If it’s Monday night there is an alternative to the big cinemas – an affordable, eclectic, innovative alternative. It’s called Movie Monday and over the last nine years and a half years, thousands of people in Victoria have enjoyed this community-based movie venue.
Every Monday night films are projected on an "almost" big screen in a 100-seat theatre, located at Victoria’s Eric Martin Psychiatric Hospital.
This is Bruce Saunders’ theatre of dreams. While a patient in the hospital in 1993, he discovered this under-utilized theatre downstairs and imagined showing films for both patients and ex-patients.
These days, the theatre is usually filled to capacity with an audience that brings together patients from the wards, ex-patients, film buffs, people who can’t afford mainstream theatres and those seeking an alternative to commercial cinemas. All events are free (by donation). The schedule combines popular Hollywood blockbusters, Canadian independent films, documentaries, sometimes an old favourite that rarely sees a big screen anymore and even Sing Alongs to favourite musicals such as Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, My Fair Lady and Guys and Dolls.
Saunders has also realized that showing films about mental illness in this setting is an entertaining way to stimulate discussion about one of society’s "last taboos". Over the years, he has included popular films about mental illness, not necessarily because they were positive films, but because of the post-film discussion that the movie could create.
He is proudly reclaiming movies about mental illness, this powerful medium that has a huge influence on our perceptions. Traditional movies have stigmatized people living with mental illnesses, Saunders takes back these films to educate, to help break down the myths.
"One of our mottos is ‘Movies Not Meetings’. We get people involved who are not already convinced. They’ve come to see a good film in a theatre, not a lecture or information meeting", says Saunders, who adds "I’ve found my own attitudes have shifted by the films and feedback. I’m amazed at how much learning happens at these events."
From One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to the recent A Beautiful Mind, Girl Interrupted, Shine, Trainspotting, As Good As It Gets and comedies such as Analyse This and What About Bob? This model could become a powerful training/sensitizing/dialogue-creating device. For example, Dr. Harry Karlinsky, UBC Department of Psychiatry’s Director of Continuing Eduction has picked up the model with a monthly series at Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque.
There is also a wealth of independent film created to tell one’s own story about mental illness and related issues to a wider audience. These films are brought together once a year in January at the Reel Madness Film Festival, a showcase of films and speakers about mental illness and recovery. "Many independent films like Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle, Curtis’ Charm, Dad, Protection, FIX: The Story of an Addicted City, From Grief to Action and rollercoaster can be especially useful, I think, to explore factors that contribute to addiction problems. These films all come from different and passionate points of view; family members, service providers or users and often in local contexts. They draw strong audiences if promoted well and they do cause people who have been uninvolved in the mental health and addictions systems to enter that world", says Saunders.
Many guest filmmakers comment that this is the way movies were meant to be shown. In most other theatres the audience is little more than a set number of individuals who paid admission. At Movie Monday, the audience is a community. Each show begins with Saunders stepping to the microphone to welcome everyone and pass on a few announcements or talk about the upcoming feature. After a thought provoking film, people are invited to stay and discuss the film, often with a guest speaker and sometimes the filmmaker.
After almost a decade, with thousands of people enjoying hundreds of movies, Saunders sees Movie Monday as his own personal therapy, his reason to stay well. Rather than being a "consumer of mental health services," Saunders is a producer.
Check out www.islandnet.com/mm for full information or call the hotline at 595-FLIC or better yet, come see a movie. Every Monday evening at 6:30pm at Eric Martin Pavilion, 1900 block of Fort Street.
By Bruce Wallace
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