FRAMES OF MIND Mental Health Film Series | "Great Absence", Wednesday December 18 | The Cinematheque

A monthly film series promoting professional and community education on issues pertaining to mental health and illness. Presented by The Cinematheque and the Institute of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry. Screenings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month at The Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St, Vancouver, BC.

Great Absence (大いなる不在)

Japan 2023 (133 min. DCP)
Director: Chika-ura Kei
Wednesday December 18th @ 7:00pm
The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St)

Film Description

Vancouver Premier

“Beguiling … One of the finest Japanese independent films of the past few years.”
– Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter

After 71-year-old Yohji, a retired professor with a mysterious past, is diagnosed with dementia, his son Takashi is forced to reconcile not only with his father’s newly intensified illness, but also with the nuances of their fractured relationship. Estranged from his father for nearly twenty-five years after the divorce of his parents, Takashi has built a career as an actor in Tokyo—a path that seemingly disappoints his overly critical father. After Yohji is sent to live in a care home, his second wife Naomi is nowhere to be found. In a fog of distorted memories and paranoia, he tells his son that she committed suicide, leading Takashi on a quest for the truth of what happened. Intercut with flashbacks and set against the lush landscape of Omuto in southern Japan, Chika-ura’s sophomore feature offers carefully composed cinematography and measured performances to deliver a suspenseful yet contemplative family drama.

In Japanese with English subtitles

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“A moving drama … The story of Great Absence is something of a mystery, structured quite magnificently … In the end, [it] contains the grace that arises from a great struggle.” Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

Post-screening Discussion:

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Takashi Inoue, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist from Japan. Dr. Inoue studied at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine and completed his residency in psychiatry in Tokyo. After a visiting fellowship at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC, Dr. Inoue is now based in Calgary, where he practices as a psychiatrist.

Moderated by Dr. Paige Zhang, series assistant-director and an emergency and consultation-liaison psychiatrist at Vancouver General Hospital.

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The Department is deeply saddened to share the news that Dr. Karen Trueman passed away on November 16, 2024. Dr. Trueman worked with the Interior Health Authority as a psychiatrist at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital and joined the UBC Department of Psychiatry as a Clinical Instructor in 2014.

Dr. Trueman completed both her Medical Degree and Residency programs with UBC. She was in the first graduating class from the UBC-UNBC Northern Medical Program, educating physicians in northern and rural communities to serve the local populations. She was then among the first in her postgraduate program to complete a psychiatry residency in Victoria, in 2013. After graduation, she began practicing in Trail, BC, where, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, she initiated a tele-psychiatry project for Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital to address the pandemic restrictions and changing needs in rural communities. She also selflessly committed herself to ALS research at the University of Alberta, travelling from Rossland, BC to Edmonton, Alberta every three months, despite her continuous loss of function during her own battle with the disease.

Dr. Trueman will be remembered as a compassionate and respected psychiatrist within the Interior Healthy Authority who dedicated eleven years of her life to helping her patients, right up until two months before her passing. She will be sorely missed by her young family, friends and colleagues. The UBC Department of Psychiatry wishes to send our sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Dr. Trueman during this profoundly difficult time.

If you wish to read her full obituary or offer support in honour of Dr. Trueman, please do so by visiting her Memorial Page here.

Congratulations to Dr. Trisha Chakrabarty (PI) and Dr. Jennifer Coelho(PI) recipients of Convening and Collaborating (C2) Awards and to Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez (PI) recipient of a Reach Award from Michael Smith Health Research BC!

Dr. Trisha Chakrabarty is an Assistant Professor with the UBC Department of Psychiatry, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research health professional investigator, and consultant psychiatrist at the Mood Disorders Centre of Excellence. Her research project with co-lead Dr. Tracy Windsor (DMCBH), XR Technology to Support Students with Mood Disorders: Co-Developing a Research Agenda, looks at how Extended reality (XR) can address some of the barriers of mood disorders (depressive and bipolar disorders) that affect many Canadian post-secondary students and can severely impact functioning.

Dr. Jennifer Coelho is a Clinical Associate Professor with the UBC Department of Psychiatry, lead for the BC Eating Disorders Research Cluster, and Psychologist at BC Children’s Hospital. Her project with co-lead Dr. Kim Williams, Early Intervention for Eating Disorders in British Columbia: Co-Development of a Research Strategy, considers the surge in eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic which contributed to a workforce crisis, and looks at how the innovative early intervention model in general mental health settings which is being developed for the Canadian context shows significant promise for early intervention.

Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez is an Associate Professor with the UBC Department of Psychiatry and Director, NINET Labs whose research focuses on translational research that bridges our understanding on the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders with the clinical applications of this knowledge. His project, Enhancing Public Understanding of Interventional Brain Medicine through Lay Abstracts and Social Media Education, aims to create extended lay abstracts for approximately 80 research papers produced by his lab that focus on Interventional Brain Medicine technologies. These abstracts will translate complex research outcomes into easily understandable summaries for non-specialists

View the full list of C2 and Research awardees and learn more about their research project, here…