Youth Use Collaborative Filmmaking to Visualize Mental Health Experiences

By Sara Baumann and Jessica Burke

“Grind culture is so toxic.” These words spoken by a youth participant from our study demonstrate the pressures adolescents are facing today. Unfortunately, the mental health and well-being of adolescents is often overlooked, discounted, or dismissed. Our work focuses on using art, specifically film, for elevating discussions about sensitive public health topics, encouraging collaboration, and supporting advocacy.

In our research study, “Visualizing Mental Health through the Lens of Pittsburgh Youth” we used a new research method called Collaborative Filmmaking to work with youth to share their experiences of mental health through the creation of short films. Their films present nuanced, sensory, and visual illustrations of adolescent mental health experiences around issues of endless to-do lists, expectations to be the ideal student, and complicated friendships and relationships. The films also provide insights into what can be done to better support youth mental health.

Just days after starting the project, COVID-19 rapidly spread, and much of the country, including Pittsburgh, adopted pandemic stay-at-home orders. It was during those unpredictable days that it became unmistakably clear that we had to find a way to continue this project. While we worked to address the original aims of our project, our overarching goal grew into ensuring that the youth participants had a creative outlet and community connections, during a time when their entire world changed.

For more than a year, we worked remotely with the youth participants, and asked them to creatively address the stressors (things that are scary, cause worry, or anxiety), and supports (things that bring you joy, or make you feel safe) in their lives. Using filmmaking elements, including visuals and sounds, they crafted their own creative stories. It was incredibly powerful to view the variety of film styles among this relatively small but diverse sample. One participant created her life as a videogame – a playful and powerful way of summarizing the stressors and supports that adolescents face as they navigate their lives.

Why do we love Collaborative Filmmaking? The six-step process is a structured and unique way to engage participants in research, and they become meaningful partners in the scientific process. They reflect, create, and co-analyze the films in partnership with the researchers, which offers a depth of understanding to ensure the data is true to the participants’ experiences. In this study, we found that youth face immense academic pressures, but many also experience personal and social stressors such as upholding cultural expectations. The films also highlighted a strong sense of individual-level supports, including the importance of self-care and limiting social media use. Openly sharing experiences through film and dialogue can simultaneously combat mental health stigma and serve as a therapeutic tool. One study participant shared, "I hope that other teens who see these films will really be able to relate and feel that they're not alone in the struggle because there are so many people out there who are dealing with similar things and that they should feel empowered to reach out for help."

The 2023 Surgeon General’s report, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, details the impacts of social disconnection and loneliness on our health including depression, and anxiety. This is where the arts, including film, have a unique role to play. The arts can bring people together, even in unprecedented times of disconnection. The arts celebrate culture, they offer a space for people to engage with new ways of seeing, and critically, they offer opportunities for people to socially connect. In fact, by sharing the films from this project in a virtual film screening over Zoom, we witnessed teachers, journalists, students, and school staff engaging in critical dialogue, reflecting about mental health, and envisioning new ways to address mental health in today’s climate. Our funder commented, “the films lead to a very rich discussion among those working with teens…[they] were better able to understand the daily stressors impacting teens and to discuss ways to address them.”

We encourage you to view the youth filmmakers creations on our website and to reach out if you are interested in using the method in your own work or talking about our work at the intersection of the arts & public health.

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Article Details
Visualizing Mental Health Through the Lens of Pittsburgh Youth: A Collaborative Filmmaking Study During COVID-19
Sara E. Baumann, PhD, Brayden N. Kameg, DNP, Christopher T. Wiltrout, MPH, Deborah Murdoch, MPH, Lindsay Pelcher, MPH, and Jessica G. Burke, PhD
First published online December 22, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/15248399221141688
Health Promotion Practice

About the Authors

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Sara Baumann, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. She is a global health, mixed methods researcher, and is dedicated to incorporating participatory, arts-based, and visual research methods into her scholarship. She has a background in sociology, public health, and documentary filmmaking, as well as over 14 years of experience conducting research and programming in health and development in South Asia. Her research agenda embraces community-engaged approaches for exploring and designing evidence-based interventions to improve women’s reproductive health and mental health globally.

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Jessica Burke, PhD, MHS is Vice Dean and a Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. She is passionate about using engaged, creative, and systems-oriented methods to address determinants of health and methods that include visual components that facilitate dialogue and action. Her background is in anthropology, social epidemiology, global health, and health promotion. Dr. Burke’s scholarship uses innovative quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the mechanisms linking contextual influences and health, engages communities in the process of research and its translation and developed and evaluated tailored interventions.