Festival spotlight on mental health stigma

This news item is about the Mental Health Arts and Film Festival which is taking place this month in Scotland. This year the Festival spotlight is on the representations of female mental illness which are contained in films back to the golden age of Hollywood. But as the title says, the festival does not only consists of filmic material but also music, theatre, dance and comedy are being performed.

This Festival has been taking place for now three years and it has grown its remit until to become the largest Festival of its kind in the world. The purpose of this year’s activities is to exlpore and expose the stigmas on female mental health issues which pertaining to society as a whole have been embodied on the celluloid. And this is done in order to challenge them and to generate debate about them. But also, as the guitarist of the music band Idlewid -which is playin on this year’s closing concert- says, it has a direct therapeutical effect as a goal: showing to people that they are not alone with their issues, that they are not the only ones who have suffered them and it is a common thing to happen.

Yo can find the article here at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/14/festival-spotlight-mental-health-stigma