On Monday the 6^th November we had the incredible honour of interviewing Kate Winslet and Dominic Savage, who both were co-producers of the Channel 4 BAFTA award-winning drama, ‘I am Ruth’.

Kate and her daughter Mia Threapleton also acted in the film, which is one of the most emotional and authentic films about teen mental health that I have ever seen. It covers so many aspects that families can go through when a teen is in crisis; it is a challenging, but utterly compelling, TV film – it’s hard to watch.

The evening came about after we watched the film in December 2022 and we were amazingly able to make contact with Kate. Vanessa, my co-founder, and I immediately felt that the film would be such a good case study about teen mental health and the relationship between parents and teens. Our wish was to create an event which would start a discussion between all the stake holders in teen mental health, and how we can all work together. And obviously to introduce the concept of the therapeutic benefit of nature to more teens.

We felt it would be even more fitting to start the conversation with Kate as it was filmed on location in and around Godalming, Surrey. And we were bowled over when Kate said yes to be interviewed, and even more so when she invited her director and co-producer Dominic Savage to join us for the event!

An extraordinary evening …

The on-stage team at Understanding I Am Ruth.
L – R: Angie Hemmings, Teen Counsellor; Flo Headlam, Patron; Tone Tellefsen Hughes: Kate Winslet: Dominic Savge; and Vaness Lanham-Day

It was such a lovely evening and so interesting to talk to them both about the making of the film. Dominic shared with us how he came to start the Channel4 series of ‘I am’, and how he chose the actors and subject matters. There are 7 films in this series that all follow women of different ages through a short period of time in their life. The films are wound together by a beautiful film music score which runs like a red thread through the whole series.

‘I am Ruth’ is the only one which is a 2 hour feature length film, as Channel4 felt this merited the longer time due to the importance of the subject. Both Kate and Dominic felt it was a very important area to explore as this is such a relevant subject in today’s world. To help us understand the implications of aspects of the drama, we had invited Angie Hemmings to join us on stage; she’s a teen counselling psychotherapist, who has also worked in educational pastoral care setting for over two decades.

One of the aspects we discussed were how it was to film something so emotional unscripted, and how difficult this must be for the actors. We talked about the different scenes in the film and how they had prepared and planned for them, and how hard it can be to film something so emotional and raw. Dominic is very sensitive to his actors emotional wellbeing, and therefore makes sure they get time for reflection after a very difficult scene.

Supporting parents

The film has opened up the discussion of how difficult it is for parents of teens who are struggling, and how utterly powerless they can feel. This is one of the reasons why we now offer the Parent Hub support group in the Green Hub, so parents can take a moment out of their day and sit and listen, learn, share and support other parents in the same situations. We thank Kate and Dominic for inspiring us to start this monthly support group.

Both Kate and Dominic were so generous and honest with their reflections on this subject, and we had many laughs through the night, as Kate is a very engaging and funny speaker. The time just flew, and I didn’t even get to ask half of my questions on stage.

We had so many wonderful and positive comments from the guests after the evening, and we know that everyone will have taken something different from the event. One of the take-aways from the evening was that we will now start a trial session for running some of the Parent Hub sessions online, for those parents who are unable to attend due to their teens either needing constant supervision, or not having anyone that can help at home.

We simply want to thank Kate, Dominic and Angie for giving us their time and kindness to come and share the evening with us … and for starting this conversation of how, together, we can help families moving forward in the future.