Mindfulness – Persona Film I/S

Persona film has produced several movies about mindfulness. All movies are produced in cooperation with Lone Overby Fjorback, PhD, MD, Psychiatrist, Associate Professor of Medicine and director of the Danish Center for Mindfulness, Aarhus University

Other experts in our films are: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindful Schools, Richard Davidson and Daniel Siegel.

For Children

Healthy habits of mind (41 min.)

With increased number of students in the classes in elementary school, the focus on children’s well being is more important than ever. Children often move in environments with high levels of external stimuli. Not just in school , but also at home with computer, TV, cell phones, small and large game consoles. Every fifth child is in Denmark is affected by Stress, which has important implications for learning and it is a problem for the social climate and learning environment.

Healthy Habits of Mind shows how kindergarteners at Oxford Elementary School in Berkeley, California are introduced to mindfulness during their school day. The students are taught mindful listening, mindful eating, mindful movement, and yoga by their classroom teacher. The film peeks into this course, taught by Mindful Schools Program Directors Megan Cowan and Chris McKenna. The movie also features leading neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson explaining how mindfulness affects brain function, and Megan explaining how mindfulness helps in schools.

This documentary shows a wide range of options for simple mindfulness exercises that can be integrated into other activities in kindergarten and preschool. And it shows examples of best practice with exercises tailored to children aged 4-7: in shorter intervals and where play and movement are integrated.

WORKING WITH PRESENCE IN PRESCHOOL (21 min.)

The film follows the children in a Preschool in Denmark, who will attend school next year. The teachers have the last three years, worked structured with presence, slowness and immersion. The children get during the day breaks doing breathing exercises or artistic work. The Teachers can see that it helps the children to calm down. Presence and immersion does not come by itself in an institution – it requires conscious work of teachers.

For Adolescence

According to studies and the media, young people have never experienced more stress. We have developed a society and culture, where adolescents have their sights firmly set on the future – which leads to a lot of stress.

The film ‘On top of everything’ is about young people, stress and mental health. It follows a group of adolescents ages 15-20 as they participate in an 8-week course in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) at the Danish Center for Mindfulness, Aarhus University. Their teacher is Lone Fjordback, Center director and chief physician, who has practiced yoga and meditation for 30 years and is among the country’s leading mindfulness researchers.

The film explains what stress is, how to understand it, and how our brain and thoughts work. Professor of child psychiatry Daniel Siegel, author of the book ‘Brainstorm’, describes how teenage brains develop, and how practicing mindfulness can strengthen the developing brain.

As an adolescent, your brain has great potential, which is why training your mental-health is specifically beneficial during those years. It is when many changes occur, and demands are placed. Practicing being present in the ‘now’ and letting go of the need to have everything under control is healthy for the body, mind and heart.

The film is produced by Mette Bahnsen, Persona Film, and supported by the Ministry of Education. It is directed by Mette Bahnsen and Michael Staal Dinesen. Since 2001, Persona Film has produced educational, documentary and ethnographic films to museums, hospitals, schools and universities, among others.

FOR ADULTS

Mindful medicin (59 min.)

Research shows that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an effective method to prevent stress, anxiety and depression. Many also feel that the method leads to improved quality of life and well-being. ” Mindful Medicine ” follows a MBSR group of eight weeks. Participants of the course have different backgrounds and reasons for participating . We follow three main participants – Rikke, Marlene and David. Rikke has BDS – bodily distress syndrome and struggling especially with fatigue and depression. Marlene has stress and migraine and David would like live more balanced. During the course they all discover new sides of themselves and we get a glimpse of that meditation is hard work – and sometimes can be frustrating. But the method opens a perhaps hidden way into a sense of community, connectedness and an opportunity to contain conflicting emotions.

Lone Fjorback is the MBSR teacher in the film. She is a consultant at the Aarhus University Hospital, conducts research and mindfulness treatment , and is the Director of Education at the Danish Center for Mindfulness at Aarhus University. In the film there are interviews with the founder of MBSR and professor of medicine Jon Kabat – Zinn and neuroscientist, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, and founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, Richard J Davidson. The film is aimed at all those with an interest in mindfulness and considering participating in an MBSR course.

“Mindful Medicine” is produced by Mette Bahnsen, Persona Film, with financial support from TrygFonden. Persona film has since 2001 produced educational films, documentaries, ethnographic films for museums , hospitals, schools and universities. Mette Bahnsen has previously made films about mindfulness for children and educational films for schools and psychiatry.

ONLINE MBSR (Danish Language)

Online mindfulnessbased stressreduction course, developed by Lone Overby Fjorback, PhD, MD, Psychiatrist, Associate Professor of Medicine and director of the Danish Center for Mindfulness. ONLINE MBSR consists of eight sessions of one and a half to two hours duration and a session of 6 hours.
Each session contains a number of simply structured points consisting of video clips, text and audio clips, as you follow point by point.

This film is based on the research project “Mindfulness and compassion training for health professionals working in palliative care”, where mindfulness (MBSR) is used systematically by health professionals. Like this film, the research project is supported by Velliv Foreningen.

The research project shows how hospice staff can benefit from the mindfulness and compassion training. When they experience stress or emotional pressure, the method can help them regain peace of mind, by connecting to their body or their breath and put worries on hold.”

The film is made to spread knowledge and tools for mindfulness and compassion training. It can be used in connection with the teaching of health professionals who might benefit from implementing mindfulness and compassion training in their daily work.

An ethnographic film, 58 min.

The suspension of verbal and perceptive judgment, the suspension of conceptual superimpositions on lived experience, is the common ground of both phenomenology and meditative practice. But how does one suspend judgment? How does it feel? What kinds of understanding of ourselves and our relation to others and to the world may unfold through this particular operation?

In May 2019, 40 phenomenologists and meditators met near Loire valley to form a living laboratory. Their purpose was to investigate the experience of épochè; a central concept in phenomenology, often referred to as the act of suspending judgment.

This film documents how new understandings emerge in interactions between phenomenologists and experienced meditators. Through microphenomenological interviews and meditation they come to see the contours of specific micro-acts and micro-events that appear to be key to our ability of suspending judgment.

Directed by: Christian Suhr and Claire Petitmengin
Filmed by: Christian Suhr
Edited by: Mette Bahnsen
Produced by: Christian Suhr, Mette Bahnsen, Claire Petitmengin, Natalie Depraz, and Michel Bitbol