Te Ora AuahaHEADLANDS: shining a light on anxiety
HEADLANDS is a series of short films for an anxious world, developed by some of Aotearoa's inspiring new film makers in partnership with writers who have lived experience of anxiety. Forty-seven percent of New Zealanders will personally experience mental illness or distress in their lifetime, so this is a significant opportunity to shift perceptions and build community around mental wellbeing. We invite you to support Team HEADLANDS, enabling the film makers and writers to work on treatments and scripts so that the films are ready to go into production next year.
The HEADLANDS crowdfunding campaign is now live at https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/headlands. For every dollar donated up to $7,500 The Body Shop will pitch in with another dollar!
How:
The films are adapted from and inspired by the multi-takes on anxiety in Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety by New Zealand writers, poets, psychologists, journalists, musicians, a comedian and a physiotherapist.
Contributors to the book have partnered with 19 emerging film makers. Their films will feature a mixture of genres and styles - drama, documentary, animation, spoken word... and anything in between.
Like the book the films will share experiences and wisdom, challenge stigma and shame around mental illness, and offer help, hope and empowerment.
Why:
Storytellers have authentic and resonating voices in the national and global conversation taking place around mental wellbeing.
"Discrimination is one of the biggest barriers to recovery from an experience of mental illness... Journalists hold great power and can influence public opinion about people with mental illness in positive and negative ways."
www.likeminds.org.nz
Who:
David Jacobs is Series Producer.
David founded The Outlook for Someday sustainability film project for young people and was Executive Producer of the award-winning Someday Stories films in 2017 and 2018, which have had about 1 million views.
Miryam Jacobi is Series Associate Producer in the development phase of the project. She is also one of the film-makers.
Miryam runs Auckland based production company 2113 Creatives. Earlier this year she was the Director's Assistant on BBC's The Luminaries. Miryam's debut short film, Do You Like Me Like This? premiered at the Show Me Shorts 2017. Her documentary Disorder was part of Someday Stories 2018, receiving high praise worldwide from specialists, film critics and those who have lived with the mental illness.
Naomi Arnold is the Editor of the book.
Naomi is a Nelson-based freelance journalist and author. As well as editing Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety she is the editor of a book on New Zealand astronomy, Southern Nights (Harper Collins, October 2019). She is an eight-time finalist or winner in New Zealand media awards and is a regular contributor to Stuff titles, New Zealand Geographic, and Heritage New Zealand. She is online here.
