Reel Mind Film Festival: "Women's Mental Health Narratives: Strength in Struggle"

Presenting

MAY 14, 2024 - 7PM at the Little Theatre, Theater 1, 240 East Ave, Rochester, NY 

THE ETERNAL MEMORY (85 minutes - CHILE - Subtitled)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2023, The Eternal Memory tells the story of Augusto and Paulina who have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact.

FILM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION

MAY 21, 2024 - 7PM at the Little Theatre, Theater 1, 240 East Ave, Rochester, NY 

BEING MICHELLE (80 minutes - USA - Subtitled)
BEING MICHELLE follows the astonishing journey of a deaf and disabled woman who survived incarceration and abuse under unimaginable circumstances by a system that refused to accommodate her needs as a deaf person with autism. Michelle’s trajectory changed when she met Kim Law, a blind volunteer life coach who teaches classes to people in prison. Today, outside of prison, Kim and Michelle are doing the difficult work of unraveling Michelle’s history, of telling the story of Michelle’s traumatic childhood and her adverse experiences in the criminal justice system. With the support of Kim, Michelle realizes her own voice and strength. Throughout the film Michelle’s artwork provides her own depiction of the trauma she survived as well as a means to her recovery. Ultimately, BEING MICHELLE is a story of redemption. It is about the bonds between women committed to thriving in a broken system, who are forging a path to healing that can only come through facing the truth and communicating it, together.

FILM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION

MAY 28, 2024 - 6:30PM at Rochester Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Ave, Rochester, NY 14610

A BULLET PULLING THREAD (73 minutes - CANADA - Subtitled)
Discover the heart and soul of this film's narrative through a special quilt exhibit featuring Marilyn Farquhar. Marilyn's activism, sparked by her brother's tragic death by the police during a mental health crisis, is beautifully captured in these quilts, which she'll discuss alongside her personal journey at the panel discussion after the film. Exhibit starts at 6:30PM, film at 7PM.

 Can quilting change the world? A Bullet Pulling Thread tells the story of two siblings from Kitchener who lived radically different lives. Marilyn lived a calm, peaceful life as an award-winning quilter. It was nice. Her brother Barry was a fearless advocate for the homeless, a former drug smuggler, an ex-con. In January 2020, one bullet brought their lives back together. The RCMP killed Barry at his home in Lytton during a mental health crisis. To process her grief, Marilyn creates a series of art quilts called Kairos - a Greek word which means 'an opportune time for action'. A Bullet Pulling Thread follows Marilyn's journey through grief and her quest for answers from administrations that refuse to take responsibility. And as she discovers, grief is a question with no easy answers.

FILM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION