Friends of Mine: “Mental Health” (2020)

The Hours

"The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.

Bedlam

A psychiatrist makes rounds in ERs, jails, and homeless camps to tell the intimate stories behind one of the greatest social crises of our time. A personal and intense journey into the world of the seriously mentally ill.

Lolita

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

It’s 1974 and Sam Bicke has lost everything. His wife leaves him with his three kids, his boss fires him, his brother turns away from him, and the bank won’t give him any money to start anew. He tries to find someone to blame for his misfortunes and comes up with the President of the United States who he plans to murder.

Princesses

Caye is a young prostitute whose family is unaware of her profession. She meets her striking Dominican neighbour Zulema, an illegal immigrant, after she finds her in the bathroom, badly beaten up. They strike up a close friendship unbeknownst to Caye's xenophobic co-workers.

Fatboy

After a lifetime of feeling fat, a young man realises that maybe his issues with his body aren’t actually about his body at all. This short, biographical mini-documentary is a tiny story about the big problem of not opening up, the pressure we put ourselves under, and learning to be kind to ourselves.

Barefoot

A hedonistic bachelor - he is his rich family's black sheep - falls for a suicidal mental patient.

The Conquerors

A newlywed couple journeys west to make their fortune, and begins a banking empire.

Forklift Driver Klaus: The First Day on the Job

Short film depicting a fictional educational film about fork lift truck operational safety. The dangers of unsafe operation are presented in gory details.

Petrichor

A suicidal twenty-something is dragged on a night out, by his party animal lodger, to cheer him up. What could possibly go wrong?

Little Women

With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.

The Karate Kid Part II

After discovering that his father is at death's door, Mr. Miyagi sets out to Japan, to see him with Daniel. Upon arriving, Miyagi must confront an old rival. Meanwhile, Daniel encounters a new love, and some new enemies.

Mot i brøstet – 30th Anniversary

A 30th anniversary special celebrating the Norwegian sitcom Mot i brøstet. Actors Nils Vogt, Sven Nordin and Hilde Lyrån share their memories.

The Savages

A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.

Chrysalis

Clementine’s room is her haven and her safe space, but as the night goes on and her mind challenges her further, she must face her insecurities and leave the cocoon she has created for herself.

The Quiet

After her widowed father dies, deaf teenager Dot moves in with her godparents, Olivia and Paul Deer. The Deers' daughter, Nina, is openly hostile to Dot, but that does not prevent her from telling her secrets to her silent stepsister, including the fact that she wants to kill her lecherous father.

Passfire

A film about fireworks, the people who make them and the cultures behind them across the globe.

If Only

On a rainy afternoon, Martha discovers an old Polaroid in her bedroom. She then spends the whole afternoon conversing with someone deeply familiar and significant from her past.

Scare Zone

Scare Zone is Oliver's pride and joy. Sure, it's just another strip-mall Halloween Horror House, but as always, he's put his heart and soul into it. The attraction is open for three nights only, and Oliver has brought back his old staff, including ex-con Spider, eager bride-to-be Summer, and the enigmatic Goth princess Claire. A bunch of newbies are also on board, including earnest young Darryl, who immediately finds himself bewitched by the creepy Claire. The dysfunctional 'scream team' learns to work together while someone or some-thing is out to make the horror REAL.

Utopia

A treatise on love and desire tainted by harsh reality of capitalism, in which submission to the laws of lust-as-commerce is played out by five prostitutes and their pimp, who pits them against one another so that they are incapable of standing up to him collectively.

A Teen Movie

Two friends, Caily and Sabine, wake up after a long night of drinking. Their make-up has faded and they are still wearing yesterday’s clothes. After getting reading for another day, they go to their desolated hangout spot and hit the bottle and do drugs. After a bit of talking, they fall asleep. Waking up is the hard part.

Punch-Drunk Love

A socially awkward and volatile small business owner meets the love of his life after being threatened by a gang of scammers.

Scars

Alex Anna’s body is a canvas: her scars come to life to tell a new story of self-harming.

Mr. Jones

The story about the relationship between a manic depressive man, Mr Jones, and the female doctor who takes more than a professional interest in his treatment.

Heathers

A girl who halfheartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics: by killing the popular kids.

Mental as Everything

Damon Smith has estimated that he has spent around 50,000 hours of his life, so far, participating in absurd ritualistic behaviours associated with his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). With a diagnosis of both, OCD and Bipolar Disorder, and with the help of his anxious friend, Adam Coad, these Australian singer-songwriters share, through original music, preposterous humour, and outlandish animations, the intricate and debilitating nature of what it is like to live and talk about mental illness in a world where it’s ok to talk about a broken arm, but not ok to talk about a broken mind.

Jack & Sarah

Jack always lands on his feet. He lands on his feet when he marries the beautiful Sarah. He lands on his feet when he buys a luxurious new home. However, when Sarah goes into labour, he takes a tumble down the stairs and lands on his head. When he comes around he discovers he is the proud father of a baby girl, but deficient in the spouse department to the tune of 1.

Bread and Tulips

An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her behind. While enjoying the wonderful people she meets she achieves a new life and the first time independent of her family.

The Focus Group

Sara feels sad, lonely, and ugly. Ann has a very unusual solution.

6 Little Jungle Boys

A short animated War Office commissioned health education film, showing the fate of each of the 6 jungle soldiers.

Reflect

Summer, unhappy with her boyfriend, receives a mysterious email inviting her out to a spiritual obstacle course. Summer gathers her four friends, each battling a dilemma of their own, to drive to the Sedona Desert, where they are promised this “vortex” will improve their lives. They embark on these courses with the help of their uncanny guide Hermes, who leads them into a series of unusual practices. Little do they know they are being monitored by mysterious hooded entities, eager to take over their bodies.

Summer in Berlin

When you read the title ‘Summer on the Balcony’ you probably think it will be a light Berlin summer comedy but it’s not. This film is an intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.

8½

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress

After a wonderful time in Hungary Sissi falls extremely ill and must retreat to a Mediterranean climate to rest. The young empress’ mother takes her from Austria to recover in Madeira.

Requiem

Michaela, an epileptic, enrolls in college to study education. She goes off her medication and soon begins hearing voices and seeing apparitions that tell her to avoid religious objects, although she is devoutly Roman Catholic. One priest scoffs at the idea that Michaela could be possessed by demons, but a younger pastor arranges an exorcism for the young woman.