Some exciting new events have been added to the festival programme since our launch in September. From online discussions about mental health and the arts, to a mini film festival in Cumbernauld and opportunities to connect with nature in the Highlands, there’s plenty to discover…
For those unable to attend our festival showcase events in Glasgow, we’ve teamed up with Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland to host four free lunchtime online discussions. These will explore different aspects of mental health and the arts, featuring some of our festival speakers and other invited guests.
The series kicks off with International Connections on 10 October, World Mental Health Day, an in-conversation event between SMHAF and Rendezvous with Madness, a Toronto-based arts and mental health festival. The conversation will explore links between our festivals, the challenges of working in this area of practice, and what the future holds.
If you can’t come to our Now You See Us: In/Visible Showcase in Glasgow, then tune in for the Now You See Us: online event on 17 October to hear from some of the artists and writers who have created new commissions for this year’s festival, and a discussion of our 2024 theme In/Visible.
Counterpoints Arts – a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change – take part in A New Strand: Art, Displacement & Mental Health on 23 October to discuss a new two-year programme they’re working on.
And last in this online series is Performing Anxiety on 24 October. Join us for a discussion of this ambitious new good practice resource for people who want to make creative work about mental health, developed earlier this year by the Mental Health Foundation and the team at SMHAF.
Film fans will enjoy Lanternhouse Cinema’s In/Visible Film Festival in Cumbernauld. This mini film festival comprises free screenings of four audience-pleasing and diverse films that explore different ways in which personal relationships can impact our mental health.
Big Hero 6 (19 & 20 October) is perfect family viewing: at the heart of this action-packed comedy-adventure is the special bond between an inflatable robot and a small boy. Much Ado About Dying (20 October) is a tender and humorous documentary in which filmmaker Simon Chambers captures the decline of his elderly Uncle David – a charismatic former actor and Shakespeare-lover – and attempts to provide him with a ‘good death’.
In A Man Called Otto (23 October), Tom Hanks stars as a grumpy widower who meets his match when a new quick-witted neighbour moves in, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world around. And an unlikely friendship blossoms into romance in Silver Linings Playbook (26 October) when Pat (Bradley Cooer), recently released from a psychiatric hospital, meets young widower Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). The multi-award-winning film tackles mental illness and grief head-on with humour, vulnerability and an uplifting spirit.
New additions to the Highland’s programme include the Listening Ear Art Exhibition (10 – 27 October) and Mixed Media Art Session (13 October) in Thurso, as well as Mindfulness in Nature – a half day of nature mindfulness on the beautiful Bunloit Estate near Drumnadrochit on 29 October.
These new events join an already varied programme of theatre, film and creative workshops taking place across the Highlands, including spellbinding multimedia performance Held on the High Wire (Lairg, Inverness & Helmsdale, 12, 13 & 25 October), hilarious and thought-provoking play Men Don’t Talk (Cromarty, 19 November) and award-winning documentary filmmaker Duncan Cowles’ new feature Silent Men (Inverness, 24 October). You can check all events in the Highland programme here.
And last but by no means least, don’t miss the inaugural Huntly Ceilidh Day with Trad Music Workshops in the daytime and a concert from the Iona Fyfe Trio in the evening (12 Oct).
Explore the full festival programme and book tickets at mhfestival.com/events.
