Independent filmmaker finds ‘silver linings’ in bleak tales

Brittany Dimyan, creator of The Art to Living docuseries, says her goal is to “…help open someone’s mind to … make better decisions in life.”

Since childhood, Brittany Ann Dimyan has loved using photography to capture candid moments in people’s lives, but never did she imagine becoming a filmmaker who now transforms those poignant still frames into riveting short stories that address mental health issues.

“I just thank God,” Dimyan said excitedly in a recent Zoom interview with WOW. “If you are doing what you are supposed to, God will have everything mapped out and he will present you with whatever work you are supposed to do.”

Dimyan calls her latest project a docuseries she named “The Art to Living.” She features personal stories, including her own, to encapsulate mental health themes such as hope, forgiveness, love resilience, perseverance, and self-worth. The storytellers represent a wide range of races, ethnicities, and social status but their differences connect and intersect on screen in surprising ways, Dimyan explains.

An interactive lecture series have developed from the docuseries to encourage and inspire youth from middle school to first-year college students. Much of the materials and curriculum were developed collaboratively between project manager Michael Walton, a World-Class, professional Track and Field athlete, administrative assistant Kellie Bellinger, the graphic designer, and Brittany’s sister, Rebecca Dimyan, a college professor and published writer.

The goal is to “show hope” and help people understand “that with all our struggles, we don’t go through them for no reason at all,” Dimyan notes. “It’s to better everyone in the end, to open that mindset and understanding.”

“So, if I can help open someone’s mind to even like make better decisions in life,” Dimyan views this as success.

A native of Connecticut, Dimyan says the project started years ago when she struggled with finances and other issues and decided to use her skills and talents for “self-healing.”

“I was just expressing how I was feeling at a difficult time,” she explains. “I lived life and came into contact with a lot of people who said powerful things that helped me and changed me. I thought others might be helped too. So, it was a combination of that and also just feeling that you can relate to someone else made me not feel alone in the world. That was also therapeutic.”

“Through the course of life,” she concludes that The Art to Living project “morphed and blossomed into what it is now.”

The main target audience is schools, but Brittany and her crew say they are willing to work with a wide variety of venues in three key ways. A screening of the entire docuseries could be used at a school assembly or before a church or work audience. The screening may include presentations by one or more people featured in the films. Also offered are six-hour seminars that include breakout groups and panel discussions. And finally, virtual workshops of one hour or more may be held at designated times during the school year for special groups. Prices vary depending on the selected package or combination of packages, officials said.

In mid-October, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut will be the site of a screening of The Art to Living for staff and local officials.

Walton said a Spring 2021 Workshop virtually connected students from various schools in Ghana, Brazil and Washington, DC for eight weeks. Participating students completed a final project that required them to share their own challenges and positive outcomes, which Brittany calls “silver linings.”

Kyriah Carmichael, a student at the Richard Wright Public Charter School in Southwest D.C. participated in the workshop.

“My silver lining was hope and to never give up, because during the pandemic I thought I kind of gave up, but I kind of pulled it all together during the program,” Carmichael told Cory Smith, a reporter for News4 on May 21, 2021.

Dimyan is awed by the fact that the workshop took place during the pandemic, a time when most businesses were shuttered, and schools sent students home for virtual instruction.

“Timing was uncanny,” she says. “It was a puzzle piece that just fit in so perfectly and beautifully. It was a time of havoc and chaos, and just a really dark time. So much was going on in the world, and yet [the workshop] was that perfect fit. It was another reminder that it’s necessary and needed to pursue helping mental health.”

The program has a strong emphasis on mental health and list statistics on students with anxiety and depression, but Dimyan said only recently has the crew begun to work with a mental health professional. A child psychiatrist will be featured in an upcoming film clip, she says.

Dimyan says the future of The Art to Living is bright.

“It’s an endless project that will have endless themes,” she speculates. “Eventually people will be able to choose the themes that they want. It’s a mosaic.”

Using art as therapy for mental health healing is quickly gaining popularity across the United States. In Maryland, Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Services include what it calls “an expressive therapies program to help patients on their healing journeys.” The different expressive therapy groups include music, art, dance and movement, recreation, and pet.

Photography fueled Dimyan’s passion.

“I have always loved moments in life. That’s my passion,” she explains. “When I see a moment as beautiful, I always want to remember it and always have it – a smile or other candid stuff. I want to frame it.”

Dimyan chuckles when she thinks about “having one of those really old cameras” as a child.

“I remember always being drawn to take pictures, just for fun. I remember a little black [camera], a rectangle,” she reminisces, guessing that the gift was at Christmas from her parents.

Dimyan earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Manhattanville College, where she concentrated in photography and communication. She worked with film while in college but says her interest didn’t soar until her senior year and after.

When tough times came – “it was absolutely horrible financially,” Dimyan says she asked herself about the type of job she wanted and concluded that a nanny position would be best. She even wrote down all the details of what she wanted.

“At the time of such despair, a job that I never applied for, this woman I never knew existed, it was literally 15 minutes from where I lived, sent me this message,” she says emotionally. “She had just given birth to twins. It gives me goosebumps now remembering. They became family.”

Dimyan credits God with leading her to this family nearly seven years ago. She explains that she grew up attending church regularly and living in a family that followed Christian values. However, she had strayed from those practices as she got older. A chance meeting with an old friend reminded her about God’s grace, mercy, and miracles, as well as “the power of the mind could create your reality.”

“I had my little check list,” Dimyan remembers about the day she was contacted about the nanny job. “God took that, and he was like ‘I’m going to give you everything on your check list but I’m going to make it a thousand times better.’”

“I’ve grown spiritually and mentally, and just a sense of fulfillment through that job like you wouldn’t believe. Everything great has come from it,” she says, noting that the story of boss Diane McKeown represents “Love” in the docuseries.

McKeown’s “silver lining” is “‘God’s plan for me was far better than I had ever envisioned,'”  Dimyan says.

“My silver lining is that with God anything is possible if you believe,” she adds.

Written by TMCH