UTech student, Alana Harvey, to produce thought-provoking short film

University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) student, Alana Harvey, is currently in the process of producing and directing her first short film, ‘More Than a Mirror Fight’ to be debut in May of this year.

New film producer and director, Alana Harvey working on her upcoming film “More Than a Mirror Fight” in Kingston on Wednesday, February 9, 2021. Photo by Danielle Fyne.

The final year student who is a Communications Technology student in her at UTech with a major in Advertising and Public Relations decided to create a short film targeted at parents of children who suffer from body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia is a mental illness that is mostly suffered by teens and young adults wherein these individuals struggle with having a dysfunctional mental image of their appearance. As a result, these individuals become fixated on how “unattractive” or “ ugly” they perceive themselves, to such an extent that they may become suicidal and depressed among other detrimental mental situations. According to a BBC article entitled “Body dysmorphia: 'Bigorexia leading to depression' in gym-goers” published on November 5, 2020, “Body dysmorphia is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about flaws in their appearance which are often unnoticeable to others.”

When tasked with finding a topical issue to create a multimedia project on for her final project, Harvey found herself being drawn to create a short film to encourage parents of teenagers struggling with body dysmorphia. She wanted to encourage these parents to seek help for their teens through counseling and to support their teens instead of ignoring this issue, as many Jamaicans do, because of the stigma attached to counseling and mental health in Jamaica’s society. “There is a monster, in a sense, within your child’s mind and you need to use a method to combat it, whether it’s open communication, therapy or just making sure they have the correct supportive lifestyle and family, ” explained Harvey.

Movie trailer for the upcoming short film “ More Than a Mirror Fight” by Alana Harvey.

Despite not being a film major, Harvey decided to break out of her shell because she believed that a short film would be the best way to reach her target audience. Her aim is to target parents of Jamaican teens who suffer from body dysmorphia instead of targeting the actual teens in an attempt to avoid further disturbing these already traumatized youths.

So far, Harvey has had many challenges on her journey to independently create a short film, as a result of not having much experience in the area of film and production. “ I’m just so nervous and I have questioned whether or not I can pull this off, but I have a concept and whenever I think about changing there are individuals like my lecturers that are just like, it’s a great concept don’t change it,” revealed Harvey, when asked about some of the challenges that she has faced while producing her upcoming film.

‘More than a mirror Fight’ is set to be premiered in mid-May at the Communication Arts and Technology Exhibition which will be hosted by the final year students of the program and held on the UTech’s campus. The exhibition was usually an in-person event was for the first time held virtually last year and will be the same for this year. The film will also be available for streaming on YouTube, as Ms. Harvey wants parents to be able to watch and be impacted by what should be a very thought-provoking film.