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Title: Hear what we are saying Reference: Director & producer, Fuad Chowdhury;
writer, Fasneen Chowdhury. Abstract: Through interviews, discussion and dramatization, this film analyses the current mental health system in Ontario and exposes the limits of western psychiatry and its application to ethnoracial communities, particularly women of colour. Library of Congress subjects: Reviews and Numerical Ratings (3) This video serves as a good introduction to issues of race and racism (also, less predominantly, class and gender) in the mental health field. It has a nice balance between first-person testimonials and theorizing. It does a good job explaining how power manifests itself in institutional knowledge, and also talks about the construction of ‘mental illness’ in different cultures. Brian Fuller (3.5) The title was kind of misleading but when I heard what they were saying, the theme song, I liked it more: the song tells you what exactly the video is about and it shows the effort put into producing the video. The video was informative sociologically: usually when we talk about racism in classes, it can be about how it relates to social institutions but never how it is in the mental health institution. The video shows just how deeply entrenched racism can be in an institution. The interviews and discussion brought in a lot of different ethnoracial individuals who experienced racism in the system or were relating to the topic, and this gave the video a sense of realism (in contrast to videos that talk detachedly about an issue without bringing a face to it, or a sense of what a person is actually going through). The lived experience attached me more to the information. Even the dramatization was useful: you could tell it was rehearsed and cheesy, but at the same time I wouldn’t discard it. It got the point across. At the end they showed the singers, which was a nice way to conclude. The one thing I didn’t like is the outdatedness. It would be really nice to get an update, if not on the actual people, on the issue itself to see whether there’s been an actual change and challenge to the mental health system. But the outdatedness doesn’t take away from the importance of this issue. Marsha McQueen (undergraduate) (3) This video exposes issues pertaining to race, class, and gender for patients and employees in mental health institutions. It demonstrates that Black women who are diagnosed with mental illnesses experience social exclusion. In terms of class, it shows that institutionalized women are deprived of basic rights such as adequate food and living conditions. The video also highlights the physical and verbal abuse that mental health employees who are Black women or other women of colour are exposed to. The video suggests potential ways to combat these harsh encounters. What the documentary fails to address, however, is the essence of the issue in question: how to effectively eradicate racism. Carlos Torres (undergraduate) (3.5) A well-organized interplay here between clients’ and experts’ voices, as well as sound analysis of different aspects & layers of the problem (e.g., knowledge production in universities, racism against both clients and providers, intersections of race, class & gender). I found myself often thinking about the opening statement that anger & denial prevent naming the issue of racism, since the contents of this video are often unhappy to believe. Kathy Bischoping (4) This film covers a very broad spectrum of issues
related to racism in the field of mental health. In connects mental
health to social and economic factors and deconstructs the universal
approach to mental health, by relating mental health practices and cases
to historical contexts. By deconstructing how racism has been socially
institutionalized, change is made possible. This film also addresses
the issue of how knowledge is created and legitimized. The only problems
I had with the film is the promotion of standpoint theory and subsequently
I would only recommend this film to an upper year class that is equipped
to deal with issues of epistemology. Experts from York University are
used, which may further help students connect with the film. Sarah Newman
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