Voices Magnified: Mental Health Crisis (2021)

Introduction

Showcases honest stories of Americans from across the country highlighting the critical issue of mental health in America.

Hosted by OZY’s Carlos Watson, the special includes insights with mental health experts and focuses on actionable steps we can take as a country.

Also see Voices Magnified: Youth Digital Crisis (2021).

Outline

This one-hour special showcases honest and personal stories of Americans from across the country highlighting the critical issue of mental health in America. Hosted by OZY’s Carlos Watson, the special includes insights with mental health experts and focuses on actionable steps we can take as a country. Using impactful first-person stories, the special strives to end the stigma associated with conversations around mental health and will help viewers understand signs and symptoms, give tools for coping, and educate on different ways people can get help.

Magnified Voices

A&E Network has premiered two new specials under the Voices Magnified banner focusing on mental health in America in partnership with OZY. Voices Magnified is a cross-platform campaign spotlighting and amplifying the voices of those making changes in their communities for the greater good. Representing the collective voice of the A+E Networks portfolio, the initiative creates thought-provoking specials and a robust series of short-form videos that give a national spotlight to timely and important conversations on equality and social reform which are occurring across America today.

The full collection of short-form videos can be found @ https://www.aetv.com/voicesmagnified.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s):
  • Producer(s):
    • Chris Rantamaki … executive producer (OZY).
    • Samir Rao … executive producer (OZY).
    • Sharon Scott … executive producer (Category 6).
    • Kristy Sabat … executive producer (Category 6).
    • Annie Allen executive producer (Category 6).
    • Brad Holcman … executive producer (A&E).
  • Writer(s):
  • Music:
  • Cinematography:
  • Editor(s):
  • Production:
    • Category 6 Media(TM) group.
    • OZY.
  • Distributor(s):
    • A&E Network.
  • Release Date: 20 September 2021.
  • Running Time: 42 minutes.
  • Rating: TV-PG.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Mexico: The Abandoned (2013)

Introduction

Today, over 10% of the global population suffers from mental health problems. Three decades of collaboration between scientists and Buddhist scholars have revealed techniques that allow us to develop our mental well-being and improve the impact we have on our planet.

Part of the Dispatches documentary series (see below).

Outline

Ade Adepitan, Daniel Bogado and former hospital patients gain access to Mexico’s psychiatric institutions to secretly film the horrific and inhumane conditions endured by thousands of men and women.

Dispatches

Dispatches is a British current affairs documentary programme on Channel 4, first broadcast on 30 October 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, and often features a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s):
  • Producer(s):
  • Writer(s):
  • Music:
  • Cinematography:
  • Editor(s):
  • Production:
  • Distributor(s):
  • Release Date: 25 October 2013.
  • Running Time: 25 minutes.
  • Rating: Unknown.
  • Country: UK.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Upper Story – On the Road to Well-Being (2020)

Introduction

Today, over 10% of the global population suffers from mental health problems. Three decades of collaboration between scientists and Buddhist scholars have revealed techniques that allow us to develop our mental well-being and improve the impact we have on our planet.

Outline

In today’s world over 10% of the global population suffers from mental health disorders. The long-term collaboration between HH the XIV Dalai Lama and the most brilliant neuroscientists has lead to the discovery of the incredible potential of the human mind and how it can be trained to improve our mental well-being. The eternal conflict between science and religion has finally found common ground.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Alessandra Pedrotti Catoni.
  • Producer(s):
    • Alessandra Pedrotti Catoni … producer.
    • Paola Devalle … producer.
    • Thun Thien … producer.
  • Writer(s): Alessandra Pedrotti Catoni.
  • Music: Luca Morelli.
  • Cinematography: Alan Jacobsen and Jerry Risius.
  • Editor(s): Angelo Guarracino.
  • Production: Makarampa.
  • Distributor(s):
  • Release Date: 01 July 2020 (New York Lift-Off Film Festival).
  • Running Time: 95 minutes.
  • Rating: All.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Quiet Explosions: Healing the Brain (2019)

Introduction

Professional athletes, military veterans and first responders share their stories of recovery from traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Outline

Learn how athletes, veterans and civilians with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD are becoming healthy and healing their brains. A humanistic doc about the journey of ten different individuals from near suicide to recovery, and a real life.

Read more @ https://quietexplosions.com/.

Trivia

  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts 2 million people per year. Professional athletes, military veterans and first-responders share their recovery stories after suffering severe PTSD and depression.
  • Joe Rogan and Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien, NFL running back Anthony Davis and Ben Driebergen, Marine veteran and winner of CBS’s 35th “Survivor” season, are featured in this enlightening documentary.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Jerri Sher.
  • Producer(s):
    • Michael Levy … consulting producer.
    • Jerri Sher … producer.
  • Writer(s): Jerri Sher.
  • Music: Omri Lahav.
  • Cinematography: Casey Lynch.
  • Editor(s): Elisa Bonora.
  • Production:
  • Distributor(s): Cinema Libre Studio (2020) (USA) (all media).
  • Release Date: 07 June 2019 (US)
  • Running Time: 89 minutes.
  • Rating: 16+.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Mile Marker (2017)

Introduction

A veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, Korey Rowe is on the road of recovery from PTSD along with his former Rakkasan Brothers. “Mile Marker” investigates new techniques used to treat PTSD and takes a look into veterans’ lives today.

Outline

“Mile Marker”, focuses on a two-tour veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, Korey Rowe, along with his former Rakkasan Brothers on their long road to recovery from PTSD. The Rakkasans were the invading force for both Middle Eastern Theatre Wars where Korey and his unit were the tip of the spear, twice. This film investigates new and controversial techniques and methods for treating PTSD but more than that, it is a look into the lives of veterans in America today. Travelling 8,000 miles across the United States and back, Korey departs from his home in California, to check in with his former battle buddies across America, who served with him 15 years ago in the 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division. Along the way, he interviews psychologists and specialists from the National Center for PTSD in White River Junction, Vermont for a balanced understanding of the underlying symptoms and associated triggers for those with PTSD. This is an authentic portrayal of veterans…

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Korey Rowe.
  • Producer(s):
    • Dylan Avery … associate producer.
    • Roland Rojas … producer.
    • Jessie Whitney … associate producer.
  • Writer(s): Valerie Boyer.
  • Music:
  • Cinematography: Dylan Avery.
  • Editor(s): Korey Rowe.
  • Production: Otsego Media and Prism Pictures.
  • Distributor(s):
  • Release Date: 2017.
  • Running Time: 94 minutes.
  • Rating: 16+.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Wishful Drinking (2010)

Introduction

Wishful Drinking is an autobiographical humour book by American actress and author Carrie Fisher, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008. Fisher’s book was based on her one-woman stage show, which she developed with writer/director Joshua Ravetch.

The show debuted at The Geffen Playhouse. Fisher performed with Ravetch co-creating and directing. It enjoyed a successful Broadway run and then toured in other cities. In 2010, HBO filmed a feature-length documentary of the stage play.

Also known as Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking.

Outline

Book Reception

Wishful Drinking received generally positive reviews from critics. The January 2009 New York Times review described it as a “funny, sardonic little memoir”, but “pretty slight, padded out with big type, extra space between the lines and some family photographs, and it displays at times an almost antic need to entertain. The paragraphs are short, and the jokes – the puns, the wisecracks, the deadpan one-liners – come rattling along at the rate of one every other sentence or so.” Salon reviewer Rebecca Traister found the book quite funny in large part, but was disappointed that “instead of pushing aside the twinkling craziness of her outside life to meaningfully reveal the crazy on the inside, as she has always done so well, Fisher is now gathering all the starry stuff around her for comfort and reassurance about who she is and what she means.”

The author, who died on 27 December 2016, had written the following comment in the book, and it was widely published by the news media after her death:

Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit—so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.

Stage Adaptation

The book followed Fisher’s one-woman play in which Fisher had been performing. Developed originally at The Geffen Playhouse with Josh Ravetch co-creating and directing the world premiere, it moved to Berkeley Repertory Theatre near San Francisco at the beginning of 2008, the production opened in a limited run on Broadway at Studio 54 on 22 September 2009 (previews) and 04 October 2009, and closed on 17 January 2010. After its successful San Francisco Bay Area run and before moving to Broadway, Wishful Drinking played at, among other venues, the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in September 2008, and Seattle Repertory Theatre April to May 2009.

Production Rights Dispute

While the show met with critical and popular success on Broadway in New York, Fisher was soon embroiled in a battle with producer Jonathan Reinis over its production rights. Each claimed lost revenue at the hands of the other.

Film Documentary

HBO cable television released a filmed documentary of the stage show, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and first broadcast in December 2010. The 76-minute film was released on DVD on 13 September 2011.

The film production and DVD received a mixture of reviews.

Cast

  • Carrie Fisher … Self.
  • Eddie Fisher … Self.
  • Harry Karl … Self (archive footage).
  • Debbie Reynolds … Self (archive footage).
  • Maxine Reynolds … Self (archive footage).
  • Diane Sawyer … Self (archive footage).
  • Elizabeth Taylor … Self (archive footage).
  • Richard Dreyfuss … Doctor Frankenthal (archive footage) (uncredited).
  • Harrison Ford … Self (archive footage) (uncredited).
  • Mark Hamill … Self (archive footage) (uncredited).
  • Meryl Streep … Suzanne Vale (archive footage) (uncredited).
  • Mike Todd … Self (archive footage) (uncredited).

Trivia

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
  • Producer(s):
    • Fenton Bailey … producer.
    • Randy Barbato … producer.
    • Mona Card … co-producer.
    • Garret Edington … associate producer.
    • Lisa Heller … senior producer.
    • Sara Kordy … coordinating producer.
    • Christopher Massimine … coordinating producer.
    • Sheila Nevins … executive producer.
    • Robin Seidon … line producer.
  • Writer(s): Carrie Fisher and Joshua Ravetch.
  • Music: David Benjamin Steinberg.
  • Cinematography: Teodoro Maniaci.
  • Editor(s): Marc Cohen.
  • Production: World of Wonder Productions.
  • Distributor(s):
    • HBO Documentary (2010) (USA) (TV).
    • HBO Hungary (2011) (Hungary) (TV).
    • HBO Max (2020) (USA) (video) (VOD).
  • Release Date: 12 December 2010 (US).
  • Running Time: 77 minutes.
  • Rating: Unknown.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

The Substance: Albert Hoffman’s LSD (2011)

Introduction

The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD is a 2011 documentary film directed by Martin Witz.

The film documents the coincidental discovery of the drug LSD by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1943.

Outline

In 1943, the year in which the first A-bomb was built, Albert Hofmann discovered LSD, a substance that was to become an A-bomb of the mind. Fractions of a milligram are enough to turn our framework of time and space upside down. The story of a drug – its discovery in the Basel chemistry lab, the first experiments by Albert Hofmann on himself, the 1950s experiments of the psychiatrists, the consciousness researchers, the artists. Could it actually be possible to find a path to the core of our human existence by means of a chemical? Spirituality at the flick of a switch? Do the enigmatic effects of this drug really help us to better understand the human soul? Could LSD be an instrument of contemporary psychiatry? Of modern brain research?

Production & Filming Details

  • Narrator(s): Trevor J. Roling (English), Hanspeter Muller (German), and Mario Scarabelli (Italian).
  • Director(s): Martin Witz.
  • Producer(s):
    • Elda Guidinetti … producer.
    • Peter Luisi … co-producer.
    • Andres Pfäffli … producer.
    • Carl-Ludwig Rettinger … co-producer.
  • Writer(s): Martin Witz.
  • Music: Marcel Vaid.
  • Cinematography: Pio Corradi and Patrick Lindenmaier.
  • Editor(s): Stefan Kalin.
  • Production:
    • Ventura Film (presents).
    • RSI-Radiotelevisione Svizzera (in co-production with).
    • Teleclub AG (in co-production with) (as Teleclub).
    • Lichtblick Film- und Fernsehproduktion (I) (in co-production with) (as Lichtblick Filmproduktion).
    • Spotlight Media Production AG (in co-production with) (as Spotlight Media Productions).
  • Distributor(s):
    • Officine UBU (2012) (Italy) (all media).
    • Cinema Delicatessen (2012) (Netherlands) (theatrical).
    • I Wonder Pictures (2013) (Italy) (theatrical).
    • Mindjazz Pictures (2012) (Germany) (theatrical).
    • Film1 Sundance Channel (2015) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited).
    • Frenetic Films (2011) (Switzerland) (all media).
    • Icarus Films (2012) (USA) (all media).
    • Soda Pictures (2011) (UK) (DVD).
    • Yleisradio (YLE) (2012) (Finland) (TV).
  • Release Date: 07 August 2011 (Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland).
  • Running Time: 90 minutes.
  • Rating: 15.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

The Truth About … Improving Your Mental Health (2021)

Introduction

Professor Tanya Byron and Alex Scott uncover the latest science on how to improve your mental health and wellbeing – and reveal some surprising new techniques.

Part of the BBC’s The Truth About series (you can currently view all episodes on the BBC iPlayer).

Outline

Clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron teams up with former England footballer Alex Scott, who has suffered from depression, to discover how the latest science can help us gain greater control over our state of mind and improve our mental health and wellbeing.

Even in normal times, one in four of us will experience mental health difficulties, but living through a global pandemic has put our mental health under unprecedented strain. Over the past year, a team from Imperial College London, in collaboration with the BBC, have surveyed the mental health of over 350,000 people across the UK. This unique study provides a snapshot before and during the pandemic, revealing its shocking impact.

Production & Filming Details

  • Presenter(s): Tanya Byron and Alex Scott.
  • Director(s): Ruhi Hamid.
  • Producer(s):
    • Matthew Barrett … series producer (as Matt Barrett).
    • Tom Coveney … commissioning editor.
    • Fay Finlay … assistant producer.
    • Ruhi Hamid … producer (produced by).
    • Christine Johnston … producer: Cohort.
    • Mairead Maclean … assistant producer.
    • Jane McLaughlin … talent executive.
    • Paul Overton … executive producer.
    • Jacqueline Smith … executive producer.
  • Writer(s): Claudia Lewis (developed by).
  • Music:
  • Cinematography:
  • Editor(s): Clyde Wallbanks and Lauri White.
  • Production:
  • Distributor(s): BBC One.
  • Release Date: 20 January 2021 (UK).
  • Running Time: 57 minutes.
  • Rating: Unknown.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

Erasing Family (2020)

Introduction

In North America, over 25 million parents are being erased from their children’s lives after divorce and separation.

The Erasing Family documentary follows young adults fighting to reunite with their broken families.

Outline

This documentary exposes the failure of family courts to keep children from being used as a weapon after separation. Courts decision ends up completely erasing one parent causing severe emotional trauma to children.

Psychologist refer to extreme cases as parental alienation which is a form of Child Psychological
Abuse.

Essentially brainwashing and manipulating children by one parent to hate or despise the other parent.

This results in severe psychological damage based on scientific findings, including depression, low self esteem, drug abuse, and being alienated from own children and suicide.

Family court reform is badly needed as this is preventable pandemic affecting over 20 million children in the United States.

Happy endings are possible! The film ends with children and parents being reunited on screen and will inspire other kids to reach out to #erased parents, siblings and grandparents.

The film will show how programmes that encourage mediation and shared parenting which will prevent future childhood trauma, making divorce and separation less costly both financially and emotionally.

Help

For those in the US, text HELP to (865)-4FAMILY between 8am-10pm ET to get emotional support if you are an erased kid or parent (not legal advice).

Find further information on the documentary @ https://erasingfamily.org/.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Ginger Gentile.
  • Producer(s):
    • Gabriel Balanovsky … producer.
    • Joe Barrow … associate producer.
    • Bernadette Bernstein … associate producer.
    • Elizabeth Bingham … associate producer.
    • Christina Campbell … associate producer.
    • Lisa Carle … associate producer.
    • Chad Cassiday … associate producer.
    • Chad Cassidy … associate producer.
    • Leslie Chambers … associate producer.
    • James Chance … associate producer.
    • Johanna Chua … associate producer.
    • Brian Conrad … associate producer.
    • Linda Conrad … associate producer.
    • Judy Cook … associate producer.
    • Frank DiMarco … associate producer.
    • Nancy Fein … associate producer.
    • Felicia Fox … associate producer.
    • Michael Fox … associate producer.
    • Jeffrey Gardere … co-producer.
    • Ginger Gentile … producer.
    • Christine Giancarlo … associate producer.
    • Jonathan Goodman … associate producer.
    • Joe Gorham … associate producer.
    • Michael Griffin … associate producer.
    • Kelly Gunn … associate producer.
    • Evie Hagist … associate producer.
    • Camilla Hall … producer.
    • Gail Hamilton … associate producer.
    • Lorne Hamilton … associate producer.
    • Emily Hastings … associate producer.
    • Helen Hazel … associate producer.
    • Uli Hesse … field producer.
    • Doug Hooks … associate producer.
    • Sandra Hooks … associate producer.
    • Henri Isenberg … associate producer.
    • Julie Janata … executive producer.
    • Michelle Jordan … associate producer.
    • Eddie Judge … associate producer.
    • Edward N. Judge … associate producer.
    • Tamra Judge … associate producer.
    • Brandy Koenig … associate producer.
    • Javier Lopez … associate producer.
    • Brian Ludmer … associate producer.
    • William B. Macomber … producer.
    • Denis McAteer … associate producer.
    • Kim McCord … associate producer.
    • Jeff Morgan … associate producer.
    • Erin O’Donnell … associate producer.
    • Margaret Olnek … associate producer.
    • Jennifer Peck … associate producer.
    • Jennifer Peters … associate producer.
    • Joseph Pietrafesa … associate producer.
    • Dorcy Pruter … associate producer.
    • Rebecca Reyes … line producer.
    • Don Saxton … associate producer.
    • Elvin N. Serrano … associate producer.
    • Robert Showers … associate producer.
    • Dave Slotter … associate producer.
    • Michelle Slotter … associate producer.
    • Krissy Smith … associate producer.
    • Joseph Sorge … associate producer.
    • Marah Strauch … executive producer.
    • Tamara Sweeney … associate producer.
    • David Tayani … associate producer.
    • Phillip Taylor … associate producer.
    • Tyler Thorne … associate producer.
    • Richard Tobin … associate producer.
    • Paul Trizonis … associate producer.
    • Kim Ully-McCord … associate producer.
    • Jodi Vest … associate producer.
    • Charles Anthony Ward … associate producer.
    • Carrie Weiss … associate producer.
    • Lila Yomtoob … line producer.
  • Writer(s): Blake Bruns (Voice Over Writer).
  • Music: Rafael Leloup.
  • Cinematography: Melanie Aronson, John Barnhardt, Jason Blalock, Ignacio Genzon, and Aimee Galicia Torres.
  • Editor(s): Sean Jarret.
  • Production:
  • Distributor(s): Glass House Distribution.
  • Release Date: 25 April 2020 (Internet).
  • Running Time: minutes.
  • Rating: Unknown.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link

A Brilliant Madness (2002)

Introduction

A science documentary hosted by Liev Schreiber, published by PBS in 2002 with English narration.

Part of the American Experience series.

Outline

John Nash, often called one of the most remarkable mathematicians in history, tells his version of the strange, tragic and inspiring events that took him from genius to immobilising illness to the Nobel Prize.

Suffering a devastating breakdown at the age of 30 and later diagnosed with schizophrenia, Nash was the focus of the 2001 Oscar-winning film ‘A Beautiful Mind‘.

Production & Filming Details

  • Director(s): Marks Samuels.
  • Producer(s):
    • Margaret Drain … executive producer.
    • Sharon Grimberg … series editor.
    • Randall MacLowry … producer.
    • Melissa Martin … associate producer.
    • Susan Mottau … coordinating producer.
    • Mark Samels … senior producer.
    • Greg Shea … post production producer.
  • Writer(s): Marks Samuels and Randall MacLowery.
  • Music: Tom Philips.
  • Cinematography: Peter Donahue.
  • Editor(s): Karen Schmeer.
  • Production:
    • WGBH Educational Foundation.
    • WGBH.
    • Yellow Jersey Films (as A Yellow Jersey Films Production for American Experience).
  • Distributor(s): PBS.
  • Release Date: 28 April 2002.
  • Running Time:
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

Video Link