Love Letter to Life

Recovering from mental illness is a hard step to take, but what does it feel like to take this step?

A short personal story touching on the impact parents have on their children and how it can reflect them in the future. Filmed, Written and Directed by Chris Villafuerte

For Every Apricot drifts through the shifting terrain of memory, illustrating a grandmother’s journey in search of a “miracle drug” to cure her father’s illness. What begins as a simple family story, unfurls into a meditation on aging, fragility, and the circinate patterns that shape life. Through live-action interview, 16mm and 8mm archival footage, and a tapestry of handcrafted animation, the film moves between what is remembered, what is imagined, and what time has eroded. As she reflects on her father’s illness alongside her own, For Every Apricot becomes a deeply personal family portrait.

Facing the biggest challenge of his life, Sir Chris Hoy opens up about his journey with terminal cancer and how the mental strength he honed as a six-time Olympic gold medallist is now helping him to inspire others. Drawing on his Olympic career, Chris reconsiders his purpose and how he will choose to live with cancer – turning his focus towards raising awareness and inspiring others. The story follows Chris from the early stages of planning a brand new cycling event through to being joined by friends, including Sir Andy Murray, for the end result in Glasgow: the Tour de Four, a bike ride with the ambition to raise one million pounds for charity and show fellow sufferers that it’s possible to stay active throughout their treatment.

After his cancer diagnosis, an old man is given six months to live. His granddaughter’s camera gently captures his sense of belonging in China — the place he left behind but never forgot — and the story of his family in Singapore.

Steve Street is about to lead his Highschool Football team to the City Championship, when he's diagnosed with cancer.

The lives of Jeff, Lauren and Lloyd—three very different people who share one common experience—have been transformed by speaking up for mental health. These inspiring stories depict what mental health in America really looks like and highlights just how important it is to speak up and seek help.

Follows the journeys of four members at Headway East London’s Day Centre: Yoki, who began as a Headway member, now works with the charity, providing emotional support and advocacy to other brain injury survivors. Dave, a former chauffeur to the rich and famous, has embraced cooking and is developing his artistic talents. Margie, life and soul of the community, who spreads joy through her love for food and music, and Marie-Claire who has rebuilt her life after an aneurysm left her in a coma at forty.

Filmmaker Judith Helfand turns the camera on herself to document her battle with cancer caused by DES, a drug prescribed to her mother during pregnancy. Refusing to confine the tears, rage, laughter and hope to dinner table conversations, Helfand invites us to witness her personal journey from radical hysterectomy patient to vocal opponent of toxic exposure. From her suburban home to the halls of Congress, the intensely private becomes widely public, and an American family is transformed and strengthened.

This insightful and informative documentary explores the popular world of Mindfulness from the perspective of four people who study and teach it. Mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

'Breaking the Stigma', a student-made short documentary, presents the thoughts and opinions of several students and parents about the youth mental health crisis in the United States – and what it means for future generations that will enter an increasingly technologically-dependent society.