Writing the World Backwards has just won the Silver Elephant award for best mental health film at the 2022 Short Breaks Film Festival.
It has also been chosen as an Official Selection at the New York City Mental Health Film Festival 2023.
The film tells the story of Lorna Collins who experienced a catastrophic brain injury at the age of 18. Lorna spent the following twenty years going in and out of psychiatric hospitals, including the infamous Esquirrol asylum in Paris, before art became her pathway to recovery from crippling anorexia.
This film follows her evolution from comatose patient to flourishing artist, taking us on a journey into her darkly strange and cinematic imagination. Viewers are invited to inhabit and see beyond the stages that define mental illness.
"Making this film gave me the chance to express, in a raw, sensitive way, my extraordinary journey from illness to recovery," says Lorna.
The film was a semi-finalist at the Courage Film Festival and was screened at This isMy Brave International Mental Health Film Festival, Canberra, Australia, REEL RECOVERY FILM FESTIVAL, FACE Film Festival and Doncaster ArtBomb Festival, Doncaster, UK,
"I am grateful to work with Angela because she has helped the film become a work of art in itself," says Lorna. "The film has become a beautiful, aesthetic object, as well as a beacon of hope that recovery is possible."
Angela and Lorna at the launch of Writing the World Backwards at the ArtBomb Festival of Creativity in Doncaster.
"The film has become a beautiful, aesthetic object, as well as a beacon of hope that recovery is possible."
The film will be screened on Saturday, February 18th 2023 at the Village East Cinema in New York City. Angela and Lorna plan to attend the festival and speak at a specialist forum after the film has been screened.
I had the tremendous pleasure of seeing "Writing the World Backwards" at Community Access' Mental Health Film Festival yesterday, Feb 18, 2023. Thank you. Thank you for creating this masterpiece, for sharing your journey, and for letting us see you and hear you. Julie Ridge