Date: Thursday, May 23rd – 7 PM
Location: The Block Museum of Art – 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL
Click here for directions
Free and open to the public. Free on-campus parking available after 4 PM in the open air lot.
Island of the Hungry Ghosts
(2018) Germany, UK, Australia, 98 min
Director & Writer: Gabrielle Brady
This screening is a part of the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase:
On Christmas Island, an idyllic yet isolated island in the Indian Ocean, millions of land crabs migrate annually from the jungle to the sea. The same jungle hides a high-security Australian detention center where thousands of asylum seekers have been locked away indefinitely. Their only connection to the outside world is trauma counsellor Poh Lin Lee, who lives on the island with her family. As Poh attempts to provide support through individual therapy sessions, conditions for the detainees remain unbearable. In this award-winning hybrid documentary, Australian director Gabrielle Brady masterfully interweaves the detainees’ stories with the beauty of the island’s natural world, intimate family moments, and the local community’s “hungry ghost” rituals for the spirits of those who died on the island without a burial. Beautifully rendered and contemplative in tone, Island of the Hungry Ghosts makes us feel and think about belonging, isolation, and migration, while considering the limits of therapy during a time of crisis.
The post-screening discussion will include Poh Lin Lee, a narrative therapist and trauma counselor featured in the film, and Ananya Mayukha, a Northwestern doctoral student in Clinical Psychology and member of The Study of Lives Research Group.
About the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase:
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Northwestern University’s Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab presents the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase – two days of films, conversations, and a creative workshop with film consultant and narrative therapist Poh Lin Lee.
The three featured films include the award-winning hybrid documentary Island of the Hungry Ghosts; a hard-hitting feminist analysis of Hollywood’s cinematic language in Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power; and the regional premiere of the new French fiction film The Rapture (Le Ravissement). Ranging from migration and gendered cinematic shot design to motherhood, the topics of the selected films vary greatly, yet they are tied together by prompting questions about mental health in the context of greater societal and cultural conditions and pressures.
Film screenings and discussions are free and open to the public, the workshop with Poh Lin Lee is reserved for Northwestern students.
About the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab:
Northwestern University’s Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creatively examines representations of mental illness and health on screen and supports students in the production of original media art works that challenge stereotypes. Student filmmakers, faculty, visiting artists, and the wider public engage with the studio lab in a variety of ways – from the production of new works and courses to public events such as the Chicago Mental Health Film Showcase. We strive to tackle complex topics, destigmatize mental illness, and promote healing through creative innovation and inquiry.