A Day in the Life

One of my favourite film-makers of all-time has to be Martin Scorsese. From "Mean Streets" to "Taxi Driver", to "Raging Bull" and " Goodfellas ", he must have made some of my all-time favourite movies. Indeed, if I had to say, I would probably rate "Raging Bull" up there with "Apocalypse Now!", "The Godfather" and "The Third Man" as one of my favourite films. But now, it appears, Martin has, to my mind, gone off the rails somewhat by choosing to film a version of Dennis Lehane's novel, "Shutter Island". The novel is set in the Summer of 1954, as US Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chukc Aule come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of an inmate, Rachel Solando . OK, so already I'm feeling a little trepidatious . A hospital for the criminally insane, eh. Well, let's just see what sort of representations the book gives...

OK, so what the hell am I going on about here? To what, exactly, does my title refer? Well, I'm sorry to keep banging on about it, but it refers once again to the Time to Change campaign, and in particular to the so-called "viral" films which they have released via the internet about schizophrenic illness. I mentioned both these films in my earlier blog "Time to Change? Some Apparently Don't Think So", where I praised them in their attempts to alleviate some of the terrible stigmas which surround the diagnosis. However, having now watched both films a number of times, there are some points I would like to raise (to see the films for yourself, by the way, simply go to the Time to Change website). The film which I would most like to comment on is the first one on the site, entitled, ominously, "Schizo- He Lives Among Us". It soon becomes clear that the film is attempting to deconstruct some of the long-held prejudices about schizophrenia, at first ...

Just a couple of blogs ago I mentioned an article that appeared in The Guardian, which directly opposed an article written for the Time to Change campaign about film representations of mental ill health. The article suggested that far from giving negative representations of mental illness, the movies rather portray what could be called "positive" stereotypes, in that they are misrepresentative , but in a "positive" way, depictions ranging from the heroic (Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") to the endearing (Geoffrey Rush in "Shine") to the tortured genius ("The Devil and Daniel Johnston", "A Beautiful Mind"). While, as I said in my blog, I cannot agree that overall the movies present positive depictions of mental illness, it cannot be denied that some such representations exist. And, of all the "positive" stereotypes that exist, the "tortured genius" would appear to be one of the most ...

OK, not that I'm obsessed with the "Time to Change" campaign or anything, but as we at The Media Action Group for Mental Health are working in collaboration with the campaign to bring their roadshow to Stoke-on-Trent, I thought I had better give this a mention. As I have mentioned before, the Time to Change campaign is a truly national phenomenon, and must be one of the biggest anti-stigma campaigns of recent years. It has funding in excess of something like sixteen million pounds and its aims and objectives seem to go hand in hand with what we are trying to achieve at MAGMH . These aims include:- - creating a 5% positive shift in public attitudes towards mental health problems. - achieving a 5% reduction in discrimination by 2012. - increasing the ability of 100,000 people with mental health problems to address discrimination. - engaging over 250,00 people in physical activity. - producing a powerful evidence base of what works. All these aims, although some of them wou...