British filmmaker Calum Macdiarmid captures the reality of mental illness in a striking dance short featuring movement artist Harry Price, filmed during the height of lockdown in London last year.

"Stillness initially began as a reaction to the pandemic in terms of space and the regaining of public spaces,” says Macdiarmid. “However, as the film, dance, and the pandemic evolved, it quickly became all about mental health.”

Price’s emotive manifestation of anguish and internal torment is made the more severe by its contrast with the tranquil glamor of London’s sleeping skyline. The overwhelming stresses of the global pandemic and the adverse effect it has had on personal wellbeing have brought conversations about mental health into the public forum. Stillness is a confession, a manifesttaion of a hidden reality revealing that millions of people with mental health conditions have been “roaring, howling, screeching in silence”—words taken from the poem, which were expertly penned by the director’s brother, Fionn.

“In the last sentence I asked Fionn if there was a way we could end the poem with a call to action that felt empowering and I suggested '"a way to fight mental health,"” says Macdiarmid. “He went away and came back with "a way to live with mental health," which was so much more truthful.”

Calum Macdiarmid is an artist and director who works globally for clients such as Saatchi M&C, Rainy Kelly Y&R, and the BBC. His work is connected to the aesthetics of beauty and light, and finding new techniques to tell stories that incite the immagination.