Ryan Nicodemus was once a senior executive making a six-figure income in a corporate job. He found himself unsatisfied with his life and depressed. He explains: “I had everything I ever wanted. I had everything I was supposed to have. Everyone around me said, ‘you’re successful.’ But really, I was miserable.” He looked to his […]
Anatomy of Violence, a film directed by Deepa Mehta, takes viewers on an emotional journey, illustrating how we create perpetrators of violence against women. Mehta made the film after hearing about the gang rape of Jyoti Singh in Delhi, India. The BBC news reported that an off-duty driver took his bus for a joyride with […]
“Between You and Me,” a documentary by director Chase Joynt, examines what it feels like to discover a family member has done a terrible thing. In this short film, Chase accompanies his friend Rebekah Skoor as they travel to visit Rebekah’s father, Michael, a convicted pedophile. Michael Skoor, a pastor and family man, was convicted […]
“I didn’t know how to explain it to anyone and I didn’t understand it myself, so I just didn’t talk about it.” “Out of Sight: Stop the Stigma, Start a Conversation” is a documentary by Brave Voice Films from 2016 that looks at the impact of mental-health problems, the stigma associated with them, and why […]
It is often portrayed as a happy and exciting time, but the experience of pregnancy can be mixed, with physical and mental complications dampening the experience. In a recently released documentary, “Moms and Meds”, director Dina Fiasconaro addresses the challenges that she and other women with psychiatric disorders face during pregnancy. Fiasconaro's goal in making […]
"Audrie & Daisy" is the Netflix Original documentary that investigates the invasive influence social media has on our understanding and opinion of sexually based criminal offences. Based on the sexual assaults of two young teens, the film examines how crime, filtered by social media, can be used to exploit and embarrass, mislead and misinform an […]
‘Kick at the Darkness’ is a documentary directed by Amy Brathwaite that explores the traumatic impact of working in development and emergency response programs. Amy conducts interviews with friends and colleagues working in environments experiencing intense suffering, devastation, and conflict - from Darfur to Haiti and more. She hopes to spark conversations among the aid community, […]
The documentary film ‘Hot Girls Wanted’, produced by Rashida Jones and released in the spring of 2015, follows several young women living in a North Miami Beach home as they attempt to enter the amateur pornography industry. Since its release, the film has sparked major discussion about the experiences of female performers and the porn […]
Chad Gracia’s award-winning 2015 documentary, The Russian Woodpecker, addresses the legacy of trauma caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The film documents the investigative journey of Fedor Alexandrovich, a Kiev based artist who shares his own experience as a survivor while exploring the disturbing question: Was the disaster at the Chernobyl power plant an ‘inside […]
Where do we draw the line between wishing for better fortune and using fantasy as escape? This question is at the heart of a recent thought-provoking short film, The Wish Horse. Written and directed by Lisa Ford, the film looks at magical thinking to address mental health, telling the story of a single mother with […]