What does our industry need to do to make sure we stay sane and also be mindful of not re-traumatising people? Filmmakers and two qualified therapists working in film discuss strategies and suggestions for a healthier industry – one in which fewer people sustain harm and more should be integrated in.
Presented by Documentary Campus
Speakers
- Rebecca Day, Psychotherapist & Documentary Producer, Film In Mind, UK
- Malikkah Rollins, Co-Founder, Documentality and Director of Industry and Education, DOC NYC, USA
- Victoria Thomas, Writer/Director, Republic Of Story, UK
- Pamela Drameh, Independent Producer / Technical Manager, STXinternational
Moderated by
- Paula Alvarez Vaccaro, Producer, Pinball London, UK
Rebecca Day
Rebecca Day is a psychotherapist and freelance documentary producer. She founded Film in Mind in 2018 to address mental health in the film industry. She offers therapy, clinical supervision, consultancies and workshops to filmmakers who are working in difficult situations and/or with vulnerable people. She has spoken on the issue at festivals and delivered training and support to organisations such as the Berlin International Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the Getting Real Documentary Conference, Sheffield DocFest, WIFTV and the London Screenwriters Festival. Previously, Day worked extensively with the Scottish Documentary Institute as a producer and on their impact work. Her most recent feature, Emma Davie and Peter Mettler’s Swiss-Scottish co-production Becoming Animal was released in 2018, and day is currently in production on a new feature-length documentary about men’s mental health with award-winning filmmaker Duncan Cowles.
Malikkah Rollins
Malikkah Rollins is the Director of Industry and Education at DOC NYC, the largest documentary film festival in the United States. As a mental health professional for the last decade, she recently co-founded Documentality, an initiative designed to elevate the conversation around mental health in the documentary community. Additonally, Rollins was a mental health consultant on the American Documentary’s project for women and LGBTQ+ first-time directors. She is a Sundance Collab Community Leader, a D Word Ambassador, and sits on the board of Women in Film and Video in Washington, DC. Rollins was a 2019 Docs in Progress Fellow and has held a variety of producer roles on several feature and short documentaries.
Victoria Thomas
Victoria Thomas began her film career as a producer on numerous international European-Sub-Saharan Africa co-productions. She is now developing work as a writer-director. Her recent projects include the BFI Network/Screen Scotland-funded A Birthday Party. Thomas is currently a producer/director on a television series for Westbrook/Nutopia, and in parallel is developing her scripted feature Street Food, a participant of the The Writers Lab, supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, in 2020. She is currently a co-course director for the MA in International Film Business at the London Film School.
Pamela Drameh
Pamela has over ten years of experience working in post-production for both studio and independent media companies such as Disney, Turner and Wild Bunch across a wide variety of titles including The Wrestler, Avengers and Hustlers. She has recently moved into film production as a producer. Her short film credits include Midnight of Life starring Martin Freeman, which premiered at the London Film Festival 2015. She is currently developing a bespoke slate of feature films and is the International Technical Manager for STX International. Pamela is also a co-chair of Times Up UK Women of Colour.