What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About TRAUMA - A Video by Adam Laity
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Adam Laity is a cinematographer, filmmaker, researcher and lecturer based in the UK. Adam’s aim is for the film is that it raises awareness of CPTSD, helps give people struggling with symptoms a voice, and ultimately provokes conversations and hopefulness about this difficult subject.
We have a first here at Out of the Storm, a video about Complex CPTSD by UK cinematographer, filmmaker, researcher and lecturer Adam Laity. Adam is a survivor and like many of us only came to understand that he suffered from Complex PTSD later in life. His video is dedicated to those recovering from debilitating trauma.
Warning: The video does contain occasional swear words.
Film Synopsis
What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About TRAUMA is a love letter to someone coming to terms with the symptoms of Complex PTSD, made by someone with a lived experience of CPTSD. It is a personal and deeply subjective short film that aims to encourage hope, nature connectivity and gives grammar to a condition that is both new and little understood.
This film is a continuation of work by the filmmaker to engage with their own mental health journey through producing work that engages deeply with nature. In this way the cinematography becomes a therapeutic practice.
The aim of the filmmaker is that the film raises awareness of CPTSD, helps give people struggling with symptoms a voice, and ultimately provokes conversations and hopefulness about this difficult subject.
Filmmaker Bio
Adam Laity is a cinematographer, filmmaker, researcher and lecturer based in the UK.
Alongside his work as a professional director of photography and producing his own award-winning moving image work, his practice-led research focuses on the interconnectivity between humans and more-than-human entities in nature.
His work is often deeply auto-biographical and he draws on the affect theory and auto-ethnography to frame his subjective experiences of filmmaking, including the impact his mental health has on his creative practices.
After decades of poor mental health, stemming from OCD and depression in his early teens, Adam felt systemically failed by the UK health system when it came to his mental health. In researching his own symptoms he came across the condition Complex PTSD and it was revelatory. After a period of suicidal ideation, he finally connected with a psychiatrist who genuinely listened to him, and who agreed a diagnosis of Complex PTSD, depression and a neurodivergent element yet to be diagnosed.
He is currently undergoing preparatory counselling ahead of EMDR as part of an holistic trauma-informed treatment plan.
