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Take Care films

Short films exploring mental health in the circus sector

Ressource

Context

The Take Care Films are created in the framework of the project “Take Care – Circus life in a swing” (2024 – 2027), co-funded by the Creative Europe programme. The project is led by FEDEC in partnership with 5 organisations:

And the following associated partners : FEDEC members, Circuscentrum (BEL), Circus City (GBR), Circusstad Festival (NLD), On the Edge Festival (AUT)

The project focuses on raising awarness of mental health issues in the circus sector, to encourage good practice in caring for young people in learning and working environments. Take Care project aims to collect, develop and disseminate tools and resources to help the sector evolve structurally, towards more conscious and sustainable models.

Concept

As part of the Take Care project, 4 films were assigned to the following filmmakers: Filip Jacobson and Miikkael Kukkula with the artists Alice Rende, Alice Poppy Davies, Marina Cherry and Ron Beeri.
They are featuring circus artists reflecting on their mental health in their professional practice.

The aim is to create artistic and sensitive films that allow audiences to immerse themselves in the artists’ world.

Films will be completed in november 2026.

The filmmakers

  • Filip Jacobson

    Filip Jacobson is a Polish documentary film director based in Cologne (DEU).
    He graduated from the Film Studies line at the Lodz University in Poland, from Gdynia Film School in Poland as a director, and Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. He took part in exchange program with EICTV in Cuba, EsoDoc Workshops, Goshort Talent Campus, Polska Doc.
    He organized film workshops for children and youth in Turkey, Romania and Poland. Involved in social documentary projects, he specialises in working with art venues, festivals and artists, especially in the circus sector.

  • Miikkael Kukkula

     

    Miikkael Kukkula is a cinematography & screenplay-oriented filmmaker and media artist who graduated from Turku Arts Academy in Finland.
    His practice focuses on working across film and performing arts: integrating cinematic language into live performances & creating films that engage in an active dialogue with the performing arts.

Objectives

  • Raise awareness of mental health issues within the circus and performing arts sectors in general, with a view to preventing problems, providing information, raising public awareness, and demystifying the subject.
  • Enable circus students and young artists to identify with professional artists facing the same challenges as themselves, and to give them hope that a career is possible, despite their difficulties.
  • Open the door to artistic avenues and opportunities by exploring a variety of non-linear career paths in the circus world.

Interested in organising a screening?

We encourage inviting the filmmakers and artists to organise a discussion on mental health in the performing arts sector and to present the artistic processes behind the films.

Download the pdf above to have all the technical information about the screening and the project in general.