2016 Annual Conference: MHA Film Festival

Drue Metz has been writing and directing his entire life. He has trained at some of the best films school in the world (CSULB, UCLA, USC) and has written, directed, producer or contributed to over 60 films to date. He has directed branded content for Apple Inc, Persol Sunglasses, and has received numerous awards for his short films and screenplays. Drue has written, directed, produced, or contributed to over 60 films and videos to date. Recently, he directed part of James Franco‘s feature film adaptation of Don Quixote. Metz is currently directing commercials and music videos for production companies Swanky Flicks & Replay Collective and just finished directing and co-writing a television pilot for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions. Drue is the director of the short film, The Love Effect, which chronicles the journey of two men wrestling with depression and suicide and how their unexpected friendship helps them rediscover life's greatest gift.

Tyler Atkins is an Award winning Australian actor and writer, known for his role in Australia's Puberty Blues. His latest project is starring in and co-writing the short film, The Love Effect, which chronicles the journey of two men wrestling with depression and suicide and how their unexpected friendship helps them rediscover life's greatest gift. The story came to Tyler after his dear friend took her own life.

Ari Blinder spent his adolescent years all over the east coast (New York, Boston & Florida). He started his acting career in Atlanta, GA after graduating from Emory University with a B.A. in Film & Theater Studies. He then came to Los Angeles and enrolled in the 2 year Meisner Program at The Ruskin School of Acting. Ari has had the pleasure of working on some of the most exciting shows on TV including: The Young and the Restless (CBS), Homeland (Showtime), The Mentalist (CBS), Banshee (Cinemax), and many others. Additionally, Ari writes and produces his own work and his film The Gerstein Report played at the Cannes Film Festival. In his latest project, Ari co-stars with Tyler Atkins in the short film, The Love Effect,

Paul Dalio is the Director of Touched With Fire. Paul began screenwriting at age 20, when he attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, dramatic writing program. When he graduated in 2004 he relocated to Los Angeles to work for a film producer. Shortly after arriving, he suffered his first manic episode and was diagnosed bipolar. For three years Dalio was in and out of hospitals. During that time he immersed himself in the New York underground rap-battle scene under the alias “Luna” (short for lunatic). To support himself Dalio made documentaries for non-profits while writing a rap musical film about a boy’s descent into hell. In 2006 Dalio attended NYU’s graduate film school but during orientation week had another manic episode and was hospitalized. During the depression he got a job in construction and took up poetry as a means of coping. Upon recovery he returned to NYU where he met his wife and collaborator, Kristina Nikolova. His professor, Spike Lee, became a mentor to Dalio and offered to executive produce the rap musical he had written during his swings. His wife urged him to pursue his more personal script, “Touched with Fire.” He presented it to Spike who believed in it and came on board as executive producer.

Glenn Holsten is an award-winning director of documentary films. He is the Director and Producer of Hollywood Beauty Salon, a colorful and inspiring documentary about surviving mental illness and violence, struggling with loss, and finding courage for recovery. He recently toured the festival circuit with OC87: The Obsessive-Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie, a feature-length documentary about recovery from the depths of mental illness through filmmaking. His film Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968, a documentary produced in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, focuses exclusively on the forgotten women of Pop Art. His film Saint of 9/11, a biography of Father Mychal Judge, the Chaplain to the New York City Fire Department who died on 9/11, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in May, 2006.

Oryx Cohen is a leader in the international consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement.  Currently he is the Director of the National Empowerment Center’s Technical Assistance Center. Oryx is featured in Agnes’s Jacket, a book by Gail Hornstein, where Oryx and fellow Freedom Center co-founder Will Hall are compared to the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Oryx is also a board member of the Hearing Voices Network USA and an Emotional CPR trainer.  Oryx co-produced and stars in the documentary Healing Voices, which will be released in the spring of 2016.

PJ Moynihan is a Writer/Director and Emmy-nominated Producer who graduated from Columbia University in 2002 and founded Digital Eyes Film. His first documentary Fight Town (2004) broadcast on WGBY-PBS. Eye on the Dream (2007), a ten-part documentary about amateur baseball which Moynihan produced and directed, was presented by Verizon and aired nationally on Comcast Sports Network. In 2010, he co-created and executive produced Reel Hardball, a collection of documentaries which were among the first independent films to premiere on Major League Baseball Network. In addition to his on-going documentary work, Moynihan is co-producer of Spaceman (2016), a scripted feature about former major league baseball player and counterculture icon Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee, starring Josh Duhamel. Moynihan is the producer, writer, and director of Healing Voices, a new documentary about mental health which is premiering globally via an aggressive grassroots non-theatrical release on April 29, 2016. 

Gayathri Ramprasad is the Founder and President of ASHA International a nonprofit organization promoting personal, organizational, and community wellness. And, the author of Shadows in the Sun: Healing from Depression and Finding the Light Within. Her successful battle in overcoming life-threatening mental illness and her amazing recovery taught her the power of hope and holistic wellness. Now, she shares that message with others. Since the launch of ASHA International’s wellness campaign, Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives in 2006, Gayathri’s keynotes, wellness workshops, and cultural competence trainings have reached more than 45,000 people nationally and internationally, with a resounding message of hope and healing. Gayathri is a Certified Peer Specialist (CPS), a member of the Global Speakers Federation and winner of the prestigious Eli Lilly Welcome Back Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Voice Award for Consumer Leadership sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She is also the winner of the 2008 Outstanding Alumna Award from her alma mater George Fox University.

Rick Goldsmith is the producer and director of Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw, and is a twice-Academy-Award-nominated filmmaker, most recently for The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. His documentary films address important social issues, have been broadcast nationwide and internationally, and are used in high schools, colleges, universities and by activist and community organizations in the U.S. and throughout the world.  During the production of Mind/Game Rick was awarded a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship at the Carter Center, 2013-2014, and upon completion of Mind/Game, Rick won a VOICE Award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) in 2015.

Ben Selkow is an award-winning, sixteen-year veteran filmmaker. He has directed and produced non-fiction pieces for HBO, Discovery Channel, Science Channel, CNN, Pivot TV, Sundance TV, Esquire Network, PBS World, and Fox Sports Net. As an independent filmmaker, he is widely known for his 2007 film A Summer in the Cage about bipolar disorder – that has been screened extensively in mental health settings around the country. The film won an MHA award in 2009 and was nominated for the PRISM Bipolar Depiction Award. Ben is the director, producer and cinematographer for Buried Above Ground (2015), his latest documentary film that explores the harrowing stories of three Americans living with the burdens of PTSD. Ben was a Mental Health Journalism Fellow at the Carter Center (2010-2011). He graduated from Wesleyan University’s Film Studies Program with Honors in 1997.