Positive psychology: A promotional poster for the movie documentary How to Thrive: a practical guide to happiness, which is showing in Shepparton.
It is more than a little ironic that a documentary about thriving mentally almost stalled because of the challenges its crew and cast faced making it through the height of COVID-19 restrictions.
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“We struggled through COVID with the various lockdowns,” director and creator Duy Huynh said.
The lockdowns and restrictions began being implemented while the crew was undergoing an extended stint filming in a bush location.
“When we came out of the woods, literally, we returned to empty supermarket shelves and no toilet paper, an apocalyptic scene,” Mr Huynh said.
The film-makers’ response was to provide the seven participants of the film with the ability to film themselves where the crew had originally planned to do so.
“We just had to practise our own medicine, I guess, and pivot and work out what can we do,” Mr Huynh said.
“It didn’t feel the right thing to do, to say, ‘Let’s just stop the intervention and restart when we’re out of the lockdown’.
“What we did get was very intimate and amazing moments of sharing and epiphany that perhaps we wouldn’t have got with 10 people (crew) in the room, so there was good and bad.”
How to Thrive: a practical guide to happiness follows seven participants with mental health issues on a transformative journey towards long-term wellbeing and happiness.
“We know quite a lot about what works well for us as humans, but a lot of people don’t have access to it,” Mr Huynh said.
“It’s very well researched and there are approaches that have been clinically trialled that aren’t used clinically.”
Mr Huynh said the film was a response to a growing mental health crisis and it asked if the science of happiness was offered to people experiencing challenges, would that make a difference.
“I want to focus on what is strong about us, not what is wrong with us,” he said.
“Human beings have an inbuilt negativity bias. This was great for when we needed that mindset to survive, like being wary of sabre-tooth tigers, but the skills we need to survive now are very different.”
Positive lessons: Director and creator Duy Huynh (centre), on set for the filming of How to Thrive: a practical guide to happiness, wants the film to encourage people to focus on their strengths.
The film participants were measured on their levels of psychological, physical and social wellbeing at the start, end and 12 months after their intervention under the guidance of positive psychotherapist Marie McLeod.
“We are seeing an avalanche of mental health crises at the moment because we’ve lost touch with many of the skills that create connection, compassion and optimism,” Mr Huynh said.
“There are things we can all do every day to take back control of our wellbeing and live a happier, healthier and more meaningful life.”
The documentary will be shown at the Village Cinemas in Shepparton on Sunday, October 16 at 4pm to coincide with Mental Health Week, and again on Wednesday, October 26 at 6.30pm.
The session on October 26 will include a question and answer session with director and creator Duy Huynh, producer Andrew Kelly and positive psychotherapist Marie McLeod.
