Denmark screening of Just A Farmer film opens conversation about mental health in rural communities
Denmark restaurant The Dam screened new film Just A Farmer on Monday night, with the evening presented by Black Dog Ride and aiming to open conversations about mental health and suicide in rural Australia.
An Australian farmer takes their own life every 10 days.
This was the eye-opening statistic presented to the gathered audience at the end of the film, as the room full of more than 100 people sat in sombre silence after watching the deeply moving film.
Just A Farmer follows main character Allison and her young farming family in rural Victoria and their journey of grief and healing after she loses her husband Alec to suicide.
Leila McDougall wrote, produced, and starred in the film, with she and her husband mortgaging their cattle farm in Victoria to finish the $2 million production.
She attended the screening at The Dam and said growing up and living in farming communities opened her eyes to the devastating and growing impacts of the mental health crisis in rural Australia.
'It is still quite taboo in a farming community, but it's time we started having those conversations,' she said.
'Making a movie was my a way of subconsciously getting people to see what's going on in farming communities, and I honestly don't regret a single minute or dollar we spent doing it.'
Raintree property owner Stephen Birkbeck gave the evening's opening address, and shone a light on the hardships WA farmers have faced in the past five years and beyond, how important it was to come together to support farmers and have conversations around mental health.
'Experts will give you insights into farmers' suicide, what worries me is that the rates have always been high but they have increased by 50 per cent in the last 10 years.
'I have never seen anything like the stress our farming community face today,' he said.
'We need an SOS to go out, farmers need help if you want us to keep growing your food.
'We need help and we need to be listened to.
'I conclude by asking for society to put a higher value on our farming community and its vulnerable souls.'
Black Dog Ride director Bev Seeney said the film was a perfect opportunity to bring WA communities together to talk about mental health.
'I believe telling our stories gives us a sense of empowerment with our stories,' she said.
'If we keep quiet about our own experiences, nobody else knows that there is a way through.
'So many people come up and just start sharing, and for many of them it's the first time they have, and then we can encourage them to go and get support, it's a very powerful thing.'
Lifeline: 13 11 14.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
11 hours ago
- West Australian
Katy Perry snapped in Peter Alexander bear onesie with daughter at Luna Park in Sydney
It is not uncommon to spot a onesie-wearing Australian in the colder months down under but an American superstar has joined in the trend while on tour. Snapped at Luna Park in Sydney, pop superstar Katy Perry was seen in an Aussie designer's fluffy offering looking calm, collected and super comfy. The showbiz queen clearly has good taste as the onesie was from none other than Australian sleepwear king Peter Alexander's collection. So chuffed was the designer he shared the pic on his official Instagram account. While a large portion of Australians go to bed wrapped in Alexander's sleepwear, it is nice to know he has an international following too. The fluffy bear onesie appears to be a popular choice and is sold out online with some children's sizes available. The adorable snap also captured Perry holding the hand of her daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, whose father is Hollywood superstar Orlando Bloom — Perry's partner since 2016. Days after the Californian diva had a security scare when an audience member charged the stage at her sold-out Qudos Bank Arena show in Sydney, news has surfaced that the A-list couple's relationship may be on the rocks. The couple are contending with rumours of a potential split following Daily Mail reports Perry was spotted without her wedding ring on the tour and following tensions created around the flop of her 2024 album 143. 'Orlando and I, when we argue, we argue kinda hot and fast and then cool really quickly. It's like, 'La la la la la, I love you. Alright, let's move on,'' the pop superstar previously said in 2024. She also mentioned the impact that their domestic blow-ups had on their four-year-old daughter Daisy. 'We are fire, fire, fire, and so [Daisy] sees all of that,' Ms Perry said. 'He's a real sage. We both have parts of ourselves. There's two parts of us, our highest good, and then our carnal, material self. Ego. When the ego is running the show, then it's like, 'Whoa.' But when that's in check, then we're both something else.'' Mr Bloom, who is in New York for the Tribeca Film Festival, has spoken previously about the challenging moments in their partnership. 'Sometimes things are really, really, really, challenging. I won't lie. We definitely battle with our emotions and creativity.' Perry is currently in Melbourne before her tour heads to Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Sydney Morning Herald
15 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Concert tickets prices are skyrocketing. Fans have come up with a worrying solution
When Bianca Wilmott wanted to surprise her boyfriend with two expensive tickets to Lady Gaga's coming Australian tour, she knew exactly how she was going to do it. The 32-year-old social media manager from Sydney's inner west turned to the buy now, pay later (BNPL) service Afterpay to cover the cost of her two $600 tickets. 'It's part of my budgeting, to be able to split the payment up … I wouldn't have [purchased tickets without Afterpay] because I wouldn't have wanted to make that big payment in one go,' says Wilmott, who was one of 11,500 people to purchase Lady Gaga tickets through the BNPL platform. Data provided by Afterpay showed that 1.5 million transactions were made in live entertainment in Australia over the 12 months to April 2025 amid a flurry of big international acts such as Katy Perry, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo, as well as our own Kylie Minogue. Later this year there's Gaga, Metallica, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Oasis and Usher. And tickets are getting more expensive – last year, a Live Performance Australia report revealed that the average price for a concert ticket rose from $87.01 in 2022 to $128.21 in 2023. And a report by Music Australia this year found that 'despite feeling less financially secure, young Australians are spending larger sums on entertainment and leisure in 2024 than they were in 2019' and are increasingly purchasing last-minute tickets that might 'break the bank'. Loading The report, titled Listening In: Insights on live music attendance, found that young people were driven by FOMO – fear of missing out – when it came to shelling out for international touring artists, often to the detriment of ticket sales for local talent. A fall in ticket sales for pub and club concerts, often featuring emerging artists, corresponded 'with a spate of big international acts touring Australia after the pandemic', the report says. While the report did not address how audiences bought tickets, it did find that 79 per cent of under 24s had saved money to purchase concert tickets, compared with 31 per cent of those over 40.
Courier-Mail
16 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
Comedian Margaret Cho says Ellen DeGeneres was ‘not nice' to her
Don't miss out on the headlines from Celebrity Life. Followed categories will be added to My News. Comedian Margaret Cho has spoken out about her 'creepy and weird' encounters with Ellen DeGeneres. Joining the chorus of people to air their unpleasant stories about the former talk show host, who now lives on a farm in the UK, Cho revealed she opened for DeGeneres at comedy clubs in the 1980s before they both hit the big time. Years later, Cho said she was invited as a guest on DeGeneres' talk show, where she claimed the host pretended they had never met before. 'Ellen was really weird and not nice to me for most of my career,' Cho said on The Kelly Mantle Show podcast. 'I opened for her in the 1980s, when she was a headliner in comedy clubs. Later, when I would do her talk show in the 2000s, she would act like we just met. And I'm like, 'Bitch, what?' That's weird. We go way back. It's so creepy and weird.' Margaret Cho made the revelation on The Kelly Mantle Show. Ellen DeGeneres has been the subject of claims she's 'not nice'. Picture: AP Things got weirder as Cho, 56, recalled a bizarre broadcast edit she felt was a personal swipe from DeGeneres, 67. Remembering how she attended a David Bowie concert in a 'Chinese emperor outfit', Cho said the late singer went on DeGeneres' show the very next day where he talked at length about the comedian's fabulous attire at his show. 'The producer, who's a really good friend of mine, had to call me and tell me, 'I can't believe she did this, but she cut it out of the show,'' Cho said. '[The producer continued] 'But you need to know that he was going on and on about your outfit. God [Bowie] said your name. He loves you.'' While unsure if the comments were cut for another reason, Cho conceded, 'I'm going to take it personally.' Cho claimed David Bowie's comments were cut from the broadcast. Picture:/AFP DeGeneres, who is married to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, quit her long-running talk show in 2022 following widespread reports of a toxic environment on-set. It all started when a March 2020 tweet claimed DeGeneres was 'notoriously one of the meanest people alive', which was met by more than 1000 replies of people detailing their not-so-nice experiences with her. The aftermath was even more brutal, with countless Ellen staff coming forward on the record with their own stories of bullying. Addressing claims for the first time after her return to TV for the show's 18th season months later, DeGeneres admitted she was a 'work in progress' but pleaded to viewers that she is still 'the person you see on TV'. Ellen ended her talk show after nearly 20 years. Picture: Warner Bros 'As you may have heard this summer there were allegations of a toxic work environment at our show and then there was an investigation. I learned that things happened here that never should've happened,' she said at the time. 'I take that very seriously, and I want to say I'm so sorry to the people who were affected.' She admitted being known as the 'be kind' lady is 'a tricky position to be in'. 'Sometimes I get sad. I get mad. I get anxious. I get frustrated. I get impatient. And I am working on all of that. I am a work in progress,' she said. 'And I am especially working on the impatience thing because … and it's not going well because it's not happening fast enough.' DeGeneres moved to the UK with de Rossi late last year, shortly after US President Donald Trump was elected. X SUBSCRIBER ONLY She's shared brief glimpses on social media of her quieter life living on a sprawling property. It is unclear where in the UK DeGeneres and de Rossi have relocated to, but they are rumoured to have set up in the English countryside. Shortly after news of the couple's big move broke, the two were spotted out with a group of friends at The Farmer's Dog in the Cotswolds, a countryside region in England. They had earlier in the year sold two of their homes in Montecito, California, in March and August. Originally published as Comedian Margaret Cho says Ellen DeGeneres was 'not nice' to her
