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This October, the Star & Shadow cinema invites you on journey to explore your perceptions of mental illness through film.

Featuring award-winning Australian clay animation, ground-breaking French documentary and giant invisible rabbits, this season of five films raises the question: What do we mean when we talk about mental illness?

Advance Season Tickets allowing access to all 6 films are now available priced at £20 or £14 for concessions from:http://www.wegottickets.com/event/187541

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In February 2009 the Star and Shadow hosted the Madness on Film season, a programme of films sharing the theme of ‘madness’ and its perception as a state of something other than the norm.The season stirred up some interesting questions about the use of the term ‘madness’ and its perception. This upcoming season, entitled Between an Elephant‘s Toes and Trunk after is programmed in collaboration with Newcastle and Gateshead Art Studio (NAGAS)with the intention of addressing some of the issues raised.

Season programmer Andrew Wilson said: “Popular media – cinema included - have a long history of portraying mental illness in individuals set apart from a cultural notion of normality. You don’t have to be a movie geek to quickly summon up numerous examples of this:, Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho, Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, even Michael Myers in Halloween.

“But more recently, films like Rain Man, Forrest Gump and A Beautiful Mind have presented us with analternate, often sympathetic, view of the mentally ill. But what these films all have in common, whatever their approach, is their tendency to isolate the individual, the madman, the ‘nutter’, the mentally unstable and identify this single character, whether they be psychotic murderer or troubled genius, as something set apart from our socially accepted concept of the ­­­­­norm.

“Between and Elephant’s Toes and Trunk will explore what we mean by mental illness and, furthermore, who decides the socially accepted norm from which we make our judgements.”

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Tickets for each film cost £5 on the night, or £3.50 for concessions.

Advance tickets costing £4.50 or £3 concessions will be available from:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/185322

No one will be turned away from Star and Shadow Cinema for lack of funds. The Star and Shadow welcomes those seeking asylum for whom there is no entry charge.

The Cinema is fully accessible for wheelchair users.

Programmers notes:

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Throughout the season each screening will be accompanied by musical and spoken word performances, Q+A discussions and a selection of short film screenings: Full accompanied line up to be confirmed.

Newcastle and Gateshead Art Studio (NAGAS), located directly opposite the Star and Shadow, is an art studio that provides an innovative range of creative based services for those who are, or at risk of experiencing diagnosed mental health problems and other forms of social exclusion.

For more information visit: http://www.chillistudios.co.uk/