Vladimir Film Festival

BRF: Writ­ing Towards Well-Being

Fažana / Kasarna DIY / 20 - 22 / 9 / 2024 / Talk

Last year’s work­shop session

The Ben Rae­mers Found­a­tion presents: Writ­ing Towards Well-Being Workshops

The Writ­ing Towards Well-Being work­shops return to Vladi­mir for the second year run­ning. This work­shop series con­siders how the lit­er­at­ure and writ­ing skills that go into skate cul­ture – from magazine inter­views to nam­ing tricks to mak­ing zines – can be used to prac­tice self-expres­sion and cul­tiv­ate men­tal well-being. The health bene­fits of keep­ing a journ­al­ing prac­tice (the focus of our first ses­sion), for example, are well doc­u­mented. As Bri­an Ander­son said in a 2022 SMiLe film, ‘[with writ­ing], you can be angry or you can be happy at oth­er people and frus­trated and write it all down, you can have that for your­self’. A second ses­sion con­siders poetry and memory and a third explores char­ac­ter build­ing in fic­tion as a means of fos­ter­ing empathy. Through­out, we will con­sider how writ­ing can work as an act ‘for your­self’ – for self-care – through build­ing a deep­er under­stand­ing of ourselves and those around us.

These ses­sions are inform­al: they invite broad dis­cus­sions about skate­board­ing, cre­at­ive writ­ing and men­tal health. The aim is to cre­ate space – in per­son and with our writ­ing – to read, write and reflect. We may touch on dif­fi­cult sub­jects, but our aim is to exper­i­ment with some skat­ing-inspired writ­ing exer­cises, rather than offer­ing form­al train­ing or therapy.

Ses­sions will take place by the DIY skate­park at Kasarna:

  1. Journ­alling (fol­low­ing the screen­ing of Lands End) Fri­day 20/9 MMC Fažana [time TBC]
  2. Poetry Sat­urday 21/9 Kas­arna DIY [time TBC]
  3. Char­ac­ter-build­ing Sunday 22/9 Kas­arna DIY [time TBC]

Here is the form for apply­ing. The work­shops – each run­ning for up to two hours – are loosely split into two halves: the first involves group dis­cus­sion and read­ing, and the second a writ­ing exer­cise. Par­ti­cipants can expect feed­back in a sup­port­ive and non-judge­ment­al for­um. No pri­or exper­i­ence of cre­at­ive writ­ing is neces­sary. Please arrive as close to the start time as you can. You are also wel­come to stop by without tak­ing part in the exercise.