Untitled Document

By ANNE DONAHUE
Counterpoint
RUTLAND — Anyone expecting an amateur production out of the community video project "Work Works!" will be caught off guard by this well-paced and educational look at the role of work in our lives, and in particular, how it affects the lives of persons with a mental illness.
    The video blends interviews with members of the public at large, social services professionals, and community leaders in the Rutland area with more detailed profiles of consumers and employers involved in the Vocational Opportunity Works (VOW) program of Rutland Mental Health Services.
     It premiered in December at a reception at the Howe Center.
    An ideal tool to educate all types of groups — whether high school students, business associations, or by public invitation — "Work Works!" presents a compelling message about how stigma and prejudice, not the lack of ability, interfere with full community integration.
    The video opens by grabbing viewers' attention immediately with brisk, quarter-screen images of different individuals fading in and out from the four corners of the screen as they comment on the importance of a job in everyone's life.
     There is background street noise, conveying the "ordinary person" nature of the film and distinguishing it immediately from those that use "canned interviews" and narrators.
     It then moves into a series of clips from interviews with several people who discuss their own jobs, filmed in the setting where they work, and more formal comments from individuals such as the Rutland Chamber of Commerce's President, Tom Donahue, and the former Director of Spring Lake Ranch, Mike Wells.
     It is not until about a quarter of the way through that the subject of mental illness is first brought up.
     It is skillfully introduced through an interview with the parents of a young man who experienced a psychotic break, interspersed with stark background facts in black and white, such as the fact that an estimated one in five persons will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives.
     The video then shifts to members of the public encountered at a local mall and asked about how much they feel they know about mental illness, and whether people in general get good information about it.
     The editing is smooth and effective as it shifts through the series of responses to different questions against the busy mall backdrop.
     A particularly compelling moment is captured in the innocent answers from a young girl — perhaps about middleschool age — who hesitates and offers, "I don't know if it's a mental illness or not," but shares the fact that a schoolmate has diabetes, and then notes that she herself has asthma.
     Viewers find themselves cheering for her lack of ability to classify a "mental" versus "physical" illness. After the public impressions of mental illness, the video reconnects with some of the original speakers who discussed the value of work. The viewers then hear these ordinary people talk about what it is like to live with a mental illness.
     The video thus makes a clear statement without uttering a word: "you didn't even know — you couldn't tell — that these people were ‘mentally ill' until they told you."
     This type of communication, in which the message is effectively shared through the speakers and context, rather than through narration, is a significant part of what makes it so gripping and alive. In fact, there is no narrator at any point, and one isn't needed. Each segment speaks for itself.
     Through the continuing interviews, there is background on why there are misconceptions about mental illness and the history of keeping those with a mental illness away from regular work.
     Employers involved in the Rutland VOW project share some of their initial misgivings, and then how they came to recognize the value of their new employees. But it is not just the employers who become educated through the work placements. Coworkers and the community gain from seeing that "we're people, just like you."
     Making room for inclusion in society should be something that everyone takes on as a personal responsibility, Wells comments near the end.
     Some of the employers — their new employees at work in background shots — speak directly to the viewers in encouraging them to be involved, even suggesting to "call me" if they feel hesitant.
     One of the strongest non-verbal messages throughout the video is the way in which the speakers' names appear on screen during each interview clip. It is striking because it is presented without discrimination, as though it was the ordinary thing to do: consumers, professionals, business leaders, providers.
     There are no "John Doe" consumers; everyone is equal in status.
     In the same way, the closing credits do not cluster names into "which group" they spoke from or identify "roles." Playing off a movie format, it lists, "starring in order of appearance..."
     Playing hard-nosed reviewer, I could only find a few spots that had rough edges. One of the main speakers was noticeably recorded with poorer video quality than the others, and several had a pasty appearance to them. This only had a negative effect on one person, where the lighting and her features combined to present her as somewhat frightening in appearance.
     It would have strengthened the message as well if the employer-employee matches were less obviously all for very low entry levels of work. It did help to have some of the other consumers who were clearly more independent and engaged in competitive jobs.
     The video was the ideal length: not too long to begin to drag, but long enough to make each point effectively. Avoiding use of a narrator also allowed it to emphasize each point without becoming repetitive, since topics were reenforced by restatement in different ways by different individuals.
     This very skillfully edited video took on the challenging task of numerous shifts among speakers to keep the action flowing, while still maintaining a unified message and tone.
     It was directed by George Nostrand, a consumer-employee at VOW, and edited by Marcos Levy, with Kitty Gallagher of Kitty's Eye View as chief videographer. More than 100 people contributed to the project in some way.
     Funding came from a grant from the Orton Family Foundation, Rutland Mental Health Services, and private donors. For more information, contact the VOW office at (802) 786-4935 or vow@sover.net.