brave women and girls who have shared their stories to use their suffering to stop the suffering of others, we hear and appreciate you!
Dear Followers,
we are pleased to announce that the ethnographic film on domestic violence against women and girls and suicide is finally available and you can now watch the trailer below and read more in the webpage dedicated to this project!
We need to make sure this film is screened in as many festivals and at national and international events urgently as the Philippines is again trying to pass a divorce law but there are many challanges to face. Yes, for those of you who do not know (surprise surprise!), the Philippines is currently the only country in the world, aside from the Vatican, where divorce is not legally recognized!
The stories that this brave women and girls shared is the story of thousands and thousands of women from all corners of the world and, as one participant says, ‘It has to stop!’
Thanks for supporting the Movie-ment in its attempt to contribute to this change,
Peace!
Another ‘Together for Mental Health’ short-film has been showing at several festivals and events and this time is the turn to Premiere it in London at the West London Film Festival on the 26th October 2024.
This was an unplanned film that we did without additional budget because it was a story too important to tell, hoping it will prompt reflection on the need to provide rituals and other collective forms of healing for mothers (and fathers) of unborn children or children who died shortly after birth.
We hope to see a few of you there and please tell your friends and followers!
During the Visiting Scholar Fellowship at The University of Kyoto, three film screenings with discussion have been organized:
These events have been organized with the support of CSEAS and in particular Dr Chika Yamada. We hope to see you some of you or your friends at these events, please share through your networks!
In two days the Movie-ment experience will be taken to Ghana for two workshops: one on writing qualitative and visual research in Mental Health in Ghana and Indonesia (funded by the British Academy) and the other as part of the AHRC-funded Arts and Mental Health Advocacy network. So it is very timely that two articles based on the projects Together for Mental Health and Breaking the Chains have just been published (both as Open Access).
The first is based on the thematic analysis of the transcripts, visual observations and field-notes taken as part of the data collection in Ghana ‘We are all working toward one goal. We want people to become well’: A visual exploration of what promotes successful collaboration between community mental health workers and healers in Ghana
The second is a reflection on the making of the film Breaking the Chains, including ethical decisions and other challenges as well as benefits in using ethnographic documentary to research human rights and mental health ‘Breaking the chains’: reflections on the making of an ethnographic documentary on human rights violations against people with mental illness in Indonesia
This article accompanies two previous articles linked to this project:
Breaking the chains: ethnographic film-making in mental health
We hope you will enjoy the readings and they will be useful to yours and your friends’ and colleagues’ arts-based and visual teaching, research and advocacy activities!
READ EXTRACTS FROM THE INTERVIEW BY THE CENTRE FOR CULTURE AND THE MIND – UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
“In this blog, I speak with Erminia Colucci, Professor of Visual Psychology and Cultural & Global Mental Health at Middlesex University, London. She is the director of ‘Nkabom: A little medicine, a little prayer’, one of the visual research outputs from the ‘Together for Mental Health’ project which is a Ghana, Indonesia and UK joint initiative exploring collaboration between mental health workers and healers to improve mental health care (see https://movie-ment.org/together4mh). We talked about the motivation behind the Nkabom film, her thoughts about global mental health and collaboration of various mental health care providers/healers and her perception about diagnosis“… GO TO FULL TEXT
As part of another very successful year of screenings of Together for Mental Health films, including the launch of two other short-films (one in Bali in Jan and one in Rome in Sept), in several (academic and non) settings, this week will see the screening of ‘Harmoni: Healing Together’ at the University of Edinburgh, which follows a screening of the Ghana-based film ‘Nkabom; A little medicine, a little prayer’ in the same University last May. Information and registration available here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/film-screening-harmoni-healing-together-tickets-725977908467?aff=oddtdtcreator
Thanks to those who have supported us along this journey, including the funders who have made it possible for the team to continue collaboration on other three projects/initiatives, including a Ghana-Indonesia Arts and Mental Health network funded by UKRI AHRC.
Thank you and let’s continue working together for mental health!
Very pleased to announce that the third manuscript of the trilogy on the “Finding Our Way” visual project on lived experiences of ‘recovery’ among people from migrant and refugee backgrounds with a diagnosis of ‘mental illness’ has now been published and it is freely available.
Please share and we hope it is useful to understand and question this construct from a (decolonizing) cultural mental health perspective, enjoy!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THE FINDING OUR WAY PROJECT
ps. The Movie-ment next dream (as this is ANOTHER of my labor of love) is to do something similar but with people with lived experiences of suicidal behaviour, anyone who knows how to make this happen (including funding) please go on contact!
The Italian version of ‘Harmoni: Healing together’ will be premièred in Rome on the 3rd December 2022 as part of Feel Mare: Cinema delle donne (Women cinema) organized by Eikon.
Free entry till full, please forward to others who might be able to attend and I hope some of you can make it!
For more info and to circulate the flyer:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7001274864682557440/
movie-ment.org 