Community
Community | Mental Health
Since 2005, Watermans has been collaborating with a widening circle of local Mental Health groups on a wide range of projects.
Watermans hosts an annual show 'art4us' to coincide with Mental Health week.
We have also been collaborating with HEART, the Hounslow Mental health Team and Chocolate Films to produce a film to help educate young people about mental health issues they might face
Why we did it:
The film will go out to schools, colleges and youth groups in and around Hounslow for young people to get a better understanding of what psychosis is and identify to these true stories in their own lives so they can seek help and support at the early stages of their mental illness
The brief was:
Our brief was to make a film that is accessible, informative and hard hitting that serves as a call to action to young people that may need support and advise. We wanted to break down the misconceptions of mental illness and the stigmas associated with psychosis, helping viewers realise that anyone can suffer from it.
The Story:
The short film takes a look at 3 young people that have suffered from mental illness. Each character tells their individual story, of their trauma and how HEART (the Hounslow Mental Health team) have supported them and helped them overcome their psychosis.
In the film, Jo Brand will introduce us to 3 individuals, Les, Alisha and Deepak:
Les French is a white British male. 20 years old.
Traits: Cocky jack the lad type, talkative and likeable.
Les has been picked up by the police for petty crime as a youth offender. He spent 3 years living on the street taking cannabis and drinking. He has since then cleaned up his act and now works part time at a charity shop. He plays basketball with a local team and attends classes to improve his literacy.
Dipak Khumar is a 25 year old Asian male.
Traits: Quiet, moody, a bit of a dreamer.
His parents are from Southern and are retired doctors, He is youngest of seven children, all older and more successful than him. Having failed to get into university to do medicine himself, he began smoking cannabis and became very withdrawn and introspective. He is now back on his feet, has managed to find a job and has joined a streetdancing class which he is excellent at.
Alisha Bennet is an Afro-Caribbean female, 19 years old.
Traits: Confident, intelligent and sensitive. A recent university student, planning to become a journalist. A very high achiever, she gets stressed due an over ambitious workload. Suffered from weight loss and attacks of anxiety; feeling like a fish out of water. She has found comfort and support in friends and has learnt how to pace herself.
How Jo Brand got involved
Jane at the HEART team got in contact with Jo Brand. Because of her experience as a mentalo health nurse before she became a comedian, the HEART team were keen to ask Jo for her on-screen support as she knew about the subject matter.
Cast
Presenter: Jo Brand
Alisha: Emily Mondo
Les: Scott McFarlan
Dipak: Jaskiranjit Deol
Director: Rachel Wang
Writers: Mark Currie and Rachel Wang (based on real life case studies provided by HEART)
Director of Photography: Mark Currie
Chocolate Films is an award-winning film production company. Run by Rachel Wang and Mark Currie it makes documentaries dramas and films for corporations, community groups and charities. Recent films have featured Sean Hughes, Ian Wright and Daley Thompson. It has just completed it's first feature film - a 90 minute documentary called "Afro-Saxons" about Afro-Caribbean hairdressers across the UK.
The education arm of Chocolate Films is one of the organisations of its type in the country. It has provided courses for everybody from Watermans to the Tate and The British Film Institute. It even featured for two weeks on Blue Peter last year and designed the training for the BBC's Me and My Movie campaign.
Web: www.chocolatefilms.com
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