Telling Visual Stories of Mental Health Awareness through Mobile Smartphone Filmmaking
Effective mental health awareness can be achieved by instilling a sense of empathy & understanding in people (it is precisely ignorance that perpetuates the stigma associated with mental health). There is no better way to instill empathy than to experience the issues of mental health through visual storytelling (short films, documentaries, graphic novels) and with the advent of mobile filmmaking it is even easier and more accessible to tell these kinds of stories.
Re-Framing Mental Health (The ABC Model)
“There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
Filmmaking is literally looking at something through a lens. In a figurative sense, it is looking at a moment or event through a certain perspective. As a filmmaker, you are sharing your distinct point of view by using cinematic language like camera angles and editing techniques to direct what you want your audience to see and to feel.
You may have heard of the phrase “in the eye of the beholder” and it pertains to an individual’s unique vision or personal interpretation of something, for example, our perception of beauty or art. It also means that everyone has a different way of looking at things. As a filmmaker or visual storyteller, how do you interpret a series of events for the screen? How do you translate something abstract and raw in reality into a personal story that makes sense to an audience? And, probably most importantly, what do you want to say about it?
Just as filmmaking is a matter of interpretation and perspective so too is our own mental health, believe it or not. Something happens in our life, oftentimes beyond our control and depending on what our belief system is and the conditioning we have received from our past experiences, we will always interpret an event or situation in a different way. The First Century stoic philosopher, Epictetus (50–138 AD) once said, “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.” What this means is that the way we interpret or evaluate things will have an impact on our experience, emotions and behavior.
In 1955, American psychologist and psychotherapist, Albert Ellis (1913–2007), developed a model for the development of emotions and behaviors, which has become the basis of numerous cognitive therapies today such as CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. He called it the “ABC Model”, which has since been modified and expanded several times.
The ABC Model is an acronym that expounds the cognitive stages that lead to certain types of emotions or behavior. “A” stands for the Activating Event — a situation or circumstance that will trigger an emotional and behavioral response. This could be something like an upcoming school exam or a business venture failure or the death of a loved one. “B” is for Beliefs or Belief System and this is where the activating event is filtered, as if through a lens, from which an individual will react and evaluate a situation. This evaluation can be a result of both a conscious or unconscious belief, such as certain attitudes or rules of life or past conditioning through negative or positive experiences. Lastly, “C” stands for Consequences, which are the emotional and behavioral responses resulting after the activating event, such as feelings of sadness, worry or anxiety and the associated behaviors that go with those emotions, like overeating, sleep deprivation, or perhaps self-harm.
According to this model, it is understood that emotional and behavioral consequences in a person (“C”) are not a direct result caused by the activating event or events (“A”). Rather, these consequences are the product of how these events have been evaluated through the person’s respective personal belief (“B”). Hence, most negative emotions and corresponding dysfunctional behaviors are activated by irrational beliefs. Cognitive treatment, therefore, comes in the form of challenging those self-defeating irrational thoughts in the individual to more rational constructive ones. This is where Ellis expands his ABC model by adding the letter “D” for Disputation and “E” for Effect.
Disputation simply means questioning those dysfunctional thoughts often by using reason and logic to debunk the irrational or false belief of the situation, and Effect means creating alternative thoughts and behaviors as a result of the disputation that are more positive and constructive.
We humans are very emotional creatures. Often we find ourselves making decisions based on feelings rather than logic. Although we may not be able to control how we react or feel about something at first, with the right perspective, we can choose how we think and act on those initial feelings. Like the ancient Stoics, we cannot change every situation or circumstance that happens to us, but we have the power to change our way of thinking and re-frame the scenario into a narrative and understanding that will produce a more fruitful and positive life.
This is where I believe the art of filmmaking can make a difference by presenting a unique and positive perspective that can challenge irrational beliefs regarding mental health issues like depression and suicide, as well as empower the mental health movement itself which aims to spread awareness and knowledge and ultimately break the stigma associated with mental illness, which is usually a product of ignorance or misunderstanding. In this period of history and human, cultural and technological development, nothing seems to be more influential than the power of film and video.
Case Study: Three Short Films on Mental Health
As someone who has been writing, directing and producing short films for the last 10 years, I have always strived to tell stories that have the potential to inspire and transform the audience and enlighten them about important social issues such as HIV-AIDS awareness and prevention, the effect of technology and social media on the family unit, and environmental issues, just to name a few. From 2019 onwards, I made short films and documentaries exclusively on the topic of mental health issues. In this section, as a case study, we are going to look at the production of three of my most recent short films and their social impact especially in light of mental health awareness.
Breaking Through the Darkness (2019) is a short documentary about the life of Anthony “Lamaroc” Lawang, a Filipino breakdancer & instructor from Melbourne, Australia. It was shot on location in the urbanized streets of St Albans, a multicultural suburb west of Melbourne. Originally the intention of the documentary was to highlight the subject’s inspiring efforts in the community to teach the local youth and children. As the subject shared personal and intimate details of his life, particularly his struggles with clinical depression, ongoing therapy, and two previous suicide attempts, in the editing process, I decided to focus on this mental health aspect instead and depict how a cultural, artistic and physically-demanding activity such as hip-hop dancing was actually contributing to curbing the subject’s depression and suicidal tendencies. The statistical relationship between men and suicide was also emphasized as well as the signing of the new law in the Philippines that acknowledges and supports the rights of persons with mental illnesses.
Since I was only on a two-week vacation in Melbourne at the time and the idea for the documentary spontaneously came to me during that trip, I had very minimal camera gear available for the production. The interview portion was shot on a Sony mirrorless camera perched on a stack of books with a lapel mic attached to a smartphone as an audio recorder and all the B-roll footage was shot using the smartphone camera with a portable gimbal stabilizer. The short documentary was a finalist at three prestigious film festivals in the Philippines and was even endorsed by the Vice President of the Philippines who featured me to talk about mental health on her weekly national radio show. The film has reached an audience of nearly 30,000 people on social media.
Kamusta Ka Na? (2019) - or the English title How Are You? - is a mostly dialogue-free short film told in a reverse narrative from the moment a university student takes his own life by suicide. The majority of the film literally plays in rewind. In reverse order we come to see how he came to such a fatalistic conclusion and also witness a pivotal moment where a friend could have approached him but chose not to do so. The end of the film reverts to forward motion and depicts an alternate scenario where the friend did approach the protagonist and by offering the three simple words of “How are you?” may have very well prevented his suicide.
The film was inspired by a true story in the news about an up-and-coming TV journalist who was tragically discovered in a fancy hotel bathroom having taken his own life. He recorded a 30-minute video message which was released online days after his suicide where among many things he mentioned how if only someone had genuinely asked him “How are you?” then perhaps he wouldn’t have given into his depression. Although the film was not selected at any film festival, it has reached an audience of more than 400,000 viewers on YouTube and Facebook with noticeably a fair amount of engagement in the comments section — mostly people sharing about their experience with depression & suicidal thoughts. I also regularly receive requests from educators and advocates to use the short film in their presentations and seminars.
In one particular incident, a young African-American man had livestreamed his reaction to watching the short film and candidly shared afterwards his present mental state and thoughts of suicide. Upon hearing about this, I had contacted my cast and crew, so that we could intervene for this young man, even just by simply checking in on him with personal messages. In another separate incident, someone had voiced out their despair for their family situation and expressed suicidal intentions in the comments section of the short film on YouTube. Apart from positively responding to the comment, I was able to contact the person and had a lengthy exchange that led to the person with a more positive outlook of her situation. As for the rest of the comments on YouTube, my crew and I try our very best to respond to each one with empathy and encouragement, without the need to sermon or condescend their present difficulties. For us, this film became more than a film, in the sense that we could actually reach out and touch other people’s lives.
The last and most recent short film is I Am a Black Hole (2021), a narrative depicting anxiety as a mental disorder in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions. The story revolves around an isolated individual becoming obsessed with the nature of black holes while also struggling with ordinary daily activities such as eating, sleeping, work from home, and social interactions. By the film’s end, the protagonist is diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but is comforted by the words of the health professional who reminds him: “You are not your mental illness.” The film features an overt visual metaphor of mental illness as a destructive, self-consuming black hole while also trying to stress the distinction between one’s identity and one’s struggles with mental health.
It was shot entirely on an iPhone, with no budget, no crew, no location other than my tiny apartment in Metro Manila, and no actors other than myself. The heightened precautions of outside activity and social distancing at the time necessitated such a one-man solo production. Using a smartphone to film the entire production was definitely an advantage because of its flexibility and versatility, especially in such a confined smaller location. Using the professional filmmaking app Filmic Pro which allows full manual controls and shooting in a LOG color profile suited for color grading, as well as its companion app Filmic Remote, proved to be very helpful, using a secondary iPad device wirelessly linked as both a full screen monitor and a fully functional remote control. Without this setup I would not have been able to do this production as efficiently and successfully as it turned out.
The film itself has been selected in over half a dozen international film festivals including winning the “Best Social Film” award at the iCinema Film Festival in Italy this past August. The fact that this little short film is being screened to a global audience, is already fulfilling my mission to spread mental health awareness through visual storytelling and transformative narratives, and all the more a feat considering it was only shot on an everyday mobile device in competition with other films shot on bigger and more professional cameras.
The Democratization of Visual Storytelling through Mobile Filmmaking
We are now at an age where the tools of storytelling are even more accessible and can amplify our stories and messages to the widest possible global audience. With the birth of the popular online video sharing platform YouTube in 2005 and the DSLR video revolution inspired by the release of the legendary Canon 5D Mk II camera in 2008, we are now in the midst of another revolution where the modern smartphone is equipped with advanced cameras capable of recording ultra high definition video that are becoming more and more comparable to professional filmmaking cameras.
Famous Hollywood film directors like Steven Soderbergh and Zack Snyder have opted to shoot entirely on smartphones for some of their feature-length or short film projects. The iPhone that was used to shoot the landmark feature-length film Tangerine in 2015 is now permanently featured in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Smartphone and mobile filmmaking is here to stay.
As of 2021, there are 6.37 billion smartphone users in the world. What this essentially means is that nearly 80% of the world’s population is actually carrying a high quality, powerful filmmaking tool right in their pocket. It is a revolution because it is a democratization of the filmmaking and visual storytelling medium. There is no longer a barrier such as the need for professional gear or industry connections just to tell your story or message. Anyone, anywhere at any time can potentially share their story, invite understanding and empathy, enlighten minds, inspire action and transform a society.
Here in the Philippines, there is still very much a strong stigma surrounding mental health issues, partly driven by cultural aspects such as religion and family traditions, and also the lack of education or government support in this issue.
The contemporary French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005), known for his writings on the philosophy of language as well as his theory of narrativity and emplotment, proposed the importance of narrative as a means to give sense and meaning to life and reality. In his seminal essay, Life in Quest of Narrative, he suggested that there is a necessity for the human experience to be narrated so that the potential of the capable human being may be maximized and to give rise to the opportunity of reconfiguring one’s life.
The art of visual storytelling and filmmaking, particularly the aspect and quality of telling a narrative — whether it be a short film, a documentary or even a TikTok video — has the potential to bring a deeper understanding of the human condition, particularly, in this case, the plight of mental illness, and empower the viewer to re-frame their own personal struggles and hopefully reconfigure one’s thoughts, emotions and behavior to arrive at a truly transformative mentally healthy life.
“We tell stories because in the last analysis,
human lives need and merit being narrated.”
- Paul Ricoeur (Time & Narrative, 75)
