Animated Minds
Digital Rights Group Limited
This multi-award-winning collection of eight 3- to 6-minute micro-documentaries attempts to communicate the subjective experience of abnormal psychological states by blending edgy animation with narration by people who live each day with debilitating mental conditions. Impressionistic, abstract, and even surreal, these dark cinematic gems are designed to help eliminate misconceptions about mental illness by promoting viewer empathy. Compelling; insightful; honest. Micro-documentaries include… • Dimensions—Schizophrenia: Voices—sometimes benign, sometimes malevolent. Disordered thought and flights of fancy. Delusions both pleasant and unpleasant. Paranoia. This animated short film focuses on what it is to experience schizophrenia. “I was living outside consensus reality,” says Chas. “The first voices I started hearing a lot of was my family.... Later on they were very persecutory. That wasn’t pleasant, and it wasn’t something I wanted to continue…. I mean, the voices were very distressing, the, the, the impression is they were encouraging me to self-harm or commit suicide. They were getting pretty nasty.” • The Lightbulb Thing—Bipolar Disorder: This animated short film charts the emotional trajectory of Hannah, a college student who, after becoming more and more manic, falls without warning into a dark place without meaning, an inner world of depression where every day seems the same. “You wake up in the morning and you think, ‘God, not this day again!’ It feels like you have done it already….” With the memory of euphoria fading from her mind, Hannah is left empty and despairing as the brightness within her—“the lightbulb thing”—goes out. • Fish on a Hook—Agoraphobia and Panic Attacks: Mike has panic attacks associated with agoraphobia. He characterizes his condition as being like a fish wriggling on the end of a hook, and in this animated short film he describes what it’s like to deal with anxiety so debilitating that even a journey to the supermarket can be terrifying. “My heart beats louder and louder…. As I walk,” he says, “I feel my body is like jelly and I’m not at all sure-footed. I mean, I’m scared I might fall over. I’m now a prisoner who has moved out into a very hostile area….” • Obsessively Compulsive—Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Could fleeting thoughts of Saddam Hussein cause an escalation of the Gulf War and plunge humankind into World War III? Steve honestly believed so, and this animated short film illustrates the rituals he performed to undo any harm his thoughts may have caused. “Ordinary day-to-day simple tasks…I had to do in the absence of an intrusive thought,” says Steve. “If I couldn’t do that, I had to repeat the behavior over and over again.” Walking, reading, eating, drinking, even breathing—all had to be done without the imaginary taint of Saddam Hussein. • Becoming Invisible—Eating Disorders: Feelings of utter aloneness. Violent nightmares for years on end. Suicidal wishes. And a carefully crafted mask to hide it all behind. Going beyond acts of binging and purging and food intake restriction, this animated short film explores the inner reality of eating disorders. “I did want to reduce myself in size, but it wasn’t to fit my clothes, it wasn’t to look good,” says Nicole. “It was to disappear. It was to take up less space in the world—I wanted to become invisible.” • Over and Over (and Over) Again—Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: After checking every electrical outlet, every light switch, every window latch, every faucet in the house, Danny would be almost done with his daily morning routine. “And then I’d leave [for school] and I’d have to stand there for about—it could last about two hours—just checking the door.” In this animated short film, Danny describes a life ruled by safety-related rituals and the number eight. “But there was another part of me, in my head, there was the normal me…. I used to argue with myself, be like, ‘just stop!’ Sometimes you just can’t….” • An Alien in the Playground—Asperger’s Syndrome: Joshua has Asperger’s syndrome—a condition that makes him seem like an alien to his peers. “I think when I started primary school, I think then is when I first noticed that I was really different from everyone else,” he says in this animated short film. Joshua’s inability to read the faces and body language of others, and the torments associated with that inability, were unceasing: “I was having nightmares night after night about school and about being bullied, and the sad thing is that what was happening in my nightmares was what was going on in real life, so I couldn’t even have any escape in my dreams.” • My Blood Is My Tears—Self-Harm: Abbie, Louise, and Nicole have burned themselves with heated metal and cigarettes, stabbed needles into their skin, punched walls, slammed doors on their arms, and thrown themselves down staircases. This animated short film examines self-harm: the impulses that prompt it and the temporary relief from emotional pain that physical pain seemingly provides. “People cry; I can’t cry. My blood is my tears because I can’t cry—there’s no way for me to show emotion that isn’t self-harm, and I wish there was.” (37 minutes)