empathy

Critical Living by Alex Widdowson

"Critical Living draws upon the experiences of people involved in the Philadelphia Association therapeutic communities while also addressing some of the major discussion points in the Critical Psychiatry movement.

Critical Psychiatry, formally known as Anti-Psychiatry, has been scrutinising the dominant medical understanding of distress for over 50 years. It’s leading members were a disparate bunch that included R. D. Laing and David Cooper, both disillusioned psychiatrists and co-founders of the Philadelphia Association, as well as the renowned philosopher Michel Foucault, the libertarian Thomas Szasz, and Erving Goffman a sociologist.

Since creating a therapeutic community at Kingsley Hall in 1965, the Philadelphia Association has run more than twenty community houses which have offered asylum and hospitality to people in distress. This work continues at two houses in North London.

The experience of fifty years has shown that personal crises and seemingly inescapable unhappiness may for many people be transformed in households like these. They are places where people can come together to address their difficulties in a situation of shared everyday living."

Sea You by Ben Brand

"Would you feel it? Would you know it? Travel back in time and sea for yourself...
...
When my girlfriend told me the story of her family spreading her deceased grandmothers ash over the sea (like a lot of people around the world do) i started wondering what actually happens to all that ash ..."

In Her Boots by Kathrin Steinbacher

"A bizarre hike through unstable terrain, which visualizes how it feels to be in Hedi’s shoes."

Sent Away by Rosa Fisher

"Boarding schools can rip children out of their secure, loving homes and deposit them into a cold, unloving institution. ‘Sent Away’ looks at the psychological implications that this can have on children and in particular the effect it had on my father, Tom.
The film explores themes of masculinity, and also speculates how the cultural practice of sending children to boarding school has politically shaped the UK.

Directed by - Rosa Fisher
Musical score - Martino Gasparrini
Sound mix - Martino Gasparrini
Live Action - Martino Gasparrini
Voice over - Tom Fisher
Horn Playing - Tom Fisher
Colouring Assistance - Laura Carter, Jill Gibbon"

Dahlia (2017) by Ana Mouyis

"Through a metaphorical narrative about love, Dahlia explores a relationship between two people which is burdened by mental illness. Journey through a colorful and ever-changing world; a hand painted realm that shifts and morphs to portray a darkened state of mind."

The Whale Story
by Tess Martin