2. About Your Facilitator
L’Oréal McCollum
L’Oréal McCollum, MSW, LSW,
M.Ed., is a sexuality and mental
health educator, consultant, and
actress, based in Philadelphia.
She is thrilled to be working with
AWI to create space for young
people to learn and connect
through art and media - two of her
greatest loves.
IG: @lorealmccollum
3. • Helia Integrated Health
and Nao Studio
• Kristi Thrailkill
• Lindsey Daniels
• Matters of the Mind
• Prism Wellness
• Baltimore Annapolis Center for
Integrative Healing
• Baltimore Therapy Group
• Bolton Therapy and Wellness
• Dr. Tanya Morrel & Associates
• Hawn Therapy and Consulting
Individual Sponsors
• Campus workshops
• Monthly short film competition
• Short film production grants
• Global community
Contributing Sponsors
• Space Between Counseling
Services
• Woodruff Counseling
• Wise Mind, LLC
Brought to you by…
#Movies4MentalHealth
4. Here’s the Plan
• Quick Introduction
• Setting the scene together
• Mental Health
• Stigma
• Watch and discuss films
• Panel of students and resources
#Movies4MentalHealth
5. Where were you right before
coming to the workshop?
#Movies4MentalHealth
6. Heads Up
• Mental health is personal – YOU are the expert on
your own experience
• Public space – no confidentiality
• It’s okay to feel!
• Films and conversations might be triggering
• Please take care of yourself however you need,
including asking for help
• If you don’t want your photo taken, please let us know
#Movies4MentalHealth
9. MH Across Languages and
Cultures
If English is not your first language, does your
language have words for mental health, mental
illness and mental wellness?
Do these concepts exist in your home culture?
10. Some movies and tv shows that
show mental illness…
13 Reasons Why
Girl Interrupted
United States of Tara
Gotham
Working Moms
The Babadook
Grey’s Anatomy
This is Us
You
Homeland
The Good Doctor
#Movies4MentalHealth
11. Characters with mental illness
are portrayed as…
“Skinny, white ladies”
“Crazy”
Dangerous
Irratic
Emotionally unstable
Promiscuous
Manipulative
Unreliable
Victimized
“Single or not in a good relationship”
Closed-off
#Movies4MentalHealth
13. Stigma
•A judgment or stereotype that is:
• Always negative
• Always untrue
• Can be internalized
#Movies4MentalHealth
14. How does stigma feel?
Really bad
Inescapable all of the time
Embarrassing
Personal
Disempowering
Attacked
Restricting
Shameful
Judgmental
“Stuck,” limiting
Scary
#Movies4MentalHealth
15. Sal Tran
By Kim Huynh
AWI Winner, March 2018
Content heads up: rape, depression, suicidal ideation,
cultural oppression. Protagonist uses they/them pronouns.
#Movies4MentalHealth
16. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
#Movies4MentalHealth
17. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
They were brave
Representation matters
Encouraging to hear there will
be ups and downs. You learn
to work with not “fix”
Impressed by willingness to be
vulnerable
Significance of telling family
that you are trans
Feelings
Sad
Angry about what they went
through and continues to go
through
Hopeful - Powerful message to
live with mental illness and be
okay
18. How did the filmmaking
techniques help tell the story?
Visual symbolism and color
Use of angles and types shots with the
narration of the film
Smoke effect
#Movies4MentalHealth
19. Touch Me Don’t Touch Me
By Lucie Rachel
AWI Winner, October 2018
Content heads up: sexual assault
#Movies4MentalHealth
20. Discuss in groups of three…
• What did you think?
• What did you feel?
#Movies4MentalHealth
21. What did you think? What did you feel?
Thoughts
Good way to explain what a
sexual assault could be like
Narrator talked about the
hands as an act of love
The perspective of a gay male
in that they should understand
each other experience -
several layer
Appreciate the depiction of a
homosexual relationship
Feelings
Confused
Intense
Intimate
Nuanced
Anxious
Relatable
Weird - because of the beauty
on the movement with the
seriousness of sexual assault
22. Why don’t people get help?
Stigma
Stereotype
Limited resource access
Lack of knowledge
Not realizing the problem
No prioritizing
Shame
Not physically or mentally ready
Scary - not knowing what is on the other side
Shocking
Denial
Expensive
#Movies4MentalHealth
23. Mind Matters
Content heads up: depression, cultural stigma
#Movies4MentalHealth
By Josef Adamu
AWI Winner, November 2019
24. Responses and Reactions?
#Movies4MentalHealth
Appreciated the build up
His experience was nonverbal
Inclusion of the mom saying to lift it up in pray
Mom says you are a grown man you shouldn’t feel like this
Layering of the sound design - you felt what he felt
Men tied to the social expectation to “man up”
People often suggest prayer as a fixer
Staying busy can sometimes distract from addressing the problem
Men often don’t talk about this, they just endor but it is important to talk
about it
25. What can we do?
If you see a change in behavior of a person address it
Listen actively, you do not necessarily have to give advice
Normalizing the conversation around mental health
Break down generational expectation
Bring in more community care
#Movies4MentalHealth
