We're making a documentary about why a generation is struggling. Help us finish it.

Crisis Generation is a feature documentary investigating the youth mental health crisis beyond the headlines.

Instead of asking only what is wrong with young people, we're asking a bigger question:

What happened to the world they grew up in?

The film brings together lived experience, research, expert interviews, and stories from across communities to examine belonging, loneliness, treatment, schools, social conditions, crisis systems, and what actually helps people get better.

The documentary is currently in production through WeBelong Institute. And we're building the team to bring it to completion.

WATCH THE PREVIEW HERE

WHY WE'RE MAKING THIS

Young people's mental health is often reduced to a single explanation.

Phones.

Social media.

Bad parenting.

Mental illness.

A lack of resilience.

But a generation does not experience a mental health crisis in a vacuum.

Young people have grown up amid enormous changes in how we live, learn, work, communicate, form relationships, build community, access treatment, and imagine the future.

Crisis Generation investigates those conditions.

The goal isn't to find one villain.

It's to understand the system well enough to change it.

WHERE THE FILM IS NOW

Crisis Generation is actively being built.

Research, interviews, and production have already begun, and the project is moving toward the next stages of production and post-production.

Now we need more people around the table.

We're building a multidisciplinary team of people who believe this story deserves to be told well and who want to help us bring it into the world.

Some roles require professional experience.

Many don't.

If you care about mental health and have something useful to contribute, there may be a place for you here.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

Film & Production

Help us physically make the documentary.

Potential roles include:

  • Production assistants

  • Camera and production support

  • Field production

  • Production coordination

  • Interview coordination

  • Location research

  • Archival research

  • Production logistics

Editing & Post-Production

Help turn years of research, interviews, and footage into a powerful film.

We're interested in people with experience or interest in:

  • Documentary editing

  • Assistant editing

  • Story producing

  • Motion graphics

  • Animation

  • Sound editing

  • Sound design

  • Color

  • Music

  • Transcription and footage organization

  • Archival footage

Research

This documentary has to be able to withstand scrutiny.

We're looking for people who can help investigate:

  • Youth mental health

  • Belonging and loneliness

  • Suicide prevention

  • Schools and education

  • Mental health treatment

  • Social and economic conditions

  • Generational change

  • Public policy

  • Mental health systems

  • Emerging research

Students, graduate students, researchers, academics, clinicians, and strong independent researchers are encouraged to reach out.

Story & Journalism

Help us find the people and stories that make the research human.

This may include:

  • Story research

  • Journalism

  • Fact-checking

  • Interview preparation

  • Source development

  • Investigative research

  • Story producing

Marketing & Social Media

A documentary can only create change if people see it.

We need help with:

  • Short-form video

  • Social media strategy

  • Graphic design

  • Documentary marketing

  • Audience development

  • Community management

  • Trailer and promotional content

  • Digital campaigns

Press & Communications

Help us bring the documentary into the larger public conversation.

Potential areas include:

  • Media outreach

  • Press research

  • Public relations

  • Press materials

  • Podcast outreach

  • Journalist relationships

  • Screening publicity

Fundraising & Partnerships

Film production requires resources.

We're looking for people who can help with:

  • Grant research

  • Grant writing

  • Donor outreach

  • Sponsorships

  • Corporate partnerships

  • Foundation relationships

  • Fundraising events

  • In-kind production partnerships

Distribution & Impact

We don't just want people to watch the film.

We want them to do something afterward.

We're looking for people interested in:

  • Film festivals

  • Educational distribution

  • Community screenings

  • School and university screenings

  • Streaming and broadcast opportunities

  • Impact campaigns

  • Nonprofit partnerships

  • Mental health organization partnerships

  • Discussion guides and educational resources

HELP FUND THE FILM

You can help us tell this story.

Documentary filmmaking requires more than cameras.

Funding supports production, travel, editing, archival licensing, music, sound, legal review, insurance, graphics, distribution, screenings, marketing, and the people required to bring a feature documentary to completion.

Every contribution helps move Crisis Generation closer to an audience.

We welcome:

Individual donors who believe this story needs to be told.

Major donors interested in helping fund a significant stage of production or post-production.

Foundations supporting mental health, youth, education, community, journalism, documentary film, or social impact.

Corporate partners interested in supporting production, screenings, distribution, or the film's impact campaign.

In-kind partners who can contribute equipment, locations, travel, post-production, technology, professional services, or other resources.

WHAT YOUR SUPPORT CAN MAKE POSSIBLE

Funding can directly support:

Production
Additional interviews, filming, locations, travel and production expenses.

Post-Production
Editing, story development, sound, music, color, animation and graphics.

Research & Archival
Fact-checking, research, archival footage and licensing.

Legal & Delivery
Legal review, releases, insurance, clearances and final film delivery.

Distribution
Festival submissions, screenings, educational distribution and outreach.

Impact
Turning the documentary into conversations, educational resources, community events and action.

PARTNER WITH CRISIS GENERATION

We're also looking for organizations that want to help bring this conversation to their communities.

Potential partners include:

  • Universities

  • Schools and school districts

  • Mental health organizations

  • Youth organizations

  • Research institutions

  • Foundations

  • Community organizations

  • Professional associations

  • Companies

  • Film and media organizations

Partnerships could include screenings, research collaboration, audience outreach, event hosting, sponsorship, educational programming or participation in the eventual impact campaign.

WHY WEBELONG IS MAKING A DOCUMENTARY

Because data alone doesn't create change.

Research can identify a problem.

Policy can change a system.

Programs can help people.

But stories determine whether millions of people understand why any of it matters.

That's why storytelling is one part of the larger WeBelong model.

We want to understand the crisis.

We want to tell the truth about it.

We want to build solutions.

We want to measure whether they work.

And then we want to help those solutions spread.

Crisis Generation is how we bring people into that conversation.

HELP US FINISH CRISIS GENERATION.

You don't need to be famous.

You don't need to have thousands of followers.

You don't need to work in Hollywood.

You don't even need to work in mental health.

You need to care about the problem and be willing to contribute something you're good at.

We need researchers.

We need filmmakers.

We need editors.

We need designers.

We need storytellers.

We need fundraisers.

We need connectors.

We need donors.

We need partners.

We need people who believe a generation deserves better.

Help us build it.

Contact us directly at: contact@webelonginstitute.org

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