Danya Institute

The Danya Institute provides training and technical assistance to mental health providers nationwide. They worked with Never Whisper Justice to create a series of short films on preventing suicide among black boys and young men, who are disproportionately likely to take their own lives. I helped create animated vignettes that highlight key challenges as well as strategies for tackling the issue at the individual, community, and policy level.

The brief was to find some way of straddling a hard-hitting, “visceral” tone and a more optimistic one - with a focus on humanizing the subject. We opted for a combination of somber portraits and uplifting scenes showing how youth can access the care and support they need to thrive. The soft, muted colors and textures draw on the cinematography used in the interviews with which these vignettes are intercut.