The world continues to be challenged amidst the global pandemic, with ongoing uncertainty and an infrastructure that is buckling under the sheer weight of resilience and Government decision. Inevitably, it is still the communities and people who inhabit them that are both directly and indirectly affected on a number of levels.
One of the key issues that is not just related to this, but also to all manner of other principles of the current world, is the increasingly important issue of mental health and mental illness – and it is this that provides the basis for an enlightening new documentary that although it is focusing on one demographic of society, namely teenagers, it is very much a documentary for all demographics.
It is something that people like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have focused on with charities like Heads Together – and in his role as President of the English Football Association, The Duke has been meeting with sportspeople who struggle to adapt once the buzz and roar of the crowd has stopped when they have reached a certain age when the physical demands are no longer enough to ensure that place at the top of their sport.
Noemi Weis’ CONNECTING THE DOTS follows one such affected individual, Nathan Harmon, who in the last five years has become a motivational speaker across schools in the USA in order to make the students he lectures and talks to understand that their problems are not uncommon and universal amongst their own communities and that of those around the world.
Intercut with real-life vlogs from individuals who are chronicling their own emotional revelations, as well as Harmon’s meet-ups with some of the affected people, Harmon talks of ‘points of impact’ at the outset of the film, where certain experiences can be dwelled on and can have both positive and negative effects. In addition, there is talk within the talk of whether the cost of therapy is enough on an emotional and financial basis, as well as who is genuinely responsible for making sure people are OK.
We also learn of Harmon’s own personal struggles, having been eleven years free of his own suicidal thoughts and anguishes, making him the perfect imperfect candidate to help others overcome what he has been through and it is action that does affect his own wife and two children, given that he travels thousands of miles by air and road to over two hundred schools to give people context and insights.
However, the film is not just focusing on the effect on those who have been picked on in school, but also the effect of those who are doing the bullying and picking, which Nathan expresses as a point of reference for these individuals who he says are only trying to matter in the world. Whether or not it prompts these individuals to change their behaviour and stop people from being driven out of their environment remains to be seen.
If there was ever a case for a film to bring together people in the communal viewing experience that cinema has provided for over a century, it is CONNECTING THE DOTS. It is a movie that should not be relegated to a limited cinema release as per most documentaries. It is a film that needs to start and provide a consistent reminder to not just the generation it talks to, but also the generations around them that it affects. It is a movie that should endure across the board – and should remind older generations that the only gap that matters is the one that should be filled with love and support for those who are closest to you.
Essentially, it is a movie that should be placed as a permanent fixture on all mental health charity websites and related YouTube channels dealing with the issues, as well as becoming part of every college, school and university archive.
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