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Hannah Currie’s documentary We Are All Here – showing alongside Canadian film The Song and the Sorrow – is one of several films at SMHAF 2019 to explore the impact of suicide. In the first of a series of Q&As with filmmakers and performers at this year’s festival, she tells us the story behind the film…

How did you begin the process of making We Are All Here? It obviously tackles a very difficult and sensitive subject.

Shortly after Calum passed away I read a newspaper article by the Scottish rapper Darren ‘Loki’ McGarvey that struck me on many levels. Lumo’s youth and talent, the fact that he volunteered for a mental health charity to raise awareness, and generally the sinking familiarity we have come to feel in Scotland with young men going missing and ending their own lives – gave me an overwhelming sense that this was a story that needed to be told, and made me dig deeper. I listened to Lumo’s entire back catalogue of music and was struck by the searing honesty in his lyrics, so from early on the plan was to allow Lumo to tell his own story through his lyrics. And then when I eventually met his family, they gave me video diaries that they’d found after he died, and that cemented him as the narrator of his own story. The support of his friends and family and their determination to make a difference drove me throughout the entire process.

You’ve said that your aim with the film is to promote suicide awareness – what do you hope audiences will take from the film?

Awareness is key. For younger viewers, I hope Lumo’s story and the aftermath contribute to removing the shame surrounding mental illness and opening up the conversation to create a space for young people to work through their issues. And for all viewers, I hope the film plans the seed that mental health is something we need to take seriously, and recognise that mental illness could be impacting our family and friends in serious ways that we may not have considered. One male friend sent me a message a couple of months after seeing the film and said that he’d noticed his friend acting differently and reached out to him, and the friend had told him he’d been contemplating suicide and that he was the first person who’d asked if he was OK. They are a pretty ‘macho’ group of friends and the film had made him act differently in that scenario, and that is exactly what I hope it will continue to do.

One striking aspect of the film is the way it’s divided into chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of Lumo’s identity – reflected in the different names he chose for himself. Can you tell us about why you made that decision and how it shaped the film?

As I was interviewing Lumo’s friends and family and watching his video diaries, a very clear picture emerged of a young man who was struggling to find his place and grappling with his identity – which is a struggle I think a lot of us can relate to, especially throughout our teens and early twenties. Lumo was only 21. He was a perfectionist and often took the pressures of the world very personally, and felt a responsibility to himself and to others to ‘be’ a certain way, and I think that became an added pressure in itself. Having said that each of these identities – Calum, Lumo and Mohsen – were all very important to him, so it was important to me to give them each their place in the story. He really was all of these people at once but he thought he had to choose. I feel it’s a tragedy that this happened before he got to realise that it’s OK to be layered in this way.

Tell us something about the Scottish hip-hop scene that would surprise people.

It’s full of exceptionally lovely and intelligent people. Some of the nicest people I know in the music industry are hip hop heads. And the standard of lyricism is so high. A lot of the lyrics are borne from difficult backgrounds and personal struggles and I think it’s incredibly inspiring that people can express themselves in this way. I wish more people would pay attention. Sadly Scottish hip hop still gets massively overlooked in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully the film helps bring it to a new audience.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from making We Are All Here? And what impact has making the film had on you?

I became a stronger person making this film. People always ask me ‘was it difficult to make’ but any challenge I had pales into insignificance when placed next to the daily struggle of losing someone so young. I spent so much time in the company of Lumo’s amazing friends and family and I drew a lot from their strength. Of course, doing documentary and telling a story from someone’s life is a daunting process, and there were definitely bumps along the way – but I never felt derailed by them. From the moment I read his story I knew it was special and I recognised its potential to help people.

What’s been the most memorable response to the film?

The recognition the film has received has been totally unexpected and overwhelming – winning the Audience Award at Glasgow Short Film Festival was really special. But the most meaningful responses are the people who find me after the film to tell me their story: whether they are struggling personally or bereaved by suicide or inspired to make a change, that totally fills up my heart.

Your first involvement in SMHAF was volunteering for the festival as a teenager. What do you remember about that experience? And how does it feel to be returning as an award-winning filmmaker?

It was one of my first jobs and I remember feeling so fortunate to be part of such a progressive festival; I wanted to be a journalist and my job was to write the brochure and I just loved it. I’d get to attend the events and I saw so much amazing, important work. I’m so glad to see the festival thriving because I really believe the arts can turn the tide of stigma – it’s already happening and seeping into the mainstream, so it’s moving in the right direction. As for returning as an award-winning filmmaker – words can’t describe. I’ve attended the film awards religiously for the past 10 years – the work on display is always amazing and I can’t believe our film will be amongst the entries this year.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m buried deep working to deadline on a new documentary commissioned by Bridging the Gap, which is the Scottish Documentary Institute’s new talent initiative. It’s about my wonderful aunt and uncle (who has a brain injury) and it will premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.

Hannah Currie’s We Are All Here is the winner of the Best Short Documentary prize at SMHAF 2019. It screens alongside The Song and the Sorrow at Flourish House on Sunday 5th May. Click here to book tickets for the screening. Hannah Currie is also taking part in We Are All Connected, which gives you an opportunity to have a one-to-one conversation with some of our award-winning filmmakers. Click here to book a slot. 

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Hannah blogs about telling the story of suicide, mental health and masculinity within the Scottish rap scene, and how her student documentary went from the Mind Media Awards to the BBC.

It’s a very surreal experience to be invited to blog for Mind about my new BBC documentary Lumo: Too Young To Die. Mind have featured pretty prominently in my life over the past year, from the dizzying highs of the Mind Media Awards where the original version of this film won in the student journalism category,  to the abject lows of a close family member becoming unwell and me spending my evenings trawling through Mind’s very soothing online information for advice about their illness. Life is full of highs and lows and it can be really tough to temper the lows, especially when it feels like everyone else around you is enjoying the highs. I think that’s one of the reasons it was so important for me to make this film: that feeling of isolation can be really dangerous and we need to let people who are suffering know that they are not alone.

Lumo: Too Young To Die is an adapted and extended version of my graduation film We Are All Here, which I made during a Masters in Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths University of London. It tells the story of Calum ‘Lumo’ Barnes, a talented rapper from Glasgow who took his own life aged 21. The film features his poignant lyrics as well as video diaries discovered by his family after his death, so he essentially tells his own story throughout the documentary.

I started to notice the way that grief was being processed; his fellow rappers began to open up about how they were feeling.

I didn’t know Lumo personally, but I knew a lot of people in the Scottish hip hop scene and I bore witness to the outpouring of grief and utter disbelief following his death. And then I started to notice the way that grief was being processed; his fellow rappers began to open up about how they were feeling, and people were responding honestly with their own experiences. I recognised then that something powerful was at play; hyper-masculinity had broken down, and out of the ashes, conversations about mental health were emerging. I started to wonder whether this tide turning in the microcosmic Scottish hip hop community could inspire a force for change on a greater level.

I reached out to some of Lumo’s friends and explained that I felt sharing his story could help open up the conversation about mental health, particularly amongst young men who are most at risk of suicide. I interviewed them just a few months after Lumo passed away, and for most of them this was the first time they’d spoken aloud about what happened, so they are incredibly emotional interviews. But they were so articulate and brave; powerful and important voices in mental health awareness. They soon introduced me to Lumo’s sister Jenn who was equally supportive of the documentary, determined to stop other families from going through the pain they were experiencing. Lumo’s mum Janet – AKA the world’s loveliest woman! – invited me round for tea and cake and we looked through family photos and home movies. That’s when the family told me about his video diaries, which cemented Lumo as the narrator of his own story.

It was overwhelming to be taking deeply personal video diaries, lyrics and interviews into my first film edit but the trust of Lumo’s family and friends fuelled the whole process. I received a lot of support from my tutors Daisy and Dunstan at Goldsmiths, who were unflinching in their belief in me, and I was also lucky enough to complete the edit with my brother Tim, a huge hip hop fan, so his passion for the project pushed it forward whenever I had my doubts. Tim won’t mind me saying he’s had his own struggles with mental health. We both have. Although that’s made life difficult at times, without that experience we wouldn’t have connected to Lumo’s story on the same level. We both believe deeply in the importance of this film.

It was incredible to witness the impact Lumo’s story was having on those around us.

A friend at Goldsmiths heard about the film and suggested I enter into the Mind Media Awards. I was absolutely thrilled to be nominated and to be able to take Lumo’s sister and friends with me to the awards ceremony in London. We were all completely overwhelmed by the scale of the event and the amazing energy in the room – the open and honest speeches about mental health had us in tears throughout the night. It was a beautiful evening. When it came to our category, they played a clip from the film out to the auditorium and the place felt silent. It was incredible to witness the impact Lumo’s story was having on those around us, and even more incredible to be called up to the stage to collect the award.

I was so grateful to Mind for the recognition; it renewed my belief that our film should be seen by a wider audience, so I started to push for that and shortly after the awards, we were commissioned by BBC to develop the film for broadcast. Back into the edit with my brother I went, and we now have a half hour film re-titled Lumo: Too Young To Die (both ‘We Are All Here’ and ‘Too Young To Die’ are lyrics of Calum’s).  We’re proud of it and we’d absolutely love people to watch and share with people they think should see it. We’d also love people to join the conversations about the film and mental health on our Facebook and Twitter pages. The best thing about showing this film to people has undoubtedly been hearing about people’s own experiences with mental health and creating that space for people to share openly. I believe that shared experience is absolutely key to ending stigma and removing shame around mental health issues, particularly in young people. It’s time for change.

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THE sister of a popular Glasgow rapper who died at just 21 has backed a new documentary which has been made to raise awareness of the mental health and suicide crisis in young men.

Jenn Barnes joined documentary maker Hannah Currie at St Luke’s in Glasgow’s East End to unveil the Glasgow premiere date of the film.

The We Are All Here film will premiere in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation on Sunday, February 10 at an event which will feature live performances.

The film was made after Calum ‘Lumo’ Barnes was tragically discovered in the River Clyde in September, 2017. His death devastated the hip hop community in Glasgow where he gained fame through his band Deadsoundz Inc.

His sister Jenn, from the city’s Cardonald, said: “Everyone is fully supporting the documentary. The whole goal of the film is to raise awareness of mental health, and to try and help other people.”

Hannah, 29, who also now lives in the city after studying in London, added: “This will be the first time that people see the film on any sort of live scale. I am really nervous about that.

“But I was more worried about impressing Calum’s friends and family. When I showed them the film, they felt I captured who he was as a person and the story.

“Now I have their blessing and I now have the strength to show it to a wide audience, I feel I am doing his story justice.”

The documentary has already received a Mind award nomination and has been picked up by various film festivals around the UK but next year’s showing will mark its Glasgow premiere.

Hannah, who is a project manager at the Mental Health Foundation, said: “The suicide rate at the moment especially around young men is just too high. This is just our contribution to try to bring it down but we don’t have any grand ideas. It is a really complex issue.

“I know that Calum’s family want to make sure that he didn’t die in vein. He was quite vocal about mental health awareness and he didn’t actually reach out to help himself, he was all about helping other people.

“We used art created in his music and video diaries which was found by his family following his death in the film – and this allows Calum to tell his own story.

“We wanted to take all that, use it for good and make sure the message gets out there. This has completely torn his family apart and blindsided his friends, they are still grieving heavily.”

Jenn, 31, said: “I don’t think he would have ever thought he would be this famous.

“Realistically this is all his work which is being used in the film. I just wish he could have seen it – that is what is quite sad about it.”

For tickets to the premiere, which will raise funds for the Mental Health Foundation, visit https://www.musicglue.com/mhf-live/events/a9010450-bdd3-0136-7453-7646076e2d8c

Read the original article on The Evening Times