Description:

Join us for this three-day symposium hosted by the Remaking Media and Mental Health Across Cultures Northwestern Buffett Global Catalyst Grant Group—which includes Rebecca Seligman, Peter Locke, Dave Tolchinsky and Kate Erskine—and the Northwestern Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts, and supported by the Northwestern University Office of the Provost's N. W. Harris Lecture Fund.

PROGRAM FOR THURSDAY, MAY 25

12:00 p.m. | Lunch and Keynote with Ana Antic: “Searching for Trauma: Narratives and Politics of Loss and Suffering in Eastern Europe”

Ana Antiç is a Professor in the Department of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Author of Therapeutic Fascism: Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New World Order, and the forthcoming Non-aligned Psychiatry in the Cold War: Revolution, Emancipation, and Re-imagining the Human Psyche. Her articles include "Decolonising madness: Transcultural Psychiatry, International Order, and the Birth of a Global Psyche in the Aftermath of WWII," and "Pedagogy of workers' self-management: Terror, therapy and reform Communism after the Tito-Stalin split."

3:00 p.m. | Coffee and Panel Discussion with Robin Means Coleman, Miriam Petty, Ana Antiç and Peter Locke: "The Trauma Trope"

Trauma has become a defining feature of contemporary storytelling across all mediums. Film and television, in particular, use trauma as a framework for explicating a protagonist’s motivations, as well as to reach towards a preconceived audience of survivors. Indeed, the trauma plot is a narrative template that argues for the individuality of trauma while also asserting its universality. Moreover, film is inextricably linked to our contemporary understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, especially with the idea of the “flashback,” a term that belongs to both the cinematic and clinical vocabulary of trauma. This panel brings together scholars to discuss, analyze and debate the entanglements of trauma and visual culture. What does it mean to expand our cultural idea of trauma to include such a diverse array of experiences? Is the empathy evoked by traumatic narratives always ethical? Does imagery of trauma cultivate voyeuristic desire?

5:00 p.m. | Buffet Dinner at The Block Museum

6:00 p.m. | Screening of No Go Backs and A Thousand Years Ago

8:00 p.m. |  Panel Discussion with Michael Metzger, Zayd Dohrn, Jake Smith and Edgar Jorge Baralt: "Climate Change, Eco-Anxiety and Catastrophe Media"
Co-Sponsored with the Climate Crisis + Media Arts Northwestern Buffett Global Working Group

Description:

Join us for this three-day symposium hosted by the Remaking Media and Mental Health Across Cultures Northwestern Buffett Global Catalyst Grant Group—which includes Rebecca Seligman, Peter Locke, Dave Tolchinsky and Kate Erskine—and the Northwestern Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts, and supported by the Northwestern University Office of the Provost's N. W. Harris Lecture Fund.

PROGRAM FOR FRIDAY, MAY 26:

12:00 p.m. | Lunch and Keynote with Stephen Harper: “From Medicalization to Metamodernism: Reflections on Recent Popular Portrayals of Mental Distress"

Stephen Harper is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Film, Media, and Communication at the University of Portsmouth. Author of Madness, Power, and the Media: Class, Gender, and Race in Popular Representations of Mental Distress and Insanity, Individuals and Society in Late-Medieval English Literature: The Subjects of Madness, and articles including "Media, Madness, and Misrepresentation: Critical Reflections on Anti-Stigma Discourse," "Understanding Mental Distress in Film and Media: a new agenda?”

3:00 p.m. | Coffee and Panel Discussion with Rebecca Seligman, Stephen Harper and Richard Reinhardt: "Madness and Melancholy in Twenty-First Century Visual Culture"

In a global landscape that is reshaped daily by the coronavirus, climate change, refugee crises and economic polarization, mental illness, particularly depression and melancholia, is an escalating public health concern. As we grapple with immense change, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between the clinical and the cultural in diagnosing, understanding, and representing the psychological effects of our historical present. In a moment when crisis is ordinary, how do filmmakers portray its psychological toll? How do artists capture the overwhelming nature of our global condition and its impact on the individual? What are the aesthetics of depression and melancholia in film and television in the last decade? How do we translate cultural trauma through representations of mental illness?  

7:00 p.m. | Screening of Two Distant Strangers and Discussion with Emmy-Winning Director Travon Free: A reception with wine and hors d’oeuvres will follow a post-screening discussion of the short film with Travon Free, moderated by Harvey Young.

Travon Free is a two-time Emmy Winning and Peabody winning actor, writer and comedian. Writing credits include The Daily Show, Samantha Bee, Black Monday, and Camping and many more. He is also writer/director of the Academy-award winning short, Two Distant Strangers. Travon’s writing can be found all over the web, as he is one of the most sought after young comedic voices on social, political and pop-culture issues.

Harvey Young is Professor and Dean in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. Author of seven books, including Embodying Black Experience, winner of “Book of the Year” awards from the National Communication Association and the American Society for Theatre Research and, most recently, Black Theater is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater (coauthored with Mecca Zabriskie). Young’s research on the performance has been profiled in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. As a commentator on popular culture, he has appeared on CNN, 20/20, and Good Morning America as well as within the pages of Vanity Fair and People.

Description:

Join us for this three-day symposium hosted by the Remaking Media and Mental Health Across Cultures Northwestern Buffett Global Catalyst Grant Group—which includes Rebecca Seligman, Peter Locke, Dave Tolchinsky and Kate Erskine—and the Northwestern Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts, and supported by the Northwestern University Office of the Provost's N. W. Harris Lecture Fund.

PROGRAM FOR SATURDAY, MAY 27:

12:00 p.m. | Northwestern Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab Student Film Screenings 
Pizza and soft drinks will be served.

1:30 p.m. | Industry Discussion with AJ Christian and Dave Tolchinksy

3:00 p.m. | Reading of "Sick" and Discussion with Screenwriter and Playwright Zayd Dohrn