In the latest episode of the Reel Mental Podcast I discuss the film "The Sun Rises On Us All" with writer-director Cai Shangjun and screenwriter Han Nianjin at The Toronto International Film Festival®. With special thanks to our interpreter Erika Li.

CAI SHANGJUN | DIRECTOR

Director, screenwriter and producer, Cai Shangjun graduated from China Central Academy of Drama in 1992. Cai’s screenplays include Spicy Love Soup (1997), Shower (1999) and Sunflower (2005). He wrote and directed The Red Awn (2007), People Mountain People Sea (2011) and The Conformist (2017). The Red Awn won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 12th Busan International Film Festival, the Golden Alexander Award for Best Film at the 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Jury Grand Prize at the 2nd Asia Pacific Screen Award. People Mountain People Sea won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, the Silver Montgolfiere D’Argent Award at the Nantes Three Continents Festival, the Critics Prize at the Black Movie Film Festival, and the Grand Prix Award at the 10th Pacific Meridian International Film Festival of Asia Pacific Countries. The Conformist won Best Actor Award at the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival and was screened in competition at TOKYO FILMex and as a Special Screening at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival.

HAN NIANJIN | SCREENWRITER

Han Nianjin graduated from the University of Munich and is a freelance writer and cinematographer. The Sun Rises on Us All is her first screenplay.

Matteo Salvatore is a Toronto-based film critic and writer. What began as a casual writing hobby has evolved into a dedicated passion for film analysis and criticism, spanning more than four years across multiple platforms. Through a mix of thoughtful written essays and engaging video content, Matteo has steadily grown his online following and presence in the film community.

Substack: https://undertheprojector.substack.com/

Instagram: MatteoS4lvatore

X: UnderTProjector

TikTok: UnderTheProjector

Brian Eggert is a national award-winning film critic and scholar. He is Tomatometer-Approved and belongs to several critical and scholarly associations, including: the Society For Cinema and Media Studies, Minnesota Film Critics Association, Online Film & Television Association, International Film Society Critics, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, and the Large Association of Movie Blogs. Additionally, Brian is a member of the Independent Film Critics of America, who honored him with the 2024 Critic of the Year award. Brian lives in Minnesota with his wife and their dog. He is an occasional programmer and regularly appears on the NBC affiliate in the Twin Cities, KARE 11, to review and talk about movies. He also co-hosts the KARE 11+ show, The CineFiles.

Learn more about Brian Eggert:

Website: www.deepfocusreview.com

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/deepfocusreview/

Jason Anderson is a film programmer, journalist and lecturer in Toronto. As a longtime programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, he programs work from Canada, the Nordic countries and Benelux. He's also the programming director for the Kingston Canadian Film Festival and Aspen Shortsfest. He's a regular contributor to such publications as Uncut magazine, Sight & Sound and Broadview.

Lauren Melinda is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and founder of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS. Her work explores issues of feminine identity and perception, while critiquing the forces of culture and circumstance that mold the roles assigned to women.

As a mixed-media artist, Lauren’s video installations have been commissioned by galleries, museums, and private collectors in North America and the Middle East, while her photographs have been sold to major collections around the world.

As a filmmaker, Lauren has written and directed three short films that have screened in 52 festivals on nearly every continent – garnering the top prize at six of them. Her most recent narrative film, Before You, is playing the festival circuit and is in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. She is now developing her first narrative feature, ECHOES, in which a Persian-American artist faces a Faustian bargain when a Berlin gallery demands she exploit her heritage for success, as well as a TV series based on her Ukrainian great-grandmother, who served as the midwife to the Shah of Iran.

As a mother of two young girls, Lauren’s passion for women’s issues only continues to grow in depth and perspective. Inspired by her daughters, Lauren launched SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS in 2024, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through film. The organization fosters female-centric stories that promote mutual validation, awareness, and hope. Most recently, SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS Executive Produced the feature film, Satisfaction, by Alex Burunova and featuring Emma Laird, which premiered at SXSW 2025.

Lauren received a dual Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Fine Arts from

the University of California, Irvine. She is based in Los Angeles.

Instagram:

@laurenmelindafilm

@simbelleproductions

@beforeyouthefilm

*Trigger Warning: This episode mentions suicide. Please reach out to the Suicide Crisis Helpline at 9-8-8 (in Canada) if you need help.*

SEAN KING O’GRADY is an award-winning filmmaker whose work spans narrative features, documentaries, and high-profile branded content. His films have screened at Sundance, Tribeca, Telluride, Berlin, Venice, TIFF, SXSW, Sitges, Fantastic Fest, and dozens of other major festivals worldwide. Sean’s latest feature directorial effort, the Hulu Originals sci-fi thriller THE MILL, starring Lil’ Rel Howery, premiered at #1 on the platform in October 2023. His narrative debut, WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING, released theatrically by IFC Midnight, garnered critical acclaim and is now streaming on Hulu. His documentary work includes REVOLUTION: GMC HUMMER EV (History/Hulu) and OUR AMERICAN FAMILY (AMC+), the latter co-directed with Hallee Adelman. As a producer, Sean has been behind a number of acclaimed films, including Lil Rel Howery’s directorial debut HAUNTED HEIST which premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2025, Brandon Espy's 2024 Hulu Original hit MR. CROCKET, Steve Buscemi’s THE LISTENER starring Tessa Thompson, James Morosini’s SXSW-winning I LOVE MY DAD, Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Sundance breakout DINNER IN AMERICA, and Natalia Almada’s Sundancewinning USERS. His previous credits include THE ASSISTANT, LIVING UNDOCUMENTED, LAND GRAB, BIG SUR, and IN A WORLD…. Beyond film, Sean has directed high-impact branded content for LinkedIn, Amazon, Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, Carhartt, Virgin Atlantic, and other global brands.

SUSPICIOUS MINDS is a docuseries that investigates the disturbing rise of artificial intelligence as a trigger for delusional thinking. Through powerful firsthand accounts and in-depth interviews with leading experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, and AI ethics, the series unpacks a growing psychological phenomenon: individuals developing complex, often life-altering delusions rooted in AI technologies. From chatbots to surveillance fears, we examine how emerging technologies are reshaping the landscape of paranoia and how these modern delusions echo, amplify, and challenge our historical understanding of the human mind. Led by psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold and philosopher Ian Gold, PhD, who together first described the Truman Show Delusion (people believing they were on a reality TV show like Jim Carrey’s character in The Truman Show) and authored the groundbreaking book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and Other Strange Beliefs), the series presents an urgent vision of just how dramatically culture can influence our minds. With a spirit of empathy, curiosity, and respect, we tell real patients’ riveting stories while plunging viewers deep into their mental states, as their reality becomes surreal, and then follow their journey toward managing their illness. We explore the future of treatment and prevention, and through these stories create larger conversations to help destigmatize this phenomenon. Interviews with the Golds and other top experts including psychologists, neuroscientists, ethicists, AI researchers, and cultural critics help viewers understand the science and culture behind the madness as we follow the trajectory from the Y2K-era near-future fiction of The Truman Show to tomorrow’s hyperreal, AI-dominated technological and cultural landscape — a world that would be almost unrecognizable to people living 100, 50, or even 10 years ago. The line between mental wellness and mental illness is incredibly thin, and we never know when something will trigger us, or someone we love. The goal of this series is to create awareness of these new and omnipresent digital triggers, and explore the psychological minefield we find ourselves unexpectedly living in today.

For more information:

www.agoricmedia.com

www.wondermind.com

Instagram: @agoricmedia (https://www.instagram.com/agoricmedia/)

YouTube: @agoricmedia (https://www.youtube.com/@agoricmedia)

In the latest episode of the Reel Mental Podcast I discuss the Toronto International Film Festival® short film, "Butterfly on a Wheel," with writer, director, and composer Trevor Morris.

TREVOR MORRIS

Writer, Director, Composer

Trevor Morris is a writer, composer and director for Film & Television, a 5-time EMMY® nominee and 2x winner. Canadian-born and dual citizen of Great Britain, Trevor splits his time between his home and studios in Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada.

In 2024, Trevor launched his Toronto-based production company, Snow Dance Entertainment, which now serves as the creative home for a bold, internationally focused slate of original feature films, including his directorial debut, “Butterfly On A Wheel”. Trevor has contributed to 30 Feature Films and over 700 hours of 1-Hour dramatic Television; his Films and Television series have grossed over $2.7 billion in US & Canada, and $6.5 billion worldwide. He has collaborated with Ridley and Tony Scott, Antoine Fuqua, Gore Verbinski, and Jerry Bruckheimer, among others. His music scoring work on Spotify attracts over one million monthly listeners. Trevor is a triple citizen of Canada, Great Britain and the United States.

IG: @trevormorrisofficial

https://www.butterflythefilm.com/

In the latest episode of the Reel Mental Podcast I discuss the film "The Condor Daughter" with writer-director Álvaro Olmos Torrico and star Marisol Vallejos Montaño at The Toronto International Film Festival®.

Álvaro Olmos Torrico (Writer-director):

Álvaro Olmos Torrico was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His debut feature, Wiñay (2019), was among the first Bolivian films to be released globally via Amazon Prime. He has produced both documentaries and fiction features, including "The Ones from Below" by Alejandro Quiroga (Mar del Plata IFF, 2022) and "The Visitor" by Martín Boulocq (Tribeca, 2022). He is the founder of BoliviaCine.com, the first SVOD platform dedicated to Bolivian cinema, and has taught at the Bolivian Private University and the Andean School of Cinematography. "The Condor Daughter" is his second feature film and was awarded in the Work in Progress sections of Ventana Sur and Cinelatino Toulouse during its development.

Marisol Vallejos Montaño (Clara):

Marisol Vallejos Montano was born in 2004 in Cochabamba, a city in the Bolivian Andes, with family roots in the nearby rural town of Pocona, home to a Quechua-speaking community and rich Inca heritage. A self-taught musician, she learned guitar at 11 and later fell in love with her grandfather's accordion, playing at local celebrations with her sister. In 2021, the family formed "Estrella del Valle", an all-female group performing traditional and popular Bolivian music such as cumbia, huayno and cueca. With no prior acting experience, she undertook intensive training in performance, ancestral singing and midwifery practices, making her film debut in the role of Clara.

https://www.tiktok.com/@estrellas_del_valle

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067165715002

With special thanks to our interpreter Álvaro Girón.