Highlights from week five of our online programme include another of our award-winning films, Elina Chared’s documentary The Voices From Inside, and Sleep, the latest workshop in the series Eat. Move. Sleep. Repeat, curated by Emma Jayne Park and Emily Furneaux.
It has also been a week of exciting announcements, including details of the five artists commissioned to develop projects on the theme My Experience of Isolation – which will be premiered on our website over the next few months – and next week’s world premiere of Living With The Lights On – the film, adapted from Mark Lockyer’s acclaimed solo show and filmed on an iPhone during lockdown.
Read about the full programme below and we look forward to you joining us during the week. We hope that you are keeping safe and well, and remember you can find resources for coping with your mental health during this challenging time at the Mental Health Foundation.
Film
This week, we present The Voices From Inside, a documentary about Marianne, a woman who fights to live with the voices she hears inside her and support others in her community as they navigate their own journeys with mental health.
A truly radical film in its message of choosing acceptance over othering, The Voices From Inside is the winner of this year’s SMHAF Voices Of Experience award. Watch the film all week here and register to join us for an informal discussion on Zoom to talk about the issues it raises.
We are also pleased to present our Family Shorts programme from 2019. Aimed at engaging young minds in mental health matters, these short films explore wellbeing, worries and emotions in creative and colourful ways. We hope that it can provide some entertainment during lockdown and perhaps act as a way into talking with your children about mental health during this time.
Theatre
We are delighted to announce the world premiere of Living With The Lights On – the film, adapted from Mark Lockyer’s acclaimed solo theatre show. Directed by Geraldine Williams and performed by Lockyer, the film has been assembled from iPhone footage shot during the lockdown. Living With The Lights On – the film will be available to watch from Monday 8 June until Monday 15 June. There will also be a Q&A with Mark Lockyer taking place via Zoom, with full details announced soon.
Skye Loneragan’s Though This Be Madness was to have toured Scotland as part of this year’s SMHAF. A theatre show set in a lounge room, it features a recovering mum who is attempting to tell you many tales of sisterhood struggles with mental health. With support from SHMAF, the show is now undergoing an experimental re-framing to see how it can best be performed, live online, broadcasting from Skye’s living room to yours.
Over the next few weeks Skye will be sharing quirky, questioning process-bites as she develops this new version of the show. Part One: Framing is now available here.
Eat. Move. Sleep. Repeat.
Toni-Dee and Laura Gonzalez lead Sleep, the latest workshop in Eat. Move. Sleep. Repeat., a series of conversations with artists curated by Emma Jayne Park and Emily Furneaux. During the session, participants will be invited to become rest researchers.
Sleep will take place on Zoom from 11am-1pm on Wednesday 3 June. Register for your place here.
Toni-Dee is a performance artist, theatre maker, workshop leader, writer and occasional thinker-in-the-room. Her current body of work, made with ‘infectious warmth’ (Exeunt) is a series of performances & installations exploring identity politics. Laura Gonzalez is a visual artist, performer, writer, and yoga teacher, whose work inhabits the space between medical humanities, psychoanalysis, performance and Eastern thought.
Community
Mind To Move, a series of movement workshops led by Julia James-Griffiths, will continue throughout June on Tuesdays at 12pm. The sessions aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing and are free to attend, although you can make donations to support the project. Register for a class here.
People who have personal lived experience of mental health issues are invited to submit artworks to the annual Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition. The exhibition is currently planned to take place at Summerhall in Edinburgh during October 2020 but, due to the current situation, the venue or date may change, or the exhibition may be moved online.
The team behind Out of Sight, Out of Mind at CAPS Independent Advocacy are also hosting an exhibition currently called Unlocked Art Gallery. They are inviting submissions of artworks produced during lockdown by people with experience of mental health issues from across Edinburgh & Lothians.