Welcome To

4th This Is My Brave International Mental Health Film Festival 2021

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The 4th This Is My Brave International Mental Health Festival is dedicated to providing stories which break the stereotypes that surround mental health.

Our focus is not primarily on film making excellence but how a film provides an alternative view to the mainstream portrayal of mental illness and wellness and promotes social justice, human rights through raw, honest and inspirational stories..

This year the festival will be held on the 10th October 2021, World Mental Health Day, and we hope that we can shine a positive and supportive light on those living with or caring for someone with a mental health issue.

Start Date

October 10, 2021, 10:00 am

End Date

October 10, 2021, 7:00 pm


Main Website

Films At The Festival

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Multi-Screening: BLOOMIN

Multi-Screening: BLOOMIN", Unseen, Courage To Change, Matt's Story

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 10:00 am EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

The film directly confronts the stigma surrounding vulnerability in males, an important contributor to male mental health struggles. Within a story that is part truth and part fiction, insight is gained into the interior emotional environment of the main character. Through this, the film portrays a man being highly vulnerable- hence directly fighting the stigma of male sensitivity that supposes they should not be emotionally vulnerable

Duration: 00:26:23 mins

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Australian Stories Multi-Screening: BLOOMIN

Australian Stories Multi-Screening: BLOOMIN", Unseen, Courage To Change, Matt's Story

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 10:00 am AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Four short films from Australian film makers focused on each individuals personal mental health journeys

Duration: 00:26:23 mins

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Mental As Everything

Mental As Everything

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 11:00 am AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Mental As EverythingAustralia, Director - Damon Smith

Damon Smith has estimated that he has spent around 50 thousand hours of his life, so far, participating in absurd ritualistic behaviours associated with his obsessive Compulsive Disorder. With a diagnosis of both, OCD and Bipolar Disorder, and with the help of his anxious friend, Adam, these two touring, Australian musicians, will share, with 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

Duration: 00:51:59 mins

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Mental As Everything

Mental As Everything

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 11:00 am EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Mental As EverythingAustralia, Director - Damon Smith

Damon Smith has estimated that he has spent around 50 thousand hours of his life, so far, participating in absurd ritualistic behaviours associated with his obsessive Compulsive Disorder. With a diagnosis of both, OCD and Bipolar Disorder, and with the help of his anxious friend, Adam, these two touring, Australian musicians, will share, with 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

Duration: 00:51:59 mins

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International Shorts Multi-Screening: Silence Undone, I'm So OCD, Barbara, HANK, Writing The World Backwards

International Shorts Multi-Screening: Silence Undone, I'm So OCD, Barbara, HANK, Writing The World Backwards

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 1:10 pm AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries , Drama , Social Justice

Online Live Screenings

Our pick of the best international short films from Netherlands, USA, Canada and the UK

Duration: 00:48:14 mins

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Multi-Screening: Silence Undone, I'm So OCD, Barbara, HANK, Writing The World Backwards

Multi-Screening: Silence Undone, I'm So OCD, Barbara, HANK, Writing The World Backwards

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 1:10 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries , Drama , Social Justice

Online Live Screenings

silence undone    Netherlands, Director - Kristjan Knigge

To embrace a loving relationship for the first time, isolated Sophie delves into her mind-maze made of memories and fears. She learns she needs to accept that her past shouldn’t define her future. Based on a true story.

Duration: 00:48:14 mins

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Milton Freire, a shout beyond history

Milton Freire, a shout beyond history

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 2:00 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Milton Freire, a shout beyond historyBrazil, Director - Victor Abreu

A portrait of the poet and writer Milton Freire, who was the first user of mental health services in Brazil to publicly assume his illness and fight for his rights. In a poetic way he relates two visions that guided him through a subjective recovery path.

​

"In a poetic way he relates two visions that guided him through a subjective recovery path. This short film is an extract of a big dive into Milton Freire’s mind, who was a common man that fought all his life to be treated as a human being, with his own affections. The poetry and symbology of his visions inspired me to create a universe that could reflect emotions I felt in the interviews and during the process of making this film. In this portrait, the ruins of a psychiatric hospital, Milton’s apartment and the streets of Rio de Janeiro are the paths that Milton walks to review, reconstruct or reinvent his own history."

Duration: 00:20:01 mins

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My Friend from A Care Home

My Friend from A Care Home

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 2:20 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

My Friend From a Care Home UK, Director - Zlata Onufrieva

Nina is 28 and has spent most of her life in care homes, but the pandemic changes everything for her, as staying in a care home is no longer safe. Arina, a young professional from Moscow, invites Nina to temporarily live together. When restrictions are finally lifted, Nina has to go back to the care home but after spending lockdown together young women grow very close and settle on a plan they to take Nina out of the institutional system for good. Arina has to make the most controversial decision in her life.

Duration: 00:39:47 mins

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My Friend from A Care Home

My Friend from A Care Home

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 2:20 pm AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

My Friend From a Care Home UK, Director - Zlata Onufrieva

Nina is 28 and has spent most of her life in care homes, but the pandemic changes everything for her, as staying in a care home is no longer safe. Arina, a young professional from Moscow, invites Nina to temporarily live together. When restrictions are finally lifted, Nina has to go back to the care home but after spending lockdown together young women grow very close and settle on a plan they to take Nina out of the institutional system for good. Arina has to make the most controversial decision in her life.

Duration: 00:39:47 mins

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Grateful

Grateful

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 3:00 pm AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Grateful Canada, Director - Thomas Wilson

We hope that discussing mental health on a broader scale will contribute to the ongoing conversations and positive change we're seeing on perceptions towards mental health. In our opinion there is no better way to start this conversation than with bikes and cameras. With this film we wanted to add momentum to the more broader experience of the concept of mental health that is emerging. Rather than specifically associating the term 'mental health' with over-coming depression or moving from places of darkness to light. Society is now seeing it as more holistic and all encompassing; in essence a continuum that journeys closely with our state of simply 'being'.

Duration: 00:12:20 mins

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Grateful

Grateful

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 3:00 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Grateful Canada, Director - Thomas Wilson

We hope that discussing mental health on a broader scale will contribute to the ongoing conversations and positive change we're seeing on perceptions towards mental health. In our opinion there is no better way to start this conversation than with bikes and cameras. With this film we wanted to add momentum to the more broader experience of the concept of mental health that is emerging. Rather than specifically associating the term 'mental health' with over-coming depression or moving from places of darkness to light. Society is now seeing it as more holistic and all encompassing; in essence a continuum that journeys closely with our state of simply 'being'.

Duration: 00:12:20 mins

Full Synopsis   Purchase Tickets

The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness

The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 3:30 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness USA, Director - Johnny Mandaville

A conversation surrounding the effects of stigma and its role in persons choosing to receive treatment.

​

In addition to interviewing those with a mental condition, this documentary hears from family members, community members, and NAMI representatives about how mental illness has touched their lives.

Duration: 00:23:39 mins

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The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness

The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 3:30 pm AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

The Long Road - Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Illness USA, Director - Johnny Mandaville

A conversation surrounding the effects of stigma and its role in persons choosing to receive treatment.

​

In addition to interviewing those with a mental condition, this documentary hears from family members, community members, and NAMI representatives about how mental illness has touched their lives.

Duration: 00:23:39 mins

Full Synopsis   Purchase Tickets

PUMPHEAD

PUMPHEAD

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 4:00 pm EST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Pumphead 

Australia, Director - Andrew Pike

Pumphead explores patient experiences following major heart surgery - how to understand these experiences and how to live with them. A story of existential crises and transformative experiences, told by eight ex-patients including the filmmaker himself.

​

"I made this film over a period of 6 years to explain, from a patient’s perspective, what it feels like to have the Pumphead syndrome, the lay term for common experiences for many people following cardiac surgery, not only in the immediate post-surgery period, but often long-term.

I used my own experience as a patient, and the film-making skills I’d learned professionally to communicate the “inside” experience - what the pumphead syndrome feels like, day after day, month after month, year after year, relayed through my own story and through the stories of others who knew about it first-hand - patients, carers and cardiac rehabilitation experts.

I wanted the film to help other patients by letting them know they are not alone, and that their experience is common among post-surgical patients."

Duration: 01:16:15 mins

Full Synopsis   Purchase Tickets

PUMPHEAD

PUMPHEAD

access_time Viewing Times October 10, 2021, 4:00 pm AEST

Genre(s): Documentaries

Online Live Screenings

Pumphead 

Australia, Director - Andrew Pike

Pumphead explores patient experiences following major heart surgery - how to understand these experiences and how to live with them. A story of existential crises and transformative experiences, told by eight ex-patients including the filmmaker himself.

​

"I made this film over a period of 6 years to explain, from a patient’s perspective, what it feels like to have the Pumphead syndrome, the lay term for common experiences for many people following cardiac surgery, not only in the immediate post-surgery period, but often long-term.

I used my own experience as a patient, and the film-making skills I’d learned professionally to communicate the “inside” experience - what the pumphead syndrome feels like, day after day, month after month, year after year, relayed through my own story and through the stories of others who knew about it first-hand - patients, carers and cardiac rehabilitation experts.

I wanted the film to help other patients by letting them know they are not alone, and that their experience is common among post-surgical patients."

Duration: 01:16:15 mins

Full Synopsis   Purchase Tickets