First Film Series About Mental Illness in the Developing World Released by Elemental Productions

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 22, 2012 The first film series to look at mental illness in the developing world was released today by documentary film comp

The first film series on mental illness in the developing world

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 22, 2012

The first film series to look at mental illness in the developing world was released today by documentary film company Elemental Productions. Afflictions: Culture & Mental Illness in Indonesia (http://www.afflictionsfilmseries.com), is an award-winning compilation of six films about the lives of men, women and children living with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, anti-social personality disorder and Tourettes syndrome in Bali and Java. Directed by anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Dr. Robert Lemelson, Afflictions is screening as an official selection at conferences and festivals worldwide and is available for purchase at Amazon.

An International Documentary Award nominee and CINE Golden Eagle winner, Afflictions was shot by a team of veteran Hollywood and local Indonesian filmmakers. The series was inspired by a landmark World Health Organization research project demonstrating that the prognosis for patients diagnosed with severe mental illness is significantly better in developing nations than industrialized nations. Through compelling, poignant and informative narratives, Afflictions shines a light on important findings for the care and treatment of the mentally ill in North America, other industrialized nations and the developing world.

Mentally Ill More Troubled by Family and Community Reactions than by Ailment

I began with a strong vision of what I wanted to investigate, but without a pre-conceived notion of the outcomes, said Dr. Lemelson. Over time, it became clear that the mentally ill whose lives I was chronicling were more troubled by the response of their family and community to their condition and their personal struggle to be a valued community member than by their ailment. It is my hope that Afflictions will help educate patients and their families and impact decisions by mental health practitioners and policymakers.

About the Films and Findings

The result of more than a decade of research, each of the six Afflictions filmsMemory of My Face, The Bird Dancer, Family Victim, Ritual Burdens, Shadows and Illuminations and Kites & Monsters looks at the impact of culture, family and community on the lives of an adult or child suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorder or other serious mental condition. Themes emerge with universal impact, including: how family members treat the mentally ill shapes outcomes, both positive and negative; culture has the power to protect and buffer the mentally ill or exacerbate their condition; to understand the experience of the mentally ill, it is essential to understand their cultural universe and values; and pharmaceutical treatment yields mixed results.

... MacDonald C. Psych. in Childhood Anxiety Series , Mental Health

The Stress First Aid Kit: A Series of Meditations for Transforming ...

The first film series on mental illness in the developing world

First Film Series About Mental Illness in the Developing World ...

Source : http://imentalhealth.net/mental-health-disorders/personality-disorders/first-film-series-about-mental-illness-in-the-developing-world-released-by-elemental-productions

Related video about First Film Series About Mental Illness in the Developing World Released by Elemental Productions

Smart Safe - Mental health - Anxiety movie sample

Smart Safe - Mental health - Anxiety movie sample This multimedia series has been developed to teach content in the Health and Physical Education and the Personal Development Health and Physical First Film Series About Mental Illness in the Developing World Released by Elemental Productions

Commonly question about First Film Series About Mental Illness in the Developing World Released by Elemental Productions

Question :

Why has there never been a TV serious or play about World War I?

This was THE war. And all we get is Colditz about some neurotic officers stuck in fancy quarters in a German castle or Steve McQueen roaring around on a motorbike. Why can t we get a TV series about the first war? My grandpa fought there and brought back some nasty mental mementos that put him off his stroke the rest of his life. There has never been a serious treatment of this period in film and I am frikken sick and tired of this.

Answer :
America is the prime mover of all such stuff (TV serious or play). American involvement in WW I was minimal if not indifferent. Besides the source material is limited in the absence of journalistic traditions then. They are scattered in a far wider area in the Middle east to the Northern Europe. Whereas in WW II all the resource material (even in the Pacific) was under the control of USA mostly. In contrast (to WW I) all the four allies in WW II co-operated and worked in tandem. You can take the well-made movie (beautifully produced) Lawrence of Aarbia as related to and part of WW I, though far removed from European scene.

Question :

Do you think I would have a fair chance breaking into the film industry?

I have 18 different screenplays (some are completed, some are progressing ideas) I have so far-
( 4 drama, 2 crime, 2 musical, 3 animation, 3 war , a sci-fi trilogy and a black and white noire film)

I m not talking meaningless CGI crap that the hollywood industry brings out today, I mean real films that unfold stories with true meanings and messages in them. From the consequences of jealousy, mental illness, war, and criminal actions, to happier themes of love, hope and friendship.

I am also beginning my first novel in a science fiction series (completely different from the film idea).

I m sorrry I can t tell you what the ideas are but I m not going to talk about them online.

And please don t think I am being big headed I generally wanted to here honest opinions?

Thank you!

(And yes my grammar is not perfect here before anyone says but its only yahoo answers. )

Answer :
If this is your dream, grasp it!
It sounds like you ve been working your **** off, keep going and never give up and you Will make it.
Something I wish someone told me when I was younger, never give up!

Question :

What do you think of my film script so far?

The film is a surrealist horror film. This is the beginning of the film and the flash back here can be labeled as a social commentary on the effects of religion.

The Black Orb

The film opens up with sun rising from under to above the hills. The camera shows a very wild and active high tech city covered with very dark colored buildings with potent neon lights. Exiled from the central city is a series of filthy, brooding and old shacks. In one of the shacks lives the main antagonist/protagonist of the film, named Xannon Altercloud. The camera slowly zooms on to Xannon s shack while the credits pop up on the screen. The audience then sees Xannon sitting on his bed thinking about what his mother told him last week. The flash back appears where it takes place in year 2045, 32 years ago when Xannon was born. The Flash back starts with Xannon s mother Violet Altercloud at the finale of giving birth to a physically healthy, normal and beautiful baby boy that her husband Cletus named their first birth child Xannon Joseph Altercloud which he tells the doctors. Violet then gives birth to an inhuman, grotesque child that had dark sea green skin, visible veins, transparent eyes, triangular nose hole and slashes around the mouth area that are supposed to resemble mulitple mouths. The child s scream sounded like that of a sick goat s cry. The child makes a disturbing impact on Cletus. The child is named Cradle. The film later cuts to the family in the car where there s a 10 second period of silence.
Cletus: I hope you know why Cradle turned out this way!
Violet: Oh please, Cletus! This has nothing to do with this suposed "God" of yours.
Cletus: Violet, I am a sincere and genuine christian and in my point of view, our son son s physical distortion is from your lack of faith! Cradle is God s punishment to this family!
Violet: Stop trying to be as over dramatic as possible. You re just making your self look deranged and ignorant when you talk like that.
Cletus: You better start believing in God or you might suffer even worse consequences.
Violet: Cletus, did you even pay attention to what I just told you?Just get it through your head that I have become an athiest!

The flashback cuts to a week later when Cletus has been driven in to complete insanity just from the delusion that Cradle is an act of the "Almighty God". Cletus stares at the animalistic child in distress.
Cletus: I can not take this any more!
Cletus grabs the child and heads to the kitchen s microwave. Right before Cletus puts his own child in to the microwave, Violet walks into the kitchen. Violet is baffled and confused at the startling image that she is witnessing.
Cletus puts Cradle into the microwave and sets it to 46 seconds.
Violet: Cletus, you get our child out of there! Can t you see what religion has made you into?
Cletus: This child is an "infection" to us and you know it!
Violet runs to try to cletus to try to stop him from grotesquely murdering their child. Cletus quickly starts the microwave and pushes and pushes Violet against the wall and holds here. As the radiation effects cradle s body with sever pain, the child is having a vision of a black orb before it dies.
Violet falls to ground from emotial agony. Cletus looks down to her.
Cletus: You made me kill the child!
Cletus then gets out a knife from the drawer and almost stabs Violet with it until she luckily pushes the knife in to his ribs.
As Cletus drops to floor in pain, Violet calls the police. The police arrests Cletus and locks him up into a mental asylum.

Answer :
Well it s very, um, futuristic. I actually LOVE the idea of a family spit apart by religion, i think that s a great idea, and i love distopia movie s so it sounds like your on a good track. And your dialogue sounds real. For the most part, it sounds like what someone would actually say. But instead of "I have become an atheist!" I would change it to "I m an atheist, deal with it" or "I m an atheist now" if you wanted to point out that she wasn t always an atheist. That s the only line I don t like, it doesn t roll off the tongue. The only other things I don t love are 1) the quotation marks around the word "infection" and 2) I have no idea where you re going with the flash back and the black orb.

But all in all, it was fabulous, it drew me in right away. Just remember to stick with your themes. Really explain the true reason Cradle was born that way and why he saw a black orb. Keep up the good work, and good luck!!!