10th Annual City Shorts Student Film Festival

Last weekend I was informed by the Cinema Dept. of City College of San Francisco that one of the films I submitted (i.e. "Under His Wings") was chosen to be shown at their 10th Annual City Shorts Student Film Festival next Thursday. "Under His Wings" is an 8 minute short about a young African American woman who finds strength in her faith. I feel fortunate to be selected given the fact that I waited to the last possible minute to submit the film. I heard that there were almost a hundred submissions and only 13 of us got selected!

The City Shorts Festival may not be a Sundance or a Cannes, but I feel very honored to be a part of this event sponsored by the Cinema department at City College of San Francisco, especially given that I am a product of this college. This is where I learned how to make movies while working full-time doing social work stuff...taking a night class in film editing, then taking another evening class in documentary filmmaking the following year, etc. for a measley $100.00 per class. In fact, I should take this time to thank Denise Bostrom, a writer/filmmaker who helped me write this film while I was taking her "Nonfiction Scriptwriting Course" last fall semester. Thank God for public education and community colleges such as CCSF where second chances and dreams can be nurtured.

For those of you in the local area who want to support this nonprofit event full of wonderful shorts by local filmmakers, come to the Diego Rivera Theater at the main campus. That's next Thursday May 13th at 7:00PM. Suggested donation of $2.00 at the door.

Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health

The workshop on "Religion, Spirituality & Mental Health" held at our clinic on November 4, 2009 was a big success. I believe it was the first time ever that we presented a topic on religion/spirituality at our clinic. But many agreed that this was a presentation long overdue given the large number of our clients/consumers who are religious  or spiritual (not to mention a large number of clinicians!). 

The main purpose of this workshop was to simply get our feet wet. Our goal was to help staff explore what place religion/spirituality has in our clinical work. Given that historically mental health practitioners (e.g., psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc.) have distanced themselves from most traditional religions (except perhaps certain Buddhist practices like mindfulness, meditation, etc.), we felt that having a workshop such as this would enable us to acknowledge the elephant in the clinic--that religion and spirituality will not go away so we'd better deal with it. 

The first hour consisted of a 10-minute presentation by five expert panelists including our own Rochelle, a consumer/client and a client-member of the cultural competency work committee. The panel presentation ended with an 8-minute Video (made by Rochelle and me) entitled "Under His Wings" in which Rochelle recounts how her faith in God sustained her during her difficult struggle with mental illness. Rochelle's mother came to see her daughter's presentation and debut. After the presentation, there were lots of tears, hugs and kisses. 

The other presenters in the interfaith panel included Reverend Glenda Hope of Network Ministries, gospel singer Yvonne Cobbs (who happens to be our own nurse at the clinic), social worker/buddhist Kerry McKee (also our own), and Zen Priest Jana Drakka. Each of them are distinguished experts in their respective fields and very committed to the integration of spirituality and mental health. I should also mention that we began the first hour by watching Yvonne's music video--which highlights her fabulous voice. 

The second half of the workshop involved a Q/A (question and answer) session. I enjoyed facilitating the session. The clinicians asked some really good questions. My only regret was that our time was too short.  I informed the group that we (Cultural Competency Work Committee) will organize a series of follow-up in-services to address the wide-spread interest that appeared to be present among the audience.