Animated Minds

Personal experiences of mental health

The Animated Minds project, funded by the Maudsley Charity, took the testimony of a variety of people who have experienced mental distress and created a series of engaging short animated films to illustrate their experiences. The films help to give the audience a greater understanding of what it feels like to live with various mental health difficulties.

The films focus on adults' experiences of bipolar disorder, psychosis, panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder and young people's experiences of eating disorders, deliberate self-harm, obsessive compulsive disorder and the social distress experienced by young people affected by Asperger's syndrome.

Andy Glynne, producer/director, explains how the films were made:

"The process for making the films was as collaborative as possible. I trained as a clinical psychologist and therefore knew about mental health and the myths and prejudices that surrounded various 'conditions'. After we identified individuals who wanted to talk about their experiences, we recorded interviews with them, which were then edited down to create a short narrative rich in visual metaphors.

"Once we made sure that no information was included which might cause my distress to the people involved, the process of animation began. Working with some of the best animators, we tried to create visual sequences which would add depth and meaning to the audio interview. When everyone felt happy with the final product, composers were brought in to add a soundscape and music to the finished piece.

"It's all about metaphor and we know that we can never fully understand or know what it feels like to actually experience some of the difficulties covered in these films, but - as far as metaphors go - we felt we could begin to all work together to help inform people and get them to think more about what it means to have a mental health problem.

"This was our ambition and we hope, when watching the films, you feel we have succeeded."

The Animated Minds films have been well received, winning the RTS Award for Best Educational Television and the BANFF Award for Best Animation. The films have reached a wide audience having been broadcast on Channel 4 and Teachers TV. The films are also used by teaching hospitals, schools, universities, mental health community centres, mental health charities and by service users themselves - who use the films to show others what their experience was like.

 

 

Animated Minds : Schizophrenia

You can watch the rest of the films on the Animated Minds website