Paper short abstract:

A group of people from around the world is connected by a common experience of mental illness. They are now writing together a new narrative while finding their way to live a meaningful life. Is it possible to exit from an oppressive social label and embrace a new perception of yourself?

Paper long abstract:

BKS is a documentary on the making. It was born in 2019 before pandemic, and it has developed through time via the active participation of an international network of people who suffer from mental illness.

BKS aspires to be a symphony of voices! The story of an international community of people who meet, talk, and connect with one another to share a common experience of suffering, struggle and achievements - becoming the protagonists of a shift in perception about mental illness. The story of this community is particularly developed through 2 leading characters: Tessi (from Buenos Aires - Argentina) and Arvind (from The Bronx, NY - US) - who took part of the project since the very beginning.

Through audiovisual platforms like Zoom, Discord, Facebook, and Instagram, we have spent the last two years contacting and interviewing people from all over the world, in order to document the strength of the concept of community in the film. (This occurred during the COVID19, a historical period in which we all became more connected and digitised on the one hand, and more isolated and vulnerable on the other).

This allowed us to establish an international network of individuals with mental distress, who actively participated in the creation of the film, becoming its heart.

We are now ending the production phase, shooting in the US and Argentina. in March 2023 we aim to be toward the end of our post-production.

Teaser:

https://vimeo.com/735394502?ts=0

PW: BKS11

Paper short abstract:

The essay film explores how people who have experienced a TBI negotiate their physical body, identity, social and moral relations, imagination. On one track auto-ethnographers who have had a TBI and their use of creative and audiovisual practices, on the other my reflections on their journey

Paper long abstract:

In 2005 I experienced a TBI with coma and multiple fractures, due to a car accident in Rome. The essay film explores the inter-subjective experience of TBI in Rome: how people who have experienced a TBI, negotiate their physical body, identity and sense of self, social and moral relations following a life-changing event?

The film develops on two tracks: one on research participants' auto-ethnographic journey of self-discovery, the other on my reflection on "their" journey.

Dialogues and audio-visual practices take us in different directions from the day when "the world changed", which most people who have had a TBI do not remember, to their current life routines: on a wheelchair, watching music videos ( Kasimu), doing sport and role play (Valerio), in a office (Francesco). What is performing? What is living? What is living an imaginary life? "I live as if the accident had never happened"

Gabriele states with a laughter.

Marika' s accident is the most recent one and she is full of questions. Were her professional expectations too high, in any case, as her psychotherapist has suggested to her? Her new world includes zucchini, she did not know she liked zucchini before her accident. Which other new possibilities can she envisage?

After TBI Mario, Sherry Lee, and Brunella have learnt to live a more calm life. Each discovers or explains their new way of being in a different and enriching way.

On the other track I move in the streets of Rome, traffic is the main cause of TBI in Rome, reflecting on their journey

Paper short abstract:

Using narrative interview methods, photography and film, my PhD project explores how people with multiple long-term health conditions morally navigate narrative experimentations. For this workshop, I would like to share text, images, and short clips (co-)created by and with participants.

Paper long abstract:

For people living with complex, long-term illness, storytelling is a delicate endeavour: many chronic illnesses are rooted in traumatic pasts, then blamed on people through “lifestyle”-narratives, and finally framed as incurable, thus diminishing the possibility of imagining a hopeful future. Using narrative methods, photography, and film, I am exploring multiple ways in which people employ narrative to learn how to “live well” with chronic illness.

For this project, people with multiple health conditions participated in photography workshops where they told each other stories through the use of images. Based on these images, we are creating ‘hidden stories’ that we will enact through film. In the workshop, I will show a rough cut of four of these ‘hidden’ visual stories, along with some texts and still images. The aim is to create an exhibition or platform in which these modalities can speak to each other.

In the workshop, I would value feedback on how different modalities speak to one another, and how I can effectively juxtapose and combine the different forms of stories I am collecting to tell a story. Ideas and feedback on how to tie text, still images, and film together in an installation or digital storytelling format are very welcome. Additionally, I am very much just beginning to explore working with film, so any feedback on the visual ‘hidden stories’ in terms of editing, sound and narrative structure would also be very valuable.

Click this link to see some images emerging from this project: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tH-pjkMreUxixrBCckt0FI4tiphb9_6m?usp=sharing