RECENTLY, the Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing (CMHW) collaborated with Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) to present My Mind On Film (MMOF), the Youth Mental Health Film Festival’s 2021-2022 Screening and Awards Ceremony at GSC Tropicana Gardens Mall.
The film festival was an opportunity for young talents to showcase their ideas, talents, and craft in telling important stories that put the spotlight on mental health.
“My Mind on Film is key in supporting Malaysian arts and film; integral in finding the gems amongst youth filmmakers, giving them the opportunity to showcase their ideas, talents, and craft, raising awareness and putting the spotlight on important stories around mental health,” said Koh Mei Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Screen Cinemas.
CMHW’s MMOF festival is Malaysia’s first Youth Mental Health Short Film Festival and its objective is to engage young people, hear their voices, and work together for progress to break down the stigma around mental health.
MMOF’s first season was kick-started by CWHW on World Mental Health Day in October 2020 and now GSC has teamed up with them for the second season to engage more filmmakers and take their work to the big screen. The theme for season 2l was themed Heart and Mind, and filmmakers ranging from high schoolers to young adults, both locally and internationally, have submitted their films with a wide breadth of genres, styles, and messages to shine a light on mental health awareness.
For the International Young Adult Category, Céline Ufenast from the United Kingdom directed the winning short film, titled @Scroll_Alice, which is an experimental short about our love-hate relationship with Instagram. The film explores anxieties, obsessions and delusional thoughts we may have when we are on social media and questions the consequences of scrolling and the effects of social media on our mental health.
For the Malaysian High School Category, Sameer Monn’s Blue is an exploration of the human psyche, which takes the viewer on a journey alongside its main character, through the mundanity of life itself, while he discovers his identity as he grapples with hopelessness and depression in a spoken word poetry form.
For the final Malaysian Young Adult Category, Ahmad Shah’s Halfway Down won his team the Grand Prize with a cash prize of RM 10,000 and RM 30,000 funding to produce a mental health PSA short film to be screened at GSC theatres, with full production support from the exhibitor.
The eight-minute short is about a young runner, Aish and how he dealt with the loss of his father to suicide after being caught doping in the biggest match of his life. After the death of his runner father, Aish, too lost his reason to run and ends up following in his father’s metaphorical footsteps. Luckily, an old friend came and helped him out just in time, and the short is about his journey toward healing through therapy.
Adlin Norafiqah Mohamed also won a special mention, the Outstanding Mental Health Awareness Message Award for Dear Kakak, about how a mother helps her daughter going through depression.
