Playback: Mental Health on Film

Dorothy Allen-Pickard is an award-winning filmmaker who lives and works in London. Her documentaries, fiction shorts and multimedia shows focus on issues concerning young people, mental health, disability and feminism. ​

They have won prizes including the Guardian Documentary Award, Vimeo Staff Picks and Total Theatre Award. She has made films for BBC3, Channel 4, i-D and The Guardian, and they have been screened at the BFI, the Barbican, the Ritzy and Picturehouse Cinemas. She is a member of Breach Theatre and is video editor for Another Gaze.  

Vyv Huddy is a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at University College London and a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS. Over a decade of working in healthcare across community, hospital and prison settings has taught him the vital importance of the patient perspective. Only the person seeking help can define what is helpful and create solutions that work for them.

Huddy is working with national and international colleagues to develop psychological therapies that are based on these principles. He also has an interest in the role that participatory arts can play, at a population level, in reducing distress and facilitating well-being.

Screenwriter Line Langebek was born in Denmark, but has been living in the UK since the late 90s. Langebek has worked as a commissioned writer on shorts and features in the UK, US, Denmark, France and Norway and is the writer of the feature film I'll Come Running (with director/writer Spencer Parsons), Sink or Swim (for C4) and more.

She has been selected for Guiding Lights mentoring scheme, and she is one of the co-founders of Raising Films, an organisation that campaigns for better conditions for parents and carers in the UK film and television industries. She is also the co-founder of the Library of Change, a space for sharing the culture that has inspired personal and social change.

Born in Nigeria and raised in London, John Ogunmuyiwa is a filmmaker whose work—from documentaries to fiction—focuses on unique and different perspectives. New ways of looking at old things. Giving voices to stories not normally heard otherwise. His sometimes surreal approach draws from a constant questioning of his surroundings and what's normal.

Starting with photography, his eye for composition coupled with a love for storytelling brought him to filmmaking, where he's worked on music videos that have been praised on sites like Highsnobiety, the 405, SBTV, Votd and more. His photography projects have been featured on Creative Review and various magazines.

Jenni Regan is the Senior Media Advisor at Mind, running the Media Engagement Service which aims to improve news reporting and dramatic portrayals of mental health. Regan provides a script advice service, hosts workshops for media organisations and also manages the yearly Mind Media Awards.  

Prior to joining Mind, Regan spent over a decade in broadcast television, both as a news producer and an assistant producer for factual television.

Shannon Smyth is due to graduate this year from the University of the West of England, Bristol, completing a BA honours degree in Fine Art.    

Smyth embodies a background of experience and interest within many creative avenues, including set design, short film, video, instillation, poetry and creative writing. Her work mirrors an interest in the formations created from collaborative conversations, with a flowing theme of mental health – the invisible disease.    

Her current work consists of sculpture within a fluid term and organically formed sound art instillations, from masticated findings.