PIECES - Feature Film Screening @ The Backlot

Following the World Premiere at CinefestOz 2022 and opening of WA Mental Health Week 2022, PIECES (95min) will be screening across Australian cinemas in October 2022.

An Art Teacher and her recovery class are commissioned to make the backdrop for a professional dance performance. As a documentary film crew record the process they uncover the incredible personal stories of the students and their challenges with mental illness.

Directed by Martin Wilson (Great White) and written by Monique Wilson

Starring Monique Wilson, Dalip Sondhi, Allegra Teo, David Genat, Murray Dowsett, Luke Jai McIntosh, Justin Hewitt, Megan Aspinall, Alex Arco, Milu, Green, Katherine Marmion, Ashanti Suriyam & Jasmine Lucas.

Please be aware this film may contain themes and topics which may be triggering for some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised

PIECES is a collaboration between Third Storey Pictures, HelpingMinds and Factor 30 Films, with funding from Maria Halphen from the Philippe & Maria Halphen Foundation & Meeting For Minds, and Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. The release of Pieces is supported by the Western Australian Mental Health Commission and Halo Films.

WHAT AUDIENCES ARE SAYING

"PIECES sets out to destigmatise and highlight the eclectic strings of mental illness which runs through all families, and it presents this message with a striking visual style with that has great power and nuance. The filmmakers purposefully avoid mentioning diagnosis or discussion of symptoms, this really seemed to give the film permission to focus on loss and the grittiness and granularity of our interpersonal lives with emotionally fractured frames, through community, bravery and resilience, and with all the imperfections of authentic love and hope."

• Dr Nathan Gibson - Chief Psychiatrist, Western Australia

"I found PIECES to be very inspirational and its approach in trying to breakdown traditional stereotypes, particularly in the post Covid period as we have a surge for need in care is very timely and appropriate."

-Professor Patrick McGorry AO - MD, BS, PhD, FRANZCP, FAA, FASSA, FAHMS 2010 Australian of the Year

★★★★ "Bold, powerful and intense. Pieces is pure cinematic perfection."

• Matthew Eeles - Cinema Australia

"PIECES is a powerful drama, visually acute and personally confronting, dealing with family and social circumstances any of us could face. It doesn’t proselytize rather it lays out the territory, some of which is disturbing. But not all, it does show how the light can shine through even in the darkest of terrain. We do need to know about these things and Pieces helps us along the way. A must see and a must talk about afterwards."

• Professor Emeritus Geoff Gallop AC

"While I could wax lyrical about the outstanding artistic qualities of PIECES, I was especially moved by the film’s honouring of people like me. These were real characters, fully formed and human, with universal human struggles and desires. They were greater than walking diagnoses, they were rich and multi-faceted, they were greater than objects of sympathy or inspiration fodder. They were human. Utterly human. I’m not sure how often I’ve seen that simple dignity in films about people like me"

• Paul Werzel Montague - Mental Health Advocate and Educator PLEX

DOORS 6PM - FILM 6.30PM Tickets $20

This is a public event open to the whole community.