Ranchi is set to host its maiden film festival targeted specifically at spreading awareness about mental health, an issue that has kept the medical fraternity abuzz lately. The Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), one the oldest and leading Centre-run psychiatry institutes in India, will host the three-day film festival starting July 28 and simultaneously hold screening sessions on mental health awareness for patients and their attendants at the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) of the institute.
The film festival named ‘Anubhav…Through the Lens of Mind’ will use cinema as a medium of promoting the role of mental health in the wellbeing of people. During the festival, cinemas related to various realms of mental health will be screened at CIP. The impact of various mental health disorders will also be showcased during the fest.
“This endeavor will help spread awareness about mental health issues and their possible management among professionals and representatives from various walks of life,” said Dr. Nishant Goyal, Assistant Professor, CIP.
Mental illnesses are extremely common in today’s world, but they go undiagnosed in many cases due to lack of awareness among people, Goyal added. “Mental health is a vast subject and it is important that people know about the various types of mental health disorders and how people have overcome them. The taboo around mental health has to go away in order to make way for a better, happier and healthier society,” he said.
Every screening at the festival will be followed by a discussion on related issues. This interactive session, doctors said, will help clear doubts among the audiences and also answer their queries. Fictional as well as documentary films will be screened during the festival, they added.
Doctors in CIP have shortlisted some of the most critically acclaimed films for screening here. Films such as ‘Astu’, which revolves around the life of a Sanskrit professor suffering from Alzheimer’s will be screened on Day one of the fest. Besides, ‘I am Jeeja’, a national award winning documentary on the life of Jeeja Ghosh, a patient of Cerebral Palsy, will be screened twice at the institute during the festival. Other award winning films such as ‘A Beautiful Mind’, the story of a mathematician who suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia will help Ranchi-ites learn about the different challenges related to mental health.
With two leading psychiatry institutes in the city, Ranchi has been synonymous with mental health. While patients from across the country visit the psychiatry institutes here for counseling and other treatments, the city folks, doctors say, are yet to do away with the taboo and stigma related to mental illnesses. The film festival is expected to end the stigma related to mental illnesses and thereby make treatment easier.