Into Film is a UK wide organisation, supported by the BFI through Lottery funds, which helps educators to achieve effective learning outcomes in their use of film. Its programme includes free access to thousands of classic and popular films, curriculum-linked and enrichment teaching resources, filmmaking opportunities, educator training, a free cinema based youth film festival and annual awards. They offer a host of films and resources for using film to support positive well-being, and films are available free to all schools with an Into Film Club. Find out more here.

Our film curator, Richard Warden, recently spoke to Into Film as part of their ‘Using Film to Teach‘ strand: 

“10% of children and young people (aged 5-16 years) have a clinically diagnosable mental problem, yet 70% of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age. At the Mental Health Foundation we view our job with young people as two-fold: to support them with a wide range of long term and short term mental health problems and equally importantly to encourage positive mental health and well-being so that problems are less likely to develop.

“As Film Lead for the Mental Health Foundation and Film Curator for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, I have witnessed first-hand the valuable role that film can play in supporting both aspects of this work. Film starts a conversation in a way that few other media can do; it encourages people to talk about issues they may feel uncomfortable with and evokes a response without having to dig. We’re using resources like Mindreel, an online selection of films which have been submitted to our Festival since its inception in 2007 and can be used in different ways to explore a wide range of mental health issues. These are films which might not otherwise be widely seen but which contain valuable messages.”

You can read the full article here.