A short Essay on Men
Recently selected as one of thirty projects to be made through Storyhive's documentary programming for 2018, A short Essay on Men asks the question: Are men lost?
Man has long been considered the dominant gender. Strong, capable, independent - a lone wolf.
But the world has changed.
The role of the contemporary man has become uncertain.
In this #metoo era, men are trapped between the things they were and the things they are supposed to be.
In Canada, men commit suicide at a rate 3x that of women.
Perhaps, in this space of darkness and confusion is an opportunity for clarity and new growth. Can men pick themselves up? Reach out and ask for help? Teach young boys what it means to become a man now?
These are complex questions.
We will not answer the unanswerable, but hope to add to a conversation that concerns us all.
When this project was in development, some of the men we had the pleasure of working with included Connor Beaton, founder of Mantalks; Stephen Mansfield, an American author and speaker; Cameron Phillips, a dadvocate; Dr. John Oliffe, Professor and Associate Director Research at the School of Nursing, University of British Columbia and Dai Manual, a lifestyle mentor and performance coach.