6 Weeks to Shooting Lifeline & Mental Health Week
As published on Facebook on 15th May 2018
As part of Mental Health Week 2018, there’s a focus on combatting stress in the workplace.
Uncannily Lifeline my short film and directorial debut, which is currently in pre-production, references this crucial theme.
Lifeline is a psychological drama about Max, a troubled and overworked finance whiz in London City, who is trying to hold it together.
He suffers recurring nightmares and takes too many prescription pills to numb his problems, which are connected to his absent wife, Saima and demanding boss, Duncan.
Saima uncannily phones Max whenever he’s at the peak of a recurring nightmare to wake him up, but he can’t bring himself to talk to her. As personal and work pressures increase, so does Max’s pill intake and an overdose becomes likely
I chose a male lead, as men too often are taught by society to shut down their emotions and display a tough macho image to prove their worth, especially among their peers.
Yet:
It’s OK to be vulnerable,
It’s OK to ask for help,
It’s OK to cry.
MEN can be both STRONG and VULNERABLE. This goes for anyone, regardless of gender.
From ALL platforms whether through media, socially, education, our families and so on, we need to keep chipping into this fact, and with the right kind of help, sometimes simply by TALKING to a friend or colleague or lending your own ear, the mind can be eased.
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO SUFFER ALONE.
Even as a woman, who once upon a life had her foot in the corporate PR/ finance world, it took major crashes in my life in 2008 to learn the power in vulnerability: my dad died, I broke up from my ex and lost all my freelance contracts within 100 days of one another, causing a breakdown or psycho-spiritual crisis (aka spiritual emergency).
Yet through the process of losing my identity, rediscovering my essence – spiritually and emotionally – and opening up my story to the public, I regained a new me and have ever since been doing my part to keep the spotlight on mental health – from as simple as talking truthfully to friends, colleagues, peers – to writing articles, social media platforms and of course through pursuing film, my major love and dream.
6 weeks to shooting, can’t wait!! 
? 
