The Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts

About The Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creates, supports, and examines original narrative screenwriting, television writing, and media making centered on mental health. Student filmmakers, faculty, and board members will engage with the studio lab through new works creation, courses, and special events aimed at tackling complex topics, amplifying marginalized voices, challenging stereotypes, modeling best behaviors on stage and screen, and pursuing healing through innovation and inquiry. It has been well documented that the mass media—the public’s most significant source of information about mental health—has long perpetuated a deeply negative stigma around the subject. Through one-dimensional viewpoints, inaccurate portrayals, and depictions centered around fear and shame, the media has reinforced discriminatory behavior around those with mental illness and propagated impediments to treatment and recovery.