Northwestern’s Film Program Shines Light on Mental Health With Student Work

variety.com:

Nick Clement Northwestern University is playing a key role in bringing mental health stories to the world of film and TV. Its School of Communication features an innovative program that aims to shine a light on mental health and its role in filmed entertainment.

Made possible by a gift from the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creates, supports, and examines original narrative screenwriting, television writing and media making centered on mental health. “Jessy Pucker is a graduate from Northwestern and she wanted to do something important with psychology and film, and I pitched this program for student filmmakers and screenwriters to think more deeply on how mental illness was being represented in film and television,” says David E.

Tolchinsky, professor of radio-TV-film, and director, the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts.

Student filmmakers, faculty and board members engage with the studio lab through new works creation, specialized courses, and enrichment events aimed at tackling complex topics, amplifying marginalized voices, challenging stereotypes, modeling best behaviors on stage and screen and pursuing healing through innovation and inquiry. “Often, when we think of issues around media and mental health, the first thing that comes to mind is the ways in which mental health is stigmatized and grossly stereotyped in media,” says Dr.