Within a landscape shaped by war and resilience, and to the quiet astonishment of audiences everywhere, Ukrainian filmmakers are still rolling.
In this session, filmmakers will be invited to turn their lens inward – to witness, listen to, and care for their own experiences. It’s also an opportunity to notice the complexity of what lives inside us and affects our relationships as we keep going – fear and strength, numbness and fire, exhaustion and vision – and to begin respecting all of those parts as part of the creative, human and collective process. This is a conversation that is as much about healing as it is about honoring.
It is also an invitation to see mental health and trauma informed care as a core component of safety planning, not a side issue. Serra will share tools created specifically for filmmakers for emotional preparation before production, care for crews, ethical engagement with participants, mindful editing practices, and post production care.
The session will be followed by a facilitated group process – a space to feel, express, and listen together into the different roles, ghosts, edges, relationship dynamics, belief systems, and larger social forces that shape our shared experience.
Serra Ciliv is a UKCP accredited trainee psychotherapist and a facilitator with Processwork UK. She is also a part of Film in Mind, a collective of practitioners who advocate for better mental health in the film industry, providing consultation and therapy for the filmmaking community.
Serra’s studies and work experience have focused on forms of belonging and opposition; feminism and ecology; experiences of displacement and marginalisation, trauma and forms of care, solidarity and resilience. She acted as director of !f istanbul Film Festival for 18 years, and now considers her facilitation practice to be a trauma-informed, process-oriented extension of her cultural work.
Serra accompanies her clients by creating space for all voices to emerge, and to trust in the intelligence of all the processes that are alive, even when ridden with conflict.
Access to the event is free with prior registration.
