Mental health is a challenging topic, and even more so when it crosses cultural boundaries. Thus, working on “Egal Shidad, stories of mental health” with a partnership of Minnesota agencies and talents was an especially interesting video production. I gained a number of insights while working on this project, and was very pleased when the production team and partners came together to meet the pressures of our group deadline. My role could be called `technical producer’, including the videotaping, editing and other technical needs for the project. As I do not speak Somali, working on a video production that would be produced entirely in this language was an additional challenge and fascination.

“Egal Shidad” was conceived by a partnership of leaders from two community media organizations, a Somali community organization and a public health organization. The initial challenge to me was `taking the hand-off’ from these leaders of what was essentially a vision, and working with producer Mukhtar Gaadasaar and project coordinator Sara Rohde to realize a concrete project. We first had to work out a structure and style for the video, and make technical and creative decisions from that. In the end, the contributions of a talented Somali writer and a Somali illustrator added much to the cohesiveness of the final product, along with the persistence of Mukhtar and Sara in making sure that the final product was as strong as it could be. The earnest input of a community advisory panel shaped the final form of the video; Mukhtar and I wrestled with the video material, story segments, and illustrations to put the various pieces into a smooth storyline while cutting the overall length to one hour. We had to rearrange some material in the last hour to create the emphasis urged by the advisory panel. This called for delicately balancing the interview material which addressed traditional Somali views of mental health with other material that explained the western model of mental health and the resources available for treatment. Mukhtar ingeniously split a story segment in two parts so that we could rearrange some interviews, and I adjusted some illustrations so that they fit the storyline.

As Mukhtar and I sat in front of my computer editing system during many hours of work, there were some challenging and rewarding moments. I struggled to explain some aspects of the `computer video timeline’ and what I was doing on it, while he struggled to explain Somali grammar and sentence structure so that we could edit coherent material. My editing system gave me some problems midway through as it developed a memory problem – not all the changes we made were properly saved, and Mukhtar became increasing frustrated by this. Even after my computer was fixed, there were many parts we had to double-check. Near the end of the project, Mukhtar caught an important piece of dialogue that was out of order, and we rushed to fix it. “Steve”, he said, “Please tell me that the computer will save this change now”. Yes, yes, I told him, but we both decided to spend a late evening watching the whole video one more time to catch any mistakes before committing the project to tape for the cablecast deadline.

As we worked, I picked up a few Somali words and some feeling for the rhythm and structure of the language. Mukhtar also told me a bit about Swahili, about Arabic, and how his father would occasionally mix in some Italian words when angry, a legacy of the colonial era. I began to appreciate the cosmopolitan history of Somalia, situated as it is between tribal Africa, the Arab world, the east indies, and with exposure to European culture as well. That a country so well positioned for trade and business success is also so underdeveloped in infrastructure and so torn with warfare is doubly tragic; I began to see a bit of what this reality is for the expatriate community like Mukhtar – much of Somali culture now exists in a network of cities and countries around the world, linked by the internet and family bonds. Mukhtar and I had a humorous moment together – after telling me about his father’s use of Italian, I heard a phrase in the interview material we were reviewing; an older Somali woman was explaining the hardships of life for those with mental illnesses back in the `bad old days’. “That phrase is Italian”, Mukhtar offered, as I thought the same thing to myself. It sounded Italian - `camicia di forza’. “camicia, camicia”, I thought – “shirt?” We looked at each other as we both realized: “strait jacket.”

I don’t envy those who are struggling with mental health issues while learning the ins and outs of a new culture as well – and my own sense is that there are many aspects of treatment here in the U.S. that are changing over time, and complicated by issues of access to care, and by our own cultural mix. Life in the U.S. has its own unique stresses and cares as well. This video should be a valuable resource to the Somalis though, and I do hope that they can use the best of our western treatments and understandings to aid those members of the expatriate community who suffer from depression, PTSD, and other maladies. To bring this back to my own experience this project has been a positive experience for me as a media maker, and for my organization, SPNN as well, in `building the muscles of cultural competence’ as someone once said. This kind of experience and collaboration enhances our ability to serve the many communities and needs of our city, and makes us a better partner for future endeavors.