screening at parkdale library

6pm Nov 29

MARS in the Ryersonian

Great piece by Michael Lyons for the Ryersonian (one of Ryerson University's student papers), does a really good summation of the film and the issues involved.

Hip-hop artist collaborates with filmmaker to create a mental health discussion

Khari “Conspiracy” Stewart is the subject of the Mars Project, a documentary by Toronto-based filmmaker Jonathan Balazs.


An epic battle between cosmic forces may be an unusual topic for a documentary, but for hip-hop artist Khari “Conspiracy” Stewart it’s a daily reality. Stewart is the subject of the Mars Project, a documentary by Toronto-based filmmaker Jonathan Balazs.

The film will be screening at a few Toronto Public Library branches, including the Parkdale location, as part of Make Some Noise, a series that promotes the library’s local music collection through events and concerts.

Balazs first became aware of Stewart’s work and befriended him over a decade ago, through the Edmonton hip-hop movement.

Balazs says inspiration for the project grew out of a piece he wrote for a rap magazine focusing on Stewart’s music career. “I featured him because I had talked to his brother, and I wanted to know more about his music, and I wanted to figure out why he had the reputation that he did,” Balazs says. “I discovered in the interview that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he believed ardently that this was an external demonic possession.”

Mars Project intimately explores Stewart’s connection with Anacron, a demonic alien with a telepathic link into his mind. The documentary tackles the complicated layers of Stewart’s life, including his experiences within the Canadian mental health system, addiction issues, his own spiritual diagnosis, and his art. The film also focuses on Stewart’s difficult relationship with his family, especially his twin brother Addi Stewart, who describes early in the film the change that occurred a decade ago: “It was like chapter two of Khari,” Stewart says. “Just not the guy that I knew in my childhood. Not the guy that’s my identical twin, or who I rap with. A whole other person.”

The film began as a five-minute video project completed in 2008 for A History of Madness, an undergraduate disability studies course at Ryerson University and part of Balazs’ degree in fine arts. Balazs knew there was an important story to explore, so he continued to develop the piece, which included an Indiegogo fundraising campaign last year which raised almost $3000 and helped him complete the project. This original short grew into the feature length piece, first released in 2012, which will be screening as part of the Make Some Noise series.

Thomas Krzyzanowski, chair of the Make Some Noise Committee, says the film interested the organization because of Stewart’s unique story, especially within Toronto’s diverse artistic scene. Balazs first approached the Toronto Public Library with the film, including a conversation with a Make Some Noise committee member at the Parkdale branch.

“He was interested in screening it at Parkdale because Khari lives in the Parkdale community, and we wanted to make sure it was involved there because of the film’s subject matter,” Krzyzanowski says. “The Parkdale branch is very close to CAMH, and we wanted to make sure we represented that community in the library.”

Make Some Noise is a project that started in 2006, which presents concerts, film screenings and workshops promoting the local music collections at Toronto Public Libraries. On top of a screening at the Danforth/Coxwell library, in Balazs’ neighbourhood earlier in November, Mars Project will be screened at the Parkdale branch on November 29th, and at the Maria A. Shchuka library in early December.

A screening in Parkdale was crucial for Balazs, who cites the area’s longstanding relationship with mental health institutions. There has been a mental health facility at 1001 Queen Street West, minutes away from Parkdale, for over 150 years. Stewart is one of many within the Parkdale neighbourhood with negative mental health treatment experiences, which are explored in the film. “A lot of times people in these situations who want to get information, who want to get an alternative from the mainstream, have to dig for it,” Balazs says.

On its website, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest mental health hospital, describes the spectrum of symptoms people with schizophrenia have, “including periods when they cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. Schizophrenia seriously disturbs the way people think, feel and relate to others.”

Mars Project challenges preconceptions of schizophrenia and complicates the idea of what mental illness is. It does so with quiet intensity and respect for Stewart’s unique, often dark experience. The film is as much a collaboration with him as an artist, as it is a documentary about him. Stewart is presented as someone with a unique and powerful perspective, rather than a victim or crazy person.

“I’m not thinking silently in my head anymore where no one knows,” Stewart says in the film, describing what some would consider a mental illness, but what he considers a spiritual battle. “What am I supposed to do? How do I explain this to somebody so they help me change it? How do I even figure this out? It’s so complex.”

- Michael Lyons, The Ryersonian

25 min. 45 sec.

Thanks to Vancouver Public Library, Gallery Gachet and all those who came to our Vancouver screening. Though we felt a little blind in our Skype communication, Khari and I valued the experience and were glad to be talking to supporters from across the country.

And in Vancouver, thanks to Quin for this snap:

Victoria & Portland

We had some great opportunities presenting Mars in the Pacific Northwest this past week, with a screening at Movie Monday in Victoria, B.C., a local haunt for all kinds of thought provoking material, with a strong inclination to show mental health films. Quite pleased that the main programmer and proprietor of the weekly night Bruce Saunders (my personal paparazzi photographer), chose our film - that's him in the introduction.

If you can believe it, there was actually a lively Q&A.

The next morning at 8am, Bruce and I screened some clips for some doctors and clinicians for Vancouver Island Health Authority. I did a talk on specific issues I believed were relevant and touched on why I made the film. Couldn't have done the trip without their support.

That very evening included cancelled flights and a sprint to Portland at the beautiful Hollywood Cinema (endless gratitude to Dan Halstead and the rest of the buds at the Hollywood).

We even got a couple of reviews in the Willamette Week & The Portland Mercury.

Hope to see you soon Portland!

Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival

"Jonathan Balazs' documentary is a compelling story about Canadian rapper Khari 'Conspiracy' Stewart and his battle with a condition that has effectively been labelled schizophrenia. The film explores the chaotic and at times destructive existence as Khari attempts to deal with voices – 'extra sensory audio' as he calls them – in his head from two demons from intergalactic planets."

Colin McDougall, Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival

In the UK

Associate producer, researcher & all around super lady Danielle (in the middle) repping the film in the UK.

CAMH

Today we screened for about 60 case workers, clinicians and other front line mental health folks at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Interesting and positive experience, some good things said - looking forward to the next one!

MARS Distribution

In hard copy

MARS PROJECT - DVD Preview

Even though it seems like the DVD market seems to be getting smaller and more geared toward the die-hard film buff and collector, we're still excited to offer up the home video release of Mars Project. DVD includes: director's cut of the film, interview highlights, director's notes, a mini-poster, the original 5-minute short that started it all and 40 mins. of extras that didn't make the final cut, but are no less important to the story of Khari "Conspiracy" Stewart. Everything is Region 0 NTSC (should play anywhere). Got a question? Email us marsprojectmovie(at)gmail(dot)com

MARS on Edmonton's CJSR FM 88.5

Mr. Zyp - host/superstar of CJSR's "Moving Radio" features Mars Project – an interview with the film's director (a.k.a. me). Skip ahead to about 11:07 to get to our little section.

MARS SBU on CHRY 105.5 (aired April 3, 2013)

 

Christian Deo (CHRY 105.5 Independent Arts Report) interviews director of Mars Project Jonathan Balazs, listen here.

Sat down with independent film maker Jon Brando Balazs to talk about his newest documentary film, "Mars Project". The film looks at the battles of Khari 'conspiracy' Stewart with both schizophrenia the Canadian Mental Health System.

Produced at CHRY 105.5
Music credited to Supreme Being Unit

Mars Project on InnerSPACE

WATCH IT HERE

MARS PROJECT – A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

Aline Le reviews Mars Project and shares her experiences on iheartmoviesto.com

"Mars Project" examines schizophrenia and the mental health system

"Mars Project" examines the limitations and efficacy of psychiatry, medication and the mental health care system, while intimately getting to know Khari and the dynamic effects schizophrenia has had on his life. In our interview with filmmaker Jonathan Balazs, he talked to us more about what he hoped to achieve with his film.

Thanks to mindyourmind.ca for the support & promotion, read the rest of the interview HERE.

Unlikely friends take documentary look at mental illness

From today's Toronto Star, written by Jim Coyle


Jonathan Balazs and Khari “Conspiracy” Stewart make one of the unlikelier pairs anyone is ever apt to encounter.

Balazs, a compact 27-year-old of Hungarian descent, is a recent fine arts graduate from Ryerson University who, with his trimmed beard and waxed moustache, soft voice and thoughtful demeanour, seems every bit the Euro-artiste.

Stewart, tall, black and 35, with a large stud in his nose, an address in Parkdale and the layered, baggy uniform and hood of the street, cuts a much more imposing figure.

But the two men are friends. Close friends. Closer, probably, than most men ever get.

They are also collaborators — both as partners in a hip-hop album and, most recently, as filmmaker and subject in a documentary called Mars Project, an unsettling and provocative look at madness and the mental health system in Canada.

The two men first crossed paths 10 years ago in Edmonton. Balazs and Stewart were both part of the local hip-hop scene. So compelling was Stewart’s work — and so eccentric his behaviour — that Balazs noticed him “long before we ever uttered a word to each other.”

Eventually, they started hanging out. Balazs interviewed first Khari’s twin brother and musical partner, Addi, then Khari himself for an article published by an online hip-hop magazine.

That’s how he learned the Stewarts’ story. And that’s where Balazs’s vision took root.

The Stewart boys were born in August 1977 in Toronto. Soon, they moved with their Jamaican-born mother, Mertella, to Edmonton, where they were straight-A students through elementary school. “We were regular kids,” Addi says.

After high school, Khari moved back to Ontario. And there, in 1996, while living in Ottawa, he started hearing voices.

There were two, he says, one male, one female. He calls them “Anacron” and “Anacrona.” He couldn’t function, couldn’t get a job. He became terrified, moving back to Edmonton in 2000 to live with his mother.

“I was a normal kid before (the voices) came and when they came I turned all weird, all negative and stuff, because they’re bothering me, they’re causing me to lash out and hate life.”

He was ultimately taken to the Alberta Mental Hospital. There, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent more than a year as an in-patient. He was heavily medicated, he says, but the treatment didn’t accomplish much.

Khari was eventually released after telling psychiatrists the voices had stopped. But they never did, he said. He just figured out that compliance was the quickest road out.

He never bought the diagnosis of schizophrenia. He believes he is cursed by “devil magic,” that his condition is metaphysical, his solution to be found in psychics and the spiritual realm.

He still hears the voices every day, he says. “I could be sitting here at peace and then, like, the voices will just materialize and they’ll distract my concentration.” And he knows it “affects my friends, my family.

“I want to get back to the normal kid before (the voices) were in my life,” he says. But the only way to silence those voices, the voices themselves tell Khari, is for him to “blow his brains out.”

As for Balazs, he left Edmonton to attend Ryerson. But Khari and his struggles were seldom far from the aspiring filmmaker’s thoughts.

From Khari’s theories of demonic possession, and his less than productive encounter with the mental health system, Balazs made a short piece about him for a school assignment. Later, still trying to answer some of the questions his friendship with Khari had raised, he enrolled in a Ryerson course on the “history of madness.”

Balazs showed his short film to a professor, made another and, after graduation in 2010, decided to “go full at it” and make a documentary.

The film, shot mostly in Toronto, flits between Khari’s lavish wreaths of marijuana smoke and interviews with psychiatrists discussing schizophrenia, between characterizations of the bizarre internal world Stewart inhabits and the baleful impact his condition and behaviour have on others.

“He looks like my brother, but he doesn’t act like my brother,” says Addi Stewart, with whom Khari has occasionally lived and who took, during such periods, to sleeping with a knife under his pillow.

Balazs raises intriguing questions about the limits of psychiatry, the limits of medication, and the efficacy of community treatment orders. In some segments, Khari plays a wizard to symbolize “the mysterious side of psychiatry and spirits and everything that’s unknown.”

Danielle Landry, a teaching assistant at Ryerson and associate producer on the film, says Khari’s story “doesn’t really fit your traditional mental health narrative. It’s not a recovery story. He’s not all cured.”

But it’s important, Landry says, to look at some of the issues his experience raises, “to look at why he’s more likely to be on a community treatment order than a white man his age, why he’d be more likely to be locked up.”

In fact, Khari is effortlessly articulate and entertaining, even more effortlessly profane. He lives on disability support and what he makes performing, having made visits, as many mental patients do, to jails. He also receives mandatory biweekly injections at St. Michael’s Hospital to retain his support payments.

On the positive side, the voices have informed his music, he says, and infused it with wild darkness. “I make music about my life. This is what I’m going through. So I write songs about them.”

The film “really looks at Khari’s social world and everything going on in his world,” Landry says. “And it’s important that we feature a lot of his music because it shows that mad people, even though they’re mad, they can work and they can produce some amazing stuff.”

Balazs and Stewart laugh now at some of their experiences.

“Imagine you’re talking to a psychiatrist and try to tell them that you’re a rap star and that somebody’s making a movie about you,” says Balazs. “You think that’s gonna fly?”

Even Khari’s mother was initially apprehensive.

“She thought he was trying to rip me off,” Khari laughs. “She said, ‘Is this guy gonna take your story and make a bunch of money off you?’

“But I felt a vibe. I trust this guy. He’s got a good heart.”

Now, Balazs hopes to have the documentary screened at a festival like Hot Docs in Toronto this spring and to win wider distribution.

And what did Khari think of the finished product?

“I think my life is one wild and exciting adventure.”

Extended Trailer - Happy 2013!