About this Short Film
Noeleen Ginnane's View from a Depression with Chances of Hope and Rain (Australia, 2024) is a short, poetic film that reflects on adult depression, isolation and mental health. Presented in a lyrical mode, it offers a quiet, reflective portrayal of an individual living with mental illness. The piece sits comfortably in the Focus on Ability program by highlighting emotional depth and resilience within disability experiences. It asks viewers to slow down and listen, making space for small moments of hope amid difficulty. Recommended for audiences seeking intimate, thoughtful short films that speak to the varied ways people navigate mental health.
Film Details
Film Transcript
A child I was, as all once were. When experiences gathered and momentum dark as clouds, ominous in my already-afflicted dream, the foam gathered, the froth of people here, celebrating, rushing in like a tidal wave to upturn for purposes only torturous, temporarily. They crashed upon my shore; I lost my footing, I toppled, and was swept out to sea. I was dragged far, far from my home. I gasped for breath. Dark clouds above, dark emotions beneath. By the rip tide of life was I dragged into the deep as my heart choking on what was happening to me.
It was then that the first black wave came, spying a crack in my psyche. The black, black took up perch within and gathered in time, grew more black. And where once the light of childhood innocence shone, now gathered a murder or scratching sharp, tearing at my years of youth, my ego to shreds, my head.
At 17, I had tread water, held on to the slivers of light cast when you are a loner. And I swam furiously. I had what my kind of swim and time. Yes, it dumped me in a motion stage. And when I looked up, the first thing I saw was the sun. From that world, the murder of crows rushed, jostling in to block the light, to smother my gift of light.
But in each of us, I do believe there remains always, always, always a sliver of light. The sliver of light is the hope. When I dwelled on the crows, they multiplied. When I focused on the light, like arms of aid, it tore open wider and wider, more light within, and hope gathered and gathered, and one by one the crows, they flew away. One by one of these torturous years, as the light within widened, illuminated paths and ways of help. One by one, the crows take flight from me.
I just feel that we had nine. Shake isn't happy about the journey. But you trust me, darling. That is a serious bite.
My faculty, my self, true self, blink like beauty who slept 100 years as life so charmingly kisses my cheek and I do rise from sleep. Love.
Filmmaker
Noeleen Ginnane is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Noeleen Ginnane.
