There’s still a few days left to catch the Scottish Mental Health Arts festival which explores the relationship between creativity and the mind. It’s screening online at INDY on demand and has been hugely inventive with its ticket prices, setting an offer of ‘pay what you can’ to access some award winning, smart, thoughtful and sensitive drama.

Renowned playwright and artsy all-rounder Zinnie Harris takes her directorial skills into a new arena with her movie debut A Glimpse. It’s a confident and solid family drama, taking an intimate look at childbirth, depression and the labours of longing.

A typically rumbustious nuclear household is disrupted when wife and mother Kate is left to dump some stuff in the family attic.  The atmosphere up here feels like it belongs to another time, and she discovers a little hatch that gives a sneaky peek into somebody’s pain and depression.

Convinced that she’s having some kind of mental health issue, Kate determines to push herself further into darkest depths of the attic. The story that emerges from her journey is intense and traumatic but ultimately sweet and uplifting.

Hypnotic and detailed performances from Kirsty Stuart and Jordan Young nail the realism of the set-up, while Harris moves her story at a gentle pace, unveiling Kate’s struggle through alternating painful and tender moments. The 15-minute short has an air of unease and disquiet, but it’s also an original, time-twisting tale with abundant empathy that draws us in.

A Q&A webinar, available to view on Facebook Live, can be seen on Zoom, Saturday 22^nd May at 2pm. It features filmmakers Zinnie Harris, Bonnie MacRae, Nish Perez, Mike Callaghan and Liina Johansson. The SMHA’s excellent website for the complete film programme plus lots of news about workshops, writing awards and community commissions.

Tickets are available on a ‘pay what you can’ basis – £2, £4, £6 or free. Captions are available for all screenings.