Students throughout California are invited to Direct Change by submitting 60-second films in two categories: “Suicide Prevention” and “Ending the Silence about Mental Illness”. The winning teams and their associated schools will win prizes, receive mental health or suicide prevention programs for their schools, get to participate in a meeting with state legislators on these topics, and attend the award ceremony at the end of the 2014-15 school year. Visit the campaign website for contest rules and information: www.directingchange.org .

Submission Deadline has been extended to: February 16, 2015.

NAMI California is also now seeking judges to help us select the winning films. Do you have expertise/interest in directing, writing, editing, acting, journalism, public service announcements, video production, suicide prevention and/or mental health? Become a judge today! The entire process would take less than 2 hours of your time, all of which can be done online from home. Judges:

• Participate in a brief 30-45 minute judging orientation in (via phone or webinar) in January or February 2015.
• Review up to 12 sixty-second film submissions and complete an online scoring form for each (time commitment of less than two hours.) The judging period will be taking place in mid-March 2015.
• Are invited (but not required) to attend the award ceremony in Sacramento on May 19th 2015.
• Are recognized on the contest website and in the award ceremony program.

Want to stay updated with all things Directing Change? Subscribe to The Advocate: Directing Change Newsletter! The Newsletter features updates about Directing Change and monthly educational films about topics on mental health and suicide prevention.

DVDs of the 2014 finalists and promotional flyers are available upon request.

Please contact Lauren Hee if you have questions, need outreach materials, or have judge inquiries at lauren@namica.org or 916-567-0163.