Animated Minds (Channel 4, 2003)
A DFG Films and APT Films Production
Animated Minds is a series of animated documentaries using real testimony from survivors of mental illness, combined with engaging and sometimes humorous visuals, to climb inside the minds of the mentally
distressed. Windows into experiences rarely seen, each film draws us in to these people's inner worlds, journeying around the landscape of their minds, and leaving us with a greater understanding of what it is to suffer from mental distress.
Executive Producer: Tony Dowmunt
Producer/Director: Andy Glynne
Awards: Winner, Mental Health Media Award for Best Documentary
Episodes:
Fish On A Hook
"As I get more anxious, I feel as if I am being strangled. My heart beats louder and louder to the point where if I go out I feel that other people can see my heart beating"
Mike suffers from panic attacks and agoraphobia, and often finds it difficult to get out of the house. As he describes what it is like to suffer from debilitating anxiety we witness Mike's trials and tribulations, and learn how even a journey to supermarket can be "like a bloody nightmare!"
That Light Bulb Thing
A woman's story about becoming more manic, as she soars to the heights of euphoria, literally floating through the air on the winds of grandiosity, and disinhibition. And then, without warning, we see the fall to despair, to a dark world without meaning; an inner world of depression made all the worse by the still-fresh memory of the essence of her euphoria, the light bulb within her. This is the world of manic-depression, from the oh-so-highs, to the oh-so-lows, when the brightness within her, that light-bulb thing, has gone out.
Dimensions
Chattering, whispers, sometimes benign, sometimes malevolent. Disordered thought, tangential ideas, and delusions of grandeur, persecution and paranoia. Lilliputian hallucinations, and deafening imperatives from the cacophony of characters that reside within. This piece focuses on what it is to experience psychosis, but more importantly what it is not: it is not split personality, it can exist in otherwise 'normal' people, and it does not give rise to a culture of violent people, unable to function or be connected to the 'real' world.
Obsessively Compulsive
Steve describes how whenever he thought of Saddam Hussein he thought that he was contributing to the conflict in the Gulf. Walking, talking, eating, and drinking - all these actions had to be completed in the absence of an intrusive thought about Saddam, otherwise he would have to repeat the action again and again and again. A rare glimpse into the struggle for those faced with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.