Teen Mental Health Short Film Awards

Recovery Diaries is beyond proud to be a part of the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival, a student-run event showcasing remarkable work made by teenagers from around the world. And while it’s not solely a mental health film festival, there are many works that explore the lived experiences of teenagers. Seeing this thoughtful, strong work makes me hopeful about our world, and about the dynamic young filmmakers who are using this powerful medium to engage their peers in a dialogue about mental health, creating understanding and empathy so beautifully. I was delighted to speak with the three filmmakers whose work we are awarding— Patrick Jang from California, United States; Selin Bozer, from Istanbul, Turkey and Riley Sollerud, from Stockholm, Sweden and share their thoughts (and work) with you.

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We are proud to award Patrick Jang from California in the United States the Recovery Diaries Creative Eye Award for Excellence in Filmmaking to Patrick Jang for Why Can’t We Just Be Ghosts?

A depressed ghost and his friend contemplate what it means to be alive in this thought-provoking satire.

Why Can’t We Just Be Ghosts? blends imaginative storytelling (strong visuals and a clearly refined style) with wonderful messages about mental health and friendship. We appreciated the film about mental health that depicts a relationship between two young men. Fun Fact: Filmmaker Patrick Jang, from California, was last year’s recipient of the Recovery Diaries Creative Eye Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Both pieces reveal a director with a steady hand, a strong command of visual language (filming and editing) as well as a powerful author voice.

I connected deeply with one comment from a viewer on Patrick’s YouTube channel who wrote: “This is beautiful. I’m a therapist and I have clients tell me that they fear they aren’t doing life the ‘right way’ because they don’t always ‘feel’ the things they think they should when they should. I’ve told them that it’s okay…. it’s okay to sit with your feelings and be sad. It’s okay to feel all the feelings.”

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We are also pleased to award our Recovery Diaries Mental Health Youth Filmmaker Award to Riley Sollerud, from Stockholm, Sweden and Selin Bozer, Istanbul, Turkey

18, Directed by Riley Sollerud, Stockholm, Sweden

After an unpleasant start to his eighteenth birthday, Anton seeks an escape from his anxiety in a childlike manner.

This film really tugged at us. it is a gentle film about the pain of resisting growing.

Read the Room, Directed by Selin Bozer, Istanbul, Turkey

Our character is not an “ideal” character because she doesn’t feel emotions. She wears masks to get through each day and to fit in society but forcing a psyche can only hold things together for so long.

This is a very creative way of interpreting what can be a tired trope of mask wearing; it is wonderfully acted and executed.

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I’d like to express my gratitude to the students at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA, who run a great film festival, and a special shout out to GFS student Sarah Stumacher for being such a great partner in this adventure! I hope you enjoy meeting these young filmmakers as much as I did!

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