Spring/Summer 2008

In This Issue

Presdident's Letter	Support Vinfen	Moe Armstrong
Gala Reception	New Web Site	Hancock Center
CARF Accreditation	S. 65 rally	Creative Corner
In My Own Voice	Human Rights	Fred Verro

In My Own Voice BACK TO MAIN PAGE

Thoughts and comments about Vinfen's Moving Images Film Festival

By Christopher Morris, Webster House member

This was the first time I had attended a film festival like
this. I felt a spiritual connection to the whole day. Through my eyes, to see short films like this brings awareness to others about mental illness and made me feel at home.

I was extremely comfortable with it. I would like to inspire someone like Steven Spielberg to direct a major film like those at the festival.

The first movie I saw, Ryan, was awesome; a man inspired by animation, who was very inventive and creative.

Outsider: A Film about the Life and Art of Judith Scott
was about a woman with Down Syndrome expressing
herself through her art. She didn’t communicate well with
others, but through her art, she was communicating
something very spiritual.

I joined many friends from other programs and Webster
House for an enlightening lunch. Then I rejoined the
festival for Imagining Robert, a moving film about two
brothers. The brother without a disability was very
supportive of his mentally-ill brother; his love for his ill
brother was very moving.

The last film I viewed, Front Wards, Back Wards, was a very powerful film about the closing and history of the Fernald School. Some men deeply lost in their own worlds walked in a circle together as a ritual of comfort.

As a client of mental health services, I can connect with
people in the films and the film directors who made this
happen, and want to keep their dreams alive. I try to understand spirituality through an illness. Through my artwork, I can express hope. Viewing these films helped me; I felt confident that night knowing there are people to support you and that you aren’t really ever alone.

Given our culture and the media, I think showing others the lives of people with mental illness through entertainment media resources and film is critical.