Normalising Vulnerable Masculinity One Confession At A Time
“The Voices of Men” tackles the highly stigmatised issue of men’s mental health, who are far more likely to die from suicide than women.
Director Jonny White talks us through his filming process and his ambitions for the film, our latest Free of the Week:
Edit: ‘Free of the Week’ is now ‘Short of the Week’.
Men’s mental health is an issue that is established in the foundations of early childhood and education. Boys are laughed at for crying, they’re told to grow up and man up. Men are three times more likely to die by suicide than woman in the UK, and in many other countries this is much higher. I created this film to help fight the stigma attached to men expressing their emotions and try to normalise vulnerable masculinity.
It took around a month to complete the project from first reaching out to men for their stories. I shot and edited the film myself in Leeds with two of my closest non-actor friends who agreed to feature in the film. It was important to me to keep the project small-scale. I used my Panasonic GH5 to shoot the film, which took some post-production work in Premiere Pro to achieve the analogue look. The aim was to keep the shots visually minimal, to not overpower the men’s words.
As filmmakers I feel it’s our responsibility to tell all stories, including the untold ones. A lot of men struggle in silence, including many of our friends who we may have no idea about. This film, I hope, has given the brave men involved a safe platform to anonymously tell their stories, as well as inspiring and resonating with audiences of all demographics. If someone can take anything from this film, I would like to think it may be that they see something in themselves and know they’re not alone, or perhaps inspire others to be a little more considerate and empathetic. You never know what someone is going through – it’s an invisible illness, an invisible killer.
Free of the Week is our series dedicated to the best documentaries that are available to watch for free. Get in touch to pitch yours.
