Animating Mental Health: Locally Co-produced, Globally Relevant

Through short co-produced films developed with people with lived experience, the event explores how communities use storytelling, animation, and collective artistic practices to express recovery, belonging, emotional wellbeing, and social connection in very different local contexts.

Framed through conversations around the Anthropocene and global change, the session invites reflection on how community-led creative practices can offer alternative ways of understanding mental health in a rapidly changing world. Moving beyond conventional research dissemination, the event considers whose knowledge is valued, how lived experience is represented, and how creative co-production can build meaningful bridges between academia and communities across cultural and geographical boundaries.

The event will include film screenings, a conversation with the producers, audience discussion, and informal networking over drinks and nibbles. Open to UCL researchers, students, creative practitioners, and members of the public interested in mental health, participatory arts, and community storytelling. Sessions will be held in English, and Spanish with subtitles and translation as needed.

Agenda:

13:30–13:45 Arrival and refreshments (tea and cake available for in-person attendees)

13:45–14:45 Short film screenings and presentations from Colectivo Berde and Escuela Audiovisual Infantil

14:45–15:15 Panel discussion between the two organisations, chaired by Dr. Norha Vera San Juan

15:15–16:00 Audience Q&A and open discussion

Organisations presenting:

Colectivo Berde (Asturias, Spain)

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Escuela Audiovisual Infantil (Caquetá, Colombia)

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Hybrid attendance

To join us over zoom:

https://ucl.zoom.us/j/99978605537?pwd=iM3RG6JX4HvkBF6V2le8jvY6SFICPY.1

Meeting ID: 999 7860 5537
Passcode: 278230