Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the show and thanks for listening. The Changing
Mind's Young Filmmaker Festival is Saturday, May seventeenth and Manhattan,
showcasing the work of ten talented young creators hailing from
right here in the Tri State, two as far away
as France. Now in its tenth year, the festival, hosted
by the New York City mental health and advocacy nonprofit
(00:32):
Community Access, features short films that explore timely mental health themes,
including anxiety, by polar disorder, and more. Our guests are
Jordan Rosenthal, the director of advocacy at Community Access, and
young filmmaker Simone Thomas Rowe from West Orange, New Jersey.
Simone's film Before My Eyes is one of ten being
(00:53):
screened at this year's festival on May seventeenth at Village
East Cinema. Jordan Rosenthal and Simone Thomas row thank you
for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You can find out more about the film Festival at
Mental Healthfilmfest dot NYC. Community Access at community access dot org,
and I think we will start with you, Jordan. Community
Access is an organization we've had on the show before.
It does a broad spectrum of work. Maybe you could
tell us a little bit more about the mission and
focus of the organization and your role.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
So I always start off with Community Access is a
supportive housing provider. We build housing that is for people
with mental health concerns and then also has affordable units
kind of spread without as well as over of services
to help people find stability, So things like a supported
education program, Premiere peer advocacy training program, and something called
(01:55):
a crisis respite center which is an alternative to a
psychiatric emergency hospital stay. So really what we do and
kind of our bread and butter is helping people figure
out ways for their wellness and being the expert in
their own life and really taking a driver's seat in
(02:15):
their care. And medicine isn't the only way to work
on someone's recovery and wellness. And I think that this
festival is an example of a way that we can
really work on wellness and work on removing the stigma
around mental health.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
This is such an interesting festival too, because it is
featuring young filmmakers. Film is one thing, But why is
it important to bring young filmmakers into this conversation.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I think it's really important to bring young people into
this conversation because mental health impacts everyone, and I think
especially as a young person, it can be really hard
to kind of navigate one's emotions. I remember when I
I first kind of dealt with my own mental health
journey and even my first diagnoses, and that happened when
(03:08):
I was a young person, I was in high school.
And I think about like having a thing like this
film festival where you can be with your peers, people
who understand what you're going through, is really a form
of solidarity and a way of kind of building community
and comforting one another and knowing that you're not alone.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So in the past, Jordan, you have been involved in
the adult version of this festival. This is a festival
for people, I believe twenty five on under something like that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Correct, Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, So can you talk a little bit about the
difference between what people are presenting. I think that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yeah, there's such a wide array of topics from things
like dementia to eating disorders to PTSD, depression, seasonal depression.
Really it's such a wide category of mental health and
what encompasses, you know, one's mental health. And I think,
(04:08):
really what is special about both of these festivals and
the Community Access mission is again people defining things on
their own terms that it doesn't necessarily have to fit
a label. But at someone saying, you know, I feel
like this is about mental health, and I'm submitting that,
(04:29):
and that's enough for us and me at.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Least you're listening to get connected. On one six point
seven Light FM, I'm Mina del Rio speaking with Jordan Rosenthal.
She is director of Advocacy at the New York City
mental health nonprofit Community Access. For the month of May
mental Health Awareness Month, they are hosting the Changing Minds
Young Filmmaker Festival on Saturday May seventeenth in Manhattan, featuring
(04:55):
the work of ten young filmmakers. Among them is Simone
Thomas Rowe from West Orange, New Jersey. Her film Before
My Eyes one of those ten short films being screened.
The event is May seventeenth at Village East Cinema. You
can find out more at Mental Healthfilmfest dot NYC. And
Simone please tell us about your film.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, of course. So my film is called Before My Eyes,
and it's a film about a young boy who is
caught in the middle of a school shooting. So he
hides in a bathroom and he thinks back to his
happiest memories, which are of him and his mother, and
it's almost this whole idea of your life flashing before
your eyes in a very real scenario. But then there's
(05:42):
a little twist towards the end, and you know, this
whole story is kind of talking about mental health and
for more specifically black mental health for men as well.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
What was the inspiration behind you a film Before my Eyes?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, so I am a sucker for a good title.
So it's a little strange my process because I do
write and direct a lot of my own films, so
I come up with titles first. Actually, So I had
Before my Eyes just in my notes somewhere, and I
really wanted to explore this whole idea of a double
(06:17):
entendre with the whole saying my life flash before my eyes,
but also this whole idea of someone who's struggling with
mental health, like being right before your eyes and kind
of like, you know, not realizing it's all about perspective
and about how you know, people don't really necessarily pay
attention to more than just themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And what made you submit to this film festival? How
did you find out about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Of course, So just like any broke college student, I
was a filmmaker. I was really searching over the summer
for the best place to submit my film and a
lot of the submissions for film festivals are very expensive.
They can be up to one hundred dollars, and none
of them also really aligned with the message of my film.
(07:04):
So when I was looking for somewhere to submit it,
I came across the Community Access Changing Young Minds Film
Festival and I was like, Wow, this is a place
where I would really love to show my film. And
it was also free, So I really really loved just
the fact that, you know, they created this space for
young filmmakers to submit their films and it not costs
(07:26):
a trillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
It's very accessible, and again tickets are very accessible. They're
ten dollars, which is fantastic. So what does it mean
to you to be a part of this platform, and
especially with these other filmmakers your peer group, you haven't
met them yet but Ice wim but this peer group.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, so again, I think that for me, honestly, like
the minute I was told that I would be a
part of this festival, it meant the world to me.
I think that, you know, young people are doing amazing work,
and young filmmakers specifically are doing amazing work in terms
of like the messages that they're telling and how they're
telling them. So I'm really really excited to just see
(08:04):
the other films. And like Jordan was saying, like all
the topics that people are talking about, filmmakers have a
very creative way of telling these stories so dissimilarly to mine,
Like I wanted to create a story that you know,
focuses on mental health and school shootings, but doing it
in a way that handles that with care, because I
feel like a lot of stories that talk about school
(08:26):
shootings don't handle those stories with care.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
But so, yeah, how do you think that film specifically,
I mean, it could be a book, it could be
a player or anything else can help young people specifically
to process big emotions, difficult emotions, especially around mental health.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Oh my goodness. In so many ways, I think that
everyone has their creative outlet or what works for them
in terms of like what they connect to. But I
do think that there is something magical about film in itself.
I think that, you know, film and being sitting in
a theater and just cinema in general, it brings people
(09:06):
together and no matter what, even if you don't necessarily
relate to what that character is going through on screen,
there's something to be said about, you know, the emotions
that you're feeling in a theater. So I feel like
for filmmaking all the time, people you know, see themselves
in certain stories and there's messages that you know, people
(09:28):
can relate to. And I feel like with film, you're
not necessarily throwing it in people's faces. There's a way
to have that message very deep within the film for
everyone to kind of connect to.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's connection disguised as entertainment. As far as the technical
aspect of putting your film together, film is so much
more accessible now than it ever was before. You can
shoot a whole film on your iPhone. Can you talk
a little bit about the technical process of making this?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Sure, so for this film. This was actually a film
that I one of the first films I did through
my school. I go to Loyal and Marymount University, and
this was the film I made when I was a sophomore.
I'm about to be a senior, so they give you
some access to some equipment, but for the sophomores, they're
kind of like, go off and explore and do it,
(10:21):
so they give you limited resources. So I had about
me and then three other people help me with this film.
So it was about finding creative ways to do certain things.
There's an opening shot where my main character runs through
the hallway. The way we did that was simply putting
my DP and a rolling chair and we wheeled him
(10:41):
backwards in the hallway. So it's really about finding creative
ways when you have limited access to crew. And I
also was working with children for the first time directing them,
so that was a challenge within itself, but it really
pushed me as a director and it was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What would you say to sort of the challenge of
telling personal stories? How do you look at sharing stories
that might be very impactful or private that really might
be difficult to tell.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, of course, I think that there's always no matter
what when you're writing something, when you're displaying it for
everyone to see, there's a vulnerability within itself as a filmmaker,
even if it's not your personal story, if you're telling
somebody else's story, you want to do that story justice.
So I think that just in terms of telling those
(11:31):
personal stories, it's really important to just handle them with care.
But also don't be scared to tell your personal stories.
I think that you'd be surprised with how many people
would actually relate to them and how many people feel
the same way that you might have felt when you
were making the story.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So again, the Changing Minds Young Filmmaker Festival is at
Village East Cinema on Saturday, May seventeenth. There is an
adult component at a later date, and Jordan, maybe you
could speak to how people can get involved in this
and the importance and the purpose of expressing these types
of conversations and emotions on film.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Definitely, so they should definitely come to the event on
the seventeenth, and there's going to be a Q and
A with all of our filmmakers, so really being able
to tap into that, and then I think following us
on our community access website, especially under the advocacy page,
there's even a tool called our Advocacy Calendar, which is
(12:33):
constantly updated with events that people can tap into across
New York City, both in person and on zoom to
really express their concerns about things that matter most to
them that intersect with mental health.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And Simone, I know you're going to college elsewhere right now,
but will you be able to make it back for
the festival.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yes, I'm really excited. I actually get out of school
on the sixteenth and I'm flying back home and I
will be the festival in the seventeen so I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
It's going to be great to meet everybody and see
the films and just make connections. The Changing Mind's Young
Filmmaker Festival is Saturday, May seventeenth at Village East Cinema
that is Second Avenue at East twelfth Street, seven to
nine pm. Tickets are available at an affordable ten dollars.
You can find out more about all the films the
event at Mental Healthfilmfest dot NYC and more about Community Access,
(13:27):
the nonprofit sponsoring this event, at Community Access dot org.
Our guests have been Jordan Rosenthal, director of Advocacy at
Community Access, and Simone Thomas Rowe, whose film Before My
Eyes is screening at the festival. Congratulations and thank you
for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one OHO six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
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Thanks for listening.