Healing through discomfort at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

“How do we, as humans, become comfortable with things that other people might find extreme?”

This question lies at the heart of A Want In Her, the debut feature by Irish filmmaker and visual artist Myrid Carten, in which she turns the camera on her complex relationship with her alcoholic mother. Screening on the opening night of this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF), the film powerfully reflects the festival’s theme of Comfort & Disturb, showing how films that embrace discomfort can lead to understanding, empathy and healing.

A Want in Her, screening as part of this year's Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival | Contributed

Carten, speaking from London between preview screenings, explains that she wanted audiences to be “not disturbed, but challenged” when watching her film. By inviting them into her family’s world, scarred by longstanding feuds, trauma, mental illness and addiction, her intention was to unsettle assumptions: “I wanted to disturb what you thought about these people, your sense of who was good and who was bad, and to really mess with that.”

Navigating these intricate stories, Carten is clear-eyed about her role as director: “I took full responsibility for the work. I didn’t frame it around collaboration, even though my family are participants.” For her, the film became a space to reclaim her voice after years of self-censorship, driven by what she describes as “the fog of alcoholism and madness, fog standing for fear, obligation, guilt.”

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Childhood footage adds another layer of intimacy to the film. Watching these tapes back, Carten says: “I started to have a lot of empathy and compassion for the little me. Those pieces of footage were so loaded with the weight of what was happening at the time.” Even though only a few videos survived, they offered glimpses into how much Carten had witnessed growing up and how widespread similar experiences were among her peers.

A still from DIAGNONSENSE, screening as part of this year's Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival | Contributed

Like Carten, Norwegian filmmaker Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård uses her work to examine deeply personal experiences, a process she describes as “disturbing”. Her first feature DIAGNONSENSE , which will have its UK premiere as part of SMHAF, documents her decades-long journey through mental illness, severe psychiatric diagnoses, and a struggle to distinguish between her own identity and the one described by her conditions.

Hansgård, too, began creating films as a teenager, recording introspective video diaries and fly-on-the-wall footage in her home and school. “Filmmaking became a lens to understanding my thoughts,” she says. Over time, it evolved into something deeper: “It became a way of feeling seen, and not forgotten about.”

From a young age, Hansgård’s distinctive personality marked her as an outsider. Her father describes her as “absolutely atypical”, and nobody seemed to know how to relate to her or to support her. Eventually, her inability to fit into what she calls “the mainstream” led her into the psychiatric system, where her behaviours, experiences and personality traits were pathologised as “something that was wrong.”

The title DIAGNONSENSE reflects the sheer number of diagnoses Hansgård was labelled with: panic disorder, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder. Each diagnosis brought its own medication and identity but never brought her closer to healing. “You become so close to the rules,” she says about psychiatric care, “and it’s almost like the rules are more important than the person in front of you.”

Carten also reflects on the limitations of diagnosis. Her intention in her film, she says, was to present her characters “beyond a label, so you could draw your own conclusions about who they are as people, the nature of their reality, and also my reality.” While labels can be useful – including her mother’s bipolar diagnosis, which helped her better understand her experiences – she says “it’s hard for these labels to not become fixed and shut down other questions.”

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Since leaving the system, Hansgård has connected with other survivors and advocates for a new paradigm in mental health care, one rooted in safe spaces where people can grow, heal and find support to truly understand themselves. “Can a system show love?” she muses. “Like one important character in the film says to me, ‘No one ever said to you, it’s okay to be different.’ That’s love. That sentence is love.”

Despite the discomfort of making and sharing such personal stories, both filmmakers have witnessed the transformative impact of their work. Hansgård recalls an encounter after an early screening in southern Norway: “This big guy came up to me; he was in tears and he couldn't say anything. He just said, ‘my daughter’. We stood there and cried together. It was such an important human-to-human moment.” Watching the film gave the man hope that things could get better for his daughter and renewed energy to keep going.

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Watching films together – and talking about them afterwards – has the power to console, no matter how difficult or unspoken the subject matter. As Carten puts it: “It’s about taking things out into the open that are very private, but also so commonly felt or expressed. Usually, the story is about the person with the issues. But the supporting cast have a story too. I wanted to see that story, and I ended up telling that story.”

For Carten, art offers a space beyond judgement, allowing us to find comfort in what disturbs us: “Art lets us look at the darkness in ourselves without needing to fix it. It just exists, the best and the worst of ourselves.”

Rob Dickie is arts & festival officer for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, led by the Mental Health Foundation, takes place across Scotland from 20 October to 9 November. Explore the full programme at www.mhfestival.com.

A Want in Her is screening at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh, including a Q&A with Myrid Carten, on 20 October and Glasgow Film Theatre, including a panel discussion, on 22 October.

DIAGNONSENSE is screening at New King’s, University of Aberdeen, including a live virtual Q&A with Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård, on 22 October, and CCA, Glasgow, including a Q&A with producer Øyvind Gregersen, on 7 November.