Speravi In Te – for a cappella choir (New London Singers) by Scottish composer, Chris Hutchings who is also a singer, conductor and accompanist.

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After last year we enjoyed the comedy block of short films mostly by talented Scottish filmmakers and are going for a theme of comedy at this years festival. There isn’t a better feeling watching a film by hearing people laughing and seeing them smiling before, during and after the screenings. Comedy in all forms either being played dumb or intelligently cheers up the soul so we looked for feature films in Scotland that played to those strengths and we always go out to put on a bit of Highland hospitality and get the banter going before and after the screenings to make everyone feel more comfortable.

We were lucky in that we came across 2 Scottish independent features with one from Graham Hughes from central Scotland called the Big Slick and another belter from David Ryan Keith from Aberdeen called Attack of the Herbals. We are screening both of those films back to back at a new venue we will be using called the Loch Ness Backpackers Lodge, and we hope most of the foreign souls residing over the weekend at the lodge who will attend will be able to understand the Scottish accents and slang on offer on the Friday night of the festival and hopefully they don’t look confused and ask for subtitles!

After picking our Friday night double bill we then looked for a feature film to screen on the Saturday Night that would appeal to everyone from locals to tourists and went for one of the very first Scottish comedy films that still stands up as a classic today in Whisky Galore. So overall we have a feature set in the highlands, a feature set in the central belt and one in the north east.

To round off our Scottish feature list we found an action revenge thriller set in the North East entitled the Suppressor by Ara Paiaya to be screened on the Sunday afternoon. When we first watched the film we were surprised how good the action scenes were executed and have never seen anyone submit an action film to the festival, which we like features to be entertaining, funny or dramatic and a bit different to what you would usually get on your normal Cinema listings.

And now with the short films being decided at the end of April all that’s left is to get the show on the road again and deal with the usual questions about the monster? And yes I have seen it and she enjoys a wee dram at the Drumnadrochit Hotel on a Sunday afternoon, and if you have been or fancy coming to Loch Ness you’ll agree you won’t get a film festival with better scenery, just don’t blame the weather on us.

So the final line up at the festival being a Scottish comedy double bill starting May 25th at the Loch Ness Backpackers Lodge in Lewiston kicking off at 7pm with the Big Slick and followed at 9pm by the Attack of the Herbals.

Saturday is our full day of jam packedness (not even a word) and everything is screened at the Craigmonie Centre in Drumnadrochit with the short film blocks from 12-2pm and 3-5pm and then grab some fish and chips and rest before Whisky Galore at 8pm.

Our Sunday starts off at the Craigmonie Centre in Drumnadrochit from 12-2pm with a short film block and then we head off the real countryside about as rural as you can get for a film festival with the venue being the Abriachan Hall with a barbeque from 3-4pm (sunshine please mr weatherman) and then the last film the Suppressor from 4-5.30pm and then it’s the festival over for another year until 2013 before I get asked the usual question and yes I have seen Nessie, she frequents in the Clansman Hotel for Sunday breakfast.

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The festival was created in 2007 by Lee Knifton, a man working for the NHS tackling mental health stigma. Today, he’s the festival’s director. When writing in the first ever SMHAFF brochure, he set the tone for the festival: “The festival sets out to celebrate, explore and tackle the myths surrounding mental health – something we all have; it’s worth remembering that one in four of us will develop ill-health at some point”.

To me, there is little doubt that there are many myths surrounding mental health. The perception of mental illness has been largely distorted by the way it is presented in popular media such as newspapers and film. There are many reasons to love such brilliant horror flicks as The Shining, Halloween or Psycho but these movies have somehow contributed to the development of a negative representation of the mentally ill, mainly being depicted as wild, scary and extremely dangerous people. This cliché has been going on and on in all different kinds of stories and contexts for many decades. Don’t get me wrong, the festival does not aim at blaming these movies –they’re great entertainments! – but the festival is trying to produce, through a wide array of thought provoking, diverse and entertaining arts events, a more positive and more realistic view on mental health. “We’re just trying to increase awareness of the positive contributions people with mental health issues can and have made.” Knifton said in an 2007 interview.

The Mental Health Festival is now launching its fifth edition. Flicking through past years’ brochures, one can see how rapidly it has been growing. What began as a fairly modest weekend of films has become one of Scotland’s most valued cultural events. Coming from France, I have been working at festivals for a good few years now and to my knowledge there was initially no equivalent to the Mental Health Festival neither in France nor in the rest of Europe, although now other countries are following suit.

Rod Jones (photo by Neale Smith)

As the programme expanded over the years, increasingly big names have been performing in a number of disciplines but the festival has also been producing an increasingly large amount of smaller events where non-professional artists and mental health service users have been given the chance to share their art with the audience. And from its very beginning, the festival has put the emphasis on discovering new talents through its annual open submission Film Awards. I think Scotland may be proud of the uniqueness and the original quality of this festival and the artwork displayed at it.

This year’s programme features a record number of events taking place around Scotland from Ayrshire to the Highlands running from October 1st to 24th. The themes for 2011 are dreams and memories and once again the festival offers a wide range of events. Film screenings, gigs, theatre plays, exhibitions, visual art, workshops, literature events, poetry, storytelling performances… you name it! Get hold of a brochure or go online at www.mhfestival.com, explore the programme and find what you feel you really can’t afford to miss. And take the chance to be curious as well, as most of the events are free or low cost. Whatever you choose to see, I hope you enjoy it.

The Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival will run throughout venues across Scotland from October 1-24, 2011.

Visit SMHAFF website for more information.

Amongst the Animated Mythologies films, French gem Rubika really stood out for me. Its gravity-pained characters and eye-catching 3D animation was distinctly original. From the Animated Extremes strand, The Eagleman Stag by British Director Mikey Please was so aesthetically striking I didn’t want it to end! Throughout the film, I was trying to figure out if the white styrofoam 3D animation was stop motion or computer generated images. I came to the unsatisfying conclusion that it could possibly be a combination of both. The story was a dry humoured take on life which left me reflecting deeply and philosophically about life (usually these thoughts are pushed to the back of my mind to retain some form of sanity). I’ve seen Anna Pearson’s Out on the Tiles a few times now and originally it was an animation I wasn’t particularly keen on, but I have to say it’s grown on me a bit. Patrick Harkin’s Sarajevo is a brave short. I’ve not seen many monologues on screen (really just Bennet’s) and I have to say, it was all pulled off excellently by the superb acting of Blythe Duff.

Bafta and Shooting People’s talks felt rather rushed. Once they’d spent time introducing the speakers and explaining their backgrounds, it was practically time to move on to have a 5 minute break before the next lot of speakers. Jon Reiss’ talk just started getting interesting but again was cut short. I think the mediator could have been more involved and kept the various discussions on topic. At one point whilst discussing distribution, the topic went way off course when a member of the audience asked about funding options. Naturally, the speakers all said that wasn’t really their area of expertise, however they all went on to offer suggestions. Jamie Dolling (YouTube) kept pretty quiet perhaps due to the fact that it was excruciatingly obvious short films just get lost on their giant platform unless you have a talking cat. Hannah Vincent (Head of Content and Scheduling at itzon.tv – go here to watch great content for free! Still in beta though…) curates the content on the website which keeps a high quality of viewing material available without sifting through LOL Cats. I had heard Jamie King (VODO) speak before at Sheffield Doc Fest 2010 about Steal this Film and, although I like the idea of his website, it’s more suited for feature films, so really Hannah Vincent was the only relevant speaker there and with the itzon model, filmmakers can actually make a bit of cash! I really like the itzon concept where the filmmaker and the viewer are both catered for; you can organise a simultaneous online broadcast screening at the same time your film appears at a festival. (Update: Sadly itson.tv has been suspended due to lack of funding in the current economic climate).

With all its bad press, Ben’s (slightly biased) Blog gives a refreshingly positive outlook on this year’s film festival, though he neglected to mention the amazing animated films curated by Iain Gardner (whose own recent award-winning short The Tannery was shown as part of the Scottish Animation Network screenings) and the Nokia Shorts Weekend. David Newbigging’s The Ambitious Potato and Joern Utkilen’s Asylum was worth a trip to Edinburgh alone! I agree the festival should be pushed back to August again, taking full advantage of all the culture-loving tourists who come to the city for the Festival. Fingers crossed it’ll pull itself together for next year! In the meantime, there’s always Glasgow Film Festival 2012 to look forward to! (Submissions now open!)

Scottish Dance Theatre are the biggest name on the programme: through their presence at the Fringe every year, and a relentless touring programme, the Dundee dancers have blazed a trail for contemporary dance. Led by artistic director Janet Smith, their mission seems to be to bring contemporary work to a wider public. Double bill The Life and Times of Girl A and NQR  is a typical combination of serious content – NQR stands for Not Quite Right, a medical term for those who don’t fit preconceived ideas of normality – and accessible choreography. 

Janis Claxton’s work is surprisingly playful: over the past few years, she has been concentrating on the idea of the human as an animal: for the Fringe 2008, this involved capturing dancers in Enclosure 44 of Edinburgh Zoo, while Torque set animal gestures to the score of Bach’s Partita #2.  Having recently toured China with an iteration of Human Animal – like Enclosure 44 it is a durational and site-responsive piece – she has moved from being one of Scotland’s rising stars to a strong international export.

Both Curious Seed and Room 2 Manoeuvre debuted their current shows at Dance Base in 2009: Curious Seed’s Found won a Herald Angel, while Tony Mill’s warning about the dangers of television has been touring consistently for the past eighteen months. While Mill’s Watch It! is a solo, Found is a fascinating collaboration between choreographer Christine Devaney and  musician/author Luke Sutherland. With live music, passages of speech alongside the dance, it represents a fine example of “dance theatre”, moving beyond the expected patterns of dance into a more immediate and direct style of performance.

PlanB’s revival of A Wee Home From Home proves how a work can retain its relevance, and popularity, even after twenty years. Another example of “dance theatre”, it works as a duet between dancer Frank McConnell and musician Michael Marra. Dealing with alienation and the problems of coming home to “Mother Glasgow”, it retains a certain poignancy, even though its vision of Scottishness belongs to an earlier era.  Directed by Communicado’s Gerry Mulgrew, it brings together  something of a performance supergroup and is recommended for its easy fusion of Marra’s stripped down melancholy and McConnell’s hyperkinetic movement.