Head War screening

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, poet Sadie McCarney and videographer Adam-Michael James will screen their short film Head War at Beaconsfield Carriage House on May 19 at 7:30 pm. The event will include a Q&A and a speaker from the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).

McCarney, who once underwent inpatient care for bipolar psychosis, took exact words from her medical records and formed them into the 2021 poetry chapbook Head War (Frog Hollow Press), looking to change the narrative of her experience and find the power in it. That same year, she performed the material at the Island Fringe Festival and was presented with its Oscar Wilde Award. Soon after, McCarney approached James to adapt Head War into a screenplay.

Applauding McCarney’s bravery in taking her journey public, James sought to make its cinematic representation as honest as possible, pulling from the chapbook’s grittiness but also its sense of the surreal. Conversely, McCarney, the film’s sole star, allowed James expansive creative freedom to be brutal in visualizing the facing of one’s demons while also lampooning flaws in health care. James feels that Head War, which was part of Chicago’s Mental Filmness Film Festival, is “poignant, disturbing, funny…and hopeful.”

There is no admission, but good will donations will be contributed to the CMHA.

McCarney has since published ECW Press’ The Bright Afters, released in April, and Your Therapist Says It’s Magical Thinking, which won the PEI Book Award for Poetry. James co-wrote the multimedia musical The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery, and one of his several music videos took honours at the Charlottetown Film Festival. He currently hosts the podcast isletunes, which focuses on Island musicians.

Content warning: suicidal ideation and attempted sexual assault.